Summative assessments measure students' mastery of grade-level academic standards and skills in specific content areas after learning. State summative assessment systems provide students and families, school and district leaders, and state policymakers with valuable data to help understand student progress and school quality. This Policy Guide…

"Moving the Needle on Poverty" is designed to provide Colorado leaders with an up-to-date picture of the diverse strategies that states across the nation are pursuing to lift individuals, families, and communities out of poverty. As the report indicates, many states are choosing to set specific and measurable goals for poverty reduction,…

The report describes the development and implementation of a statewide (Vermont) service delivery system which employed and trained parents of children with severe handicaps to: (1) work with educators to facilitate their involvement with families, and (2) provide information and support services which addressed individual family needs. The family…

This paper examines the politics of special education finance reform in three states (Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Vermont) that have enacted substantial legislative change within the past 5 years. These case studies were extracted from presentations made by the three state directors of special education at a 1994 conference. Each case study includes…

This paper traces the historical context of the passage and implementation of Vermont's Act 230 in 1990, which initiated a new special education funding system to increase equity, predictability, and flexibility in program design as well as to ensure placement neutrality. Specific objectives of the funding system included increasing the use of…

The results of an evaluation of Vermont's statewide assessment initiative are presented, with information about the implementation of the program, its effects on educational practice, the analytic challenge presented by the portfolio scoring process, the reliability and validity of portfolio scores, and the tensions between assessment and…

Vermont's state plan for the education of homeless children and youth, prepared in compliance with provisions of the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act of 1987, is presented in this document. The plan is comprised of five sections and five appendices. The first section cites non-regulatory guidance for compliance with Title VII, Subtitle…

This document comprises Vermont's final Five Year Management Report to the National Institute of Education on its Capacity Building Dissemination Project grant (1980-1985). The overall goals of the grant were (1) to develop a two-way communication network among the Vermont Department of Education, other public and private agencies, and Vermont…

Vermont's Welfare Restructuring Project (WRP), which was implemented in 1994-2001, required that single-parent welfare recipients who could not find wage-paying jobs after receiving cash assistance for 30 months accept work in subsidized, minimum-wage community service employment (CSE) positions to satisfy their work requirement and improve their…

This report provides information about special education costs in Vermont and the effects of recent policy changes implemented through Vermont's Act 230 and special education reform efforts. The report begins by describing Vermont's funding formula for special education and explains how the formula is flexible, more equitable, and better able to…