This report emphasizes the importance of state actions in improving educational opportunities for historically marginalized students, particularly those with disabilities. It highlights the existing achievement gaps and challenges faced by students with disabilities, especially those from minority groups. The report suggests that states have a…

Students, teachers, and school leaders are seeking flexibility and supports to enable powerful, personalized learning experiences both inside and outside of the traditional classroom. In personalized learning, instruction is tailored to each student's strengths, needs, and interests--including enabling student voice and choice in what, how, when,…

One of the most important factors in school performance is parental involvement. However, many parents do not have the flexibility in their work schedules or the leave policies necessary to attend school functions. As a result, legislators are creating policies to address this issue. This policy brief tackles the following questions: (1) What is…

Two decades of research have documented what now is common knowledge: no in-school factor matters more to students' educational experiences and outcomes than the effectiveness of their teacher. As a result, the national airspace is increasingly crowded with proposed reforms and initiatives designed to boost teacher performance, including new…

This state policy guide looks at partnerships between charter schools and community, faith-based, and for-profit organizations as one way for these schools to access essential goods and services. Each type of partnership poses specific challenges and opportunities, and, based on a review of charter school legislation and interviews with state…

This guide for state policymakers examines teacher involvement in charter school governance. Teacher involvement is defined to include the gamut of decision-making roles not typically afforded teachers in traditional public schools, including founding schools, serving on governing boards, and engaging in site-based collective bargaining. Different…

This critical policy study provides an understanding of the different actors--individuals, interest groups, and other organizations--involved in influencing and defining, through their narratives what public education in BC ought to be, thus capturing the core intellectual dispositions that informed and determined the kind of policy problems that…

This handbook was assembled to aid Michigan communities in the establishment of district libraries, or libraries formed by united efforts and resources of two or more municipalities. Two major areas are covered, establishment and funding. The "Establishment" section outlines steps involved in the process, sample resolutions of…

The authors report on major trends and emerging issues in state education policy-making. Two parts cover, first, the history, status, and future of educational governance and, second, the alternatives open to state leaders in structuring and using education commissions. In accounting for trends in educational governance, the authors consider such…

An overview is provided of issues related to the use of part-time faculty in community colleges in California and elsewhere in the nation. First, background information is provided on the major relevant issues. This section: (1) lists the teaching functions which are best carried out by full-time instructors as argued by those who favor employing…

Addressed to the Minnesota State Legislature, this report on Minnesota's Early Childhood Health and Developmental Screening Program discusses issues related to program goals and program implementation, overviews the program, and reports and summarizes statewide program results for 1985-86. Issues discussed concern responsibility for the program,…

Through Senate Bill 1202 (Chapter 1038; Hart, Statutes of 1989), the California Legislature directed the California Postsecondary Education Commission to develop a state policy statement on the use of distance learning technology in education, "to be considered and, if appropriate, adopted by the Legislature." Other issues to be addressed by the…

The paper examines policy implications of recent trends toward state mandated assessment of higher education services. Two differing purposes of assessment, that of academic improvement and that of accountability, are distinguished. Current trends in how policy makers and higher educators approach a "new accountability" include seeing…

This book provides state legislators with the background information they need to make important mental health policy decisions. The executive summary describes the success of deinstitutionalization in releasing large numbers of patients from state mental hospitals, but notes that the needs of persons with mental illness in the community have not…

In 1984, the California State Legislature enacted a mandatory enrollment fee and a new student financial aid program for California community college students and required the Chancellor of the community colleges to study the fee's impact. This report discusses policy options for fees and financial aid and presents preliminary recommendations for…