The rapid growth of special needs vouchers has been accompanied by the loss of historic civil rights and protections under the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). We examine three of the largest special needs voucher programs in the United States: those in Florida, Georgia and Ohio.…

Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) offer parents a publicly funded, government-authorized savings account they can draw on for certain K-12 educational expenses. As these programs have expanded in recent years, they have become a flashpoint in education policy debates. For some, ESAs are an extension of existing private school choice programs'…

This article conducts a fiscal analysis of 10 tax-credit programs in seven states. In total, the 10 programs in the present study represent 90% of all scholarships awarded in tax-credit scholarship programs today. The analysis employs a set of cautious assumptions about switcher rates and students who receive multiple scholarships to generate a…

Tax credit scholarship (TCS) programs offer state tax credits to individuals or businesses that donate to scholarship funds for students to attend private elementary and secondary schools. Through these credits, donors may reduce the amount they owe in state taxes by the full or a partial amount of their donation, depending on each program's…

In 2012, the Credit When It's Due (CWID) initiative was launched by the Funders Collaborative to "encourage partnerships of community colleges and universities to significantly expand programs that award associate degrees to transfer students when the student completes the requirements for the associate degree while pursuing a bachelor's…

By providing early access to education, early childhood and community-based programs are helping to close the achievement gap prevalent among children from impoverished homes.

The Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes (CEELO) was asked to provide information on how other states are approaching the development and implementation of Kindergarten Entry Assessment (KEA) as part of a comprehensive assessment system. Specifically, the request asked for information about KEA measures used by other states, the processes…

This report presents a multi-year study of how states are implementing their state college- and career-readiness standards. In this report, the Southern Regional Education Board's (SREB's) Benchmarking State Implementation of College- and Career-Readiness Standards project studied state efforts in 2014-15 and 2015-16 to foster effective…

A state department of education (SDE) served by the Southeast Comprehensive Center (SECC) at SEDL requested information regarding state use of schoolwide, large-scale professional learning communities (PLCs). Specifically, the SDE staff wanted to know the following with respect to PLC work in other states: (1) Are PLCs state-mandated through…

Southern Regional Education Board's (SREB's) Commission on Career and Technical Education challenges states to build bridges from high school to postsecondary attainment and career advancement by developing rigorous, relevant career pathways that align secondary, postsecondary, and workplace learning and lead to high-skill, high-wage jobs in…

Many states are experimenting with mechanisms for making college more affordable while maintaining quality and access. This report examines promising or innovative state programs to improve college affordability and credential attainment. Many of these approaches show innovative thinking and bear watching to see if they result in meaningful…

The following profiles address how the state departments of education are helping educators prepare for and implement the Common Core and aligned assessments through professional learning. The major professional development efforts around the Common Core were examined in order to understand the overall efforts of each state. An exhaustive list of…

All of the 15 states in this study have recently been involved in school accountability system reform. Since 2011, the states have taken advantage of a federal program to give them flexibility around certain accountability requirements of the "No Child Left Behind Act" of 2001 (NCLB), the most recent reauthorization of the Elementary and…

The goal of this publication is to provide a snapshot of some of the publicly available resources describing efforts across Race to the Top States to ensure that turnaround schools have effective leaders. It is based on a review of Race to the Top State Annual Performance Reports, including State reports of Year 1 accomplishments and second year…

The U.S. Department of Education (Education) established the Race to the Top (RTT) grant fund to encourage states to support school reform efforts. In 2010, Education awarded 12 RTT grants totaling nearly $4 billion, making RTT the largest competitive grant fund ever administered by Education. Individual grantee awards ranged from $75 million to…