With its focus on evidence-based instruction, the science of reading (SOR) is crucial to ensuring all students unlock strong literacy skills, the foundation for future success. This Spotlight will help readers get up to speed with the latest state initiatives; review a reading comprehension glossary highlighting the key components for success;…

Background: Despite recent tobacco control efforts, adolescent vaping remains an epidemic in the United States. The purpose of our study was to understand high school student vaping behaviors using the perceptions of Massachusetts school personnel during the critical window from when the Massachusetts statewide flavor ban legislation was passed in…

Emerging practices in both K-12 and higher education hold great promise in the establishment of equity frameworks. The use of finely disaggregated data, the effort to track additional student groups, and related work, all help to establish policies and tools to monitor the impact of reform efforts to address inequities. State programs and…

As American teacher educators and teachers are being roiled by restrictive legislation around critical race theory and divisive concepts in some states, our investigation explored the impact of critical communities of practice (CoP) on redesigning and teaching introduction to education courses with a transformative lens. This manuscript details…

As numerous studies from 1906 on have confirmed, children lose ground in learning if they lack opportunities for building skills over the summer. Nonetheless, summer learning loss comes up but rarely in the national discussion of education reform. By the end of summer, students perform on average one month behind where they left off in the spring.…

This toolkit that can empower state leaders to transform their vocational-technical schools for the better. It builds on "Hands-On Achievement," a book detailing the Massachusetts model that Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research published earlier in 2022. The toolkit describes three keys to success, provides a brief history of…

This year's report examines the critical role community plays in education. Integrating learning that takes place inside and outside of school has always been a powerful strategy to support student success, but it gained special relevance this year, as school closures made family and community members integral parts of students' daily learning.…

Policymakers and researchers often talk about "autonomous schools" as if there's a single, agreed-upon definition of what that means. In reality, there's no standard design for autonomous school policies, and school autonomy can mean a lot of different things. The policies that states have enacted vary widely in terms of their goals, the…

Policymakers and researchers often talk about "autonomous schools" as if there's a single, agreed-upon definition of what that means. In reality, there's no standard design for autonomous school policies, and school autonomy can mean a lot of different things. The policies that states have enacted vary widely in terms of their goals, the…

This article takes a first look at the major issues and trends that are currently being seen in 2019 emerging in the region's legislatures related to higher education and workforce development. Topics include: affordability, student loan debt, and college closures/mergers/acquisitions/collaborations. Other bills touch on emerging issues:…

The notion that the U.S. has a growing skills gap -- the difference between what employers need to fill in-demand positions and the skill of the current workforce -- is a hot topic among policymakers. By 2020, 65 percent of jobs will require postsecondary education and training beyond high school, according to the Georgetown University Center on…

This resource was prepared in response to a request for examples of developmental screening activities in Early Learning Challenge (ELC) States. This information will be helpful to States as they consider how to identify and address health, behavioral, and developmental needs of children with high needs. To address this request, ELC TA reviewed…

In spring 2019, without controversy or fanfare and without violating the voter mandate of Proposition 203, emergent bilinguals in Arizona were once again granted unrestricted access to dual language bilingual education after nearly 20 years. The policy change was accomplished through a seemingly small piece of legislation that reduced the daily…

Hiring and retaining teachers of color is one approach that policymakers can use to support improved academic achievement and opportunities for racially and ethnically diverse students. National data show that while the student population is becoming more diverse, the teacher workforce remains largely white and female. While teachers from all…

In an effort to support college affordability in the region, the New England Board of Higher Education initiated the "Redesigning Student Aid in New England" project ("Redesigning Aid") in 2014. Funded by Lumina Foundation, "Redesigning Aid" combined custom state financial aid research with expertise of national…