Equitable educational opportunities and outcomes are crucial for the success of all students. What can state and local educational agencies do to address inequities? This infographic shares resources, conditions for success, and examples of innovative models to ensure all students are set up to succeed.

The community schools strategy transforms a school into a place where educators, local community members, families, and students work together to strengthen conditions for student learning and healthy development. As partners, they organize in- and out-of-school resources, supports, and opportunities so that young people thrive. A growing number…

Concerned with low on-time graduation rates, state lawmakers continue to turn to outcomes-based funding (OBF) as one policy approach to support postsecondary degree attainment and workforce goals. Policymakers have also been confronted with constituent complaints about student debt loads, course schedules and academic programs that force students…

This is the third paper on the topic of outcomes-based funding written by Dennis Jones for Complete College America. The first paper, "Performance Funding: From Idea to Action" (ED535356), proposed a set of design and implementation principles to help states develop and implement their own outcomes-based funding models. The second paper,…

K-3 Plus was established in 2007 as a six-year pilot project that permitted schools with high numbers of at-risk students to begin the school year 25 days earlier for kindergarten through third grade. The purpose of the K-3 Plus program is to demonstrate that increased instructional time in kindergarten and the early grades narrows the achievement…

With increasingly widespread calls to raise educational attainment levels without substantially growing public investment in higher education, policymakers and others have devoted growing attention to the role of financial aid programs in providing access to, promoting affordability for, and incentivizing success in college. Given relative levels…

Recent violence in schools and on college campuses has brought into sharp focus the need to address mental health issues in educational settings. Getting students with mental health problems the help they need, without stigmatizing mental illness, may help prevent future tragedies. Children with mental health problems face a host of challenges,…

The New Mexico Public Schools Facilities Authority (NM-PSFA) is a relatively small state agency (50 staff members) that manages the allocation of funding for public school facilities in the state while assisting school districts and state-chartered charter schools in facility planning, construction, and maintenance. Like the majority of other…

In American popular culture, the word "rural" invokes images of sunny farms and little red schoolhouses--while "urban" means drugs, poverty, and crime. But those who know the reality of both worlds will say that rural schools face many of the same challenges as their urban counterparts. The problems of rural schools are often…

The performance of higher education in New Mexico--measured by cost-efficiency, degree production, graduation rates, and a host of other metrics--remains exceptionally low in comparison with all but two or three other states. For most of the 2013 calendar year the Higher Education Department worked on various fronts to address the most pressing…

This report showcases advocacy efforts of 11 member organizations in 10 states that recently passed an early care and education (ECE) legislative initiative. The aim of the report is to provide advocates with proven strategies for advancing progress in securing access to ECE and expanding the opportunity for all children to start school prepared…

This report of the Rural School and Community Trust and the Ben Lujan Leadership and Public Policy Institute presents findings from an investigation of the impact of the funding formula proposal commissioned by the New Mexico Funding Formula Task Force (FFTF) and developed by American Institutes of Research (AIR). Appointed by the New Mexico…

This report summarizes recommendations by New Mexico's Commission on Higher Education for funding the state's two- and four-year colleges in fiscal year 1997-98. Following a preface reviewing the 3-year policy framework and priorities used by the Commission in making its funding recommendations, the first section provides a summary of the…

The 1983 report of the New Mexico State Commission on Postsecondary Education first outlines the statutory responsibilities of the Commission and the Board of Educational Finance, and then provides brief descriptions of the state universities, community and junior colleges, vocational and technical schools, and four-year private colleges and…