The outlook for high school graduates who have no postsecondary or industry-recognized credentials can appear bleak. Today, it is critical that young people obtain at least some training beyond high school to succeed in the job market. States bear a cost, too, when this is not achieved: They have a less skilled workforce to attract business…

In 2019, almost all governors spoke on education concerns in their "state of the state addresses," including school funding, career and technical education, postsecondary funding and financial aid, early childhood education, and teacher pay. According to this National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) analysis, in…

Every year millions of children under the age of 5 participate in federal and state early care and education programs. For fiscal years 2010 to 2015, Congress appropriated almost $48 billion to Head Start and over $31 billion to the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), the two largest sources of federal funding for early care and education. To…

In a 2012 paper for the Center for American Progress, "The State of Evaluation Reform," Patrick McGuinn (Drew University) identified the opportunities and challenges facing education agencies in Race to the Top (RTTT) grant-winning states as they prepared for the implementation of new teacher evaluation systems. The 2012 study undertook…

By late 2008, the United States was in the midst of its most severe economic recession since the 1930s, brought on by a collapse in real estate prices and exacerbated by the failure of many large banks and financial institutions. Heeding calls from economists, Congress and the Obama administration passed an historic law in early 2009 to stimulate…