Enacted in 2014, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) brought numerous changes to existing federal employment and training programs, including requiring the Department of Labor (DOL) and the Department of Education (Education) to implement a common performance accountability system across the six WIOA-designated core programs. WIOA…

Section 107 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended (Rehabilitation Act), requires the Commissioner of the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) to conduct annual reviews and periodic on-site monitoring of programs authorized under Title I of the Rehabilitation Act to determine whether a state vocational rehabilitation (VR) agency is…

The role of the principal is rapidly changing. Once seen as building managers tasked with bus schedules and student discipline, principals now lead a range of school-level reform efforts. But not all principals are equipped to lead dramatic student achievement gains or know which actions to prioritize. Research on school leaders in urban areas…

People dislike the Common Core for several different reasons, and so it is important to disaggregate the sources of opposition and to assess and then to dispel some of the myths that have built up around it. It also is important to understand the unusual political alliances that have emerged in opposition to Common Core implementation and how they…

In 2009 the Obama administration announced a focused commitment to turn around 5,000 of the United States' chronically lowest-performing public schools as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). This commitment came with $3 billion in funding for the School Improvement Grant program, or SIG, along with new guidelines to ensure…

This article offers an analysis of the origins, evolution, and impact of the Obama administration's Race to the Top (RTTT) competitive grant program and places it in the broader context of the debate over the No Child Left Behind Act and the shifting intergovernmental relations around education. RTTT is fundamentally about two things: creating…

The School Improvement Grants (SIG) program, which was created in 2002, funds reforms in the country's lowest-performing schools with the goal of improving student outcomes, such as standardized test scores and graduation rates. Congress greatly increased SIG program funding from $125 million available in fiscal year 2007--the first year the…

This paper is based on one prepared for South Australia's Training and Skills Commission. It comes at a time of strong interest in the quality and professionalism of the vocational education and training (VET) workforce. This interest is underpinned by research into what constitutes quality teaching, as well as initiatives such as the strategic…

Response to Intervention (RTI) is a school-wide, integrative approach to instruction and intervention that provides a continuum of services to all students, both within general and special education. Further, RTI focuses on the frequent monitoring of student progress using formative and summative assessments, and providing students with…

Recent amendments to Chapter 1 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act required the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to involve the public in the development of proposed Chapter 1 regulations. The law required ED to conduct a series of regional meetings and to implement "a modified negotiated rulemaking process as a…

To study best practices in the area of international exchange, a survey was conducted of member institutions of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges. Responses were received from 19 institutions about practices, activities, services, and other program aspects considered to be exemplary. Questions were also asked…

The federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) expanded the federal role in American education, and by doing so altered the distribution of power among the federal government, states, and local districts. When the law was enacted, it was unclear how this change in the distribution of power would play itself out. This study examines the…

Chapter 1 was created from its predecessor, Title 1, in order to give more flexibility to states and local school districts. Many of the requirements and criteria of Title 1 were relaxed in 1981 when Chapter 1 began. Districts are now required to submit written plans of their new Chapter 1 organization assuring the comparability of services…

This report summarizes changes to existing federal education programs contained in the Improving America's Schools Act, the Goals 2000: Educate America Act, and the School-to-Work Opportunities Act. The publication looks at various programs that serve the broad educational priorities set forth in the Department of Education's Strategic Plan. The…

Describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of a workplace health and safety education program intended to bring a large manufacturing firm into compliance with a federal regulation, the Hazard Communication Standard. (JOW)