In most K-12 school districts across the country, the beginning of the 2021-22 school year has been different from what school and district leaders expected and were planning for. Many spent the spring and summer sowing the seeds of their ESSER plans, allocating federal investments to high-impact strategies designed to bear fruit for years to…

The COVID-19 pandemic posed many challenges to student learning, classroom instruction, and the management of school systems. Media, think tanks, and education groups have warned of a post-COVID fiscal cliff for K-12 schools after the $190 billion from the federal government in the form of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief…

To address the increased needs of students and schools resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government has enacted a series of three relief and stimulus bills -- the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act (CRRSAA), and the American Rescue Plan…

Since March 2021, school district leaders have been developing and implementing plans to spend their "ARP dollars," that is, the historic $122 billion allocated from the American Rescue Plan to help districts recover from the devastating effects of the pandemic. The money, also referred to as ESSER funds (Elementary and Secondary School…

Returning more responsibility to states for making education policy was the central premise (and promise) of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Shortly after the bill passed in December 2015, states set to work on plans for using ESSA to shape policy in their states. Their assumption was that the federal government would provide some…

Parents, educators, advocates, and state policymakers alike want excellence in teaching and learning every day for every educator and student. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) gives states renewed authority as well as leverage to make this vision a reality. The role of state boards of education in this process cannot be underestimated. State…

Based on a fall 2017 survey of officials from 45 state education agencies, this report highlights early state efforts to implement the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The report highlights states' views on ESSA's shift in control from the federal government to states and school districts regarding accountability and school improvement…

Many low-performing schools across the nation have increased learning time in response to federal requirements for the School Improvement Grant (SIG) program. The conditions governing federal waivers of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) also require certain schools to redesign the school day, week, or year to include additional…

Two years ago, the problems of the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) were so significant that many believed the system was beyond repair. According to the 2007 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), only eight percent of eighth graders were on grade level in math, and 12 percent were in reading. With achievement gaps between…

To reflect the changing technological and social demands of the society in which it exists, education must develop and alter its goals. Critical to this process is educational research in the areas of program evaluation, environmental influences and resource availability. Federal investment in National Institute of Education (NIE) activities and…

This report details a project to develop a system to distribute federal funds under the Education Amendments of 1976 to all eligible recipients on the basis of annual applications. The first section describes the pertinent federal and state legislation, project scope, and guidelines used to develop the new system. Data sources and the criteria…

State and Federal Governments can provide aid to local school districts in many different forms, which, in general, will have different effects on school district spending. Policymakers, therefore, need to know what the impacts of alternative aid programs will be in order to best achieve their objectives. This report presents a method, based on a…

Awareness of the importance of education in the achievement of national goals has led to an increasingly important role for the Federal Government in financing and governing education, particularly in those areas contributing the most to the achievement of national priorities. This increased participation of the Federal Government in education has…

This chapter reports the positions taken by two U.S. Congressmen during their debate over the most effective method available for distributing Federal funds to the nation's schools. U.S. Representative John Brademas defends Federal categorical grant programs as the most realistic means for allocating scarce Federal resources to those areas faced…

This 1991-94 3-year plan describes proposed use of federal funds available to Wisconsin for the support of vocational and technical education. The first three sections provide an introduction, state board certification, and the table of contents. Section IV describes assessment provisions of the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology…