Thirty-six states potentially are ignoring the academic needs of large numbers of African American and Latino students, students from low-income families, English language learners, students with disabilities, and other groups of historically underserved students because the state accountability systems fail to capture these student subgroups.…

This resource was prepared in response to a request for information about what States with Race to the Top -- Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) grants are doing to support coaching as a professional development strategy. This information will be helpful to other States as they explore ways to support early childhood educators in improving their…

Research shows that chronic absenteeism can affect academic performance in later grades and is a key early warning sign that a student is more likely to drop out of high school. Several states enacted legislation to address this issue, and many states are currently discussing the utility of chronic absenteeism as an indicator of school quality or…

This publication highlights how state leaders tackle data interoperability with the emergence of data standards for student information, assessment, digital content, and other educational applications. While states are at various maturity levels for interoperability, each state shares goals for interoperability, the drivers for those goals,…

This report examines the characteristics of state special education voucher programs along with the evidence base on their impact, effectiveness, and quality. The report, which finds that the program characteristics differ considerably across states and that the research is small, dated, and often funded by voucher proponents, identifies major…

The long-term goal of the State Systemic Improvement Plan (SSIP) and other federal and state early intervention and early childhood education initiatives is improved child and family outcomes. States play a critical role in supporting practitioners in the use of evidence-based practices to improve child and family outcomes. When practitioners…

The COVID-19 crisis has made delivering early intervention services much more challenging and could exacerbate racial inequities in health and education. But we can only fix what we can measure--so it is vital that states collect and report better data. A survey of state coordinators of early intervention services in fall 2020 focused on Black and…

Just as schools are working to appropriately address K-12 students' unfinished learning caused by the pandemic, early intervention systems are focusing on addressing the missed opportunities the pandemic created for young children and their families. Young children missing these opportunities for early intervention services are potentially at…

The "Individuals with Disabilities Education Act" (IDEA) refers to two types of Coordinated Early Intervening Services (CEIS): voluntary CEIS and comprehensive CEIS. Each scenario describes a local education agency's (LEA's) implementation of voluntary or comprehensive CEIS and how the LEA or state could track the amount LEAs reserved…

The 2020 General Assembly adjourned its regular session by providing over $390 million in additional general fund support for Virginia higher education institutions in the 2020-22 biennium. However, in March, the nation experienced the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to address the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic on state revenues, Governor…

Since Congress has passed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) states are revamping their federally required systems to measure school quality and hold schools accountable for performance. However, most are doing so using outdated assumptions, holdovers from the Industrial Era, when cookie-cutter public schools followed orders from central…

The Postsecondary Pathways for Former Foster Care Youth (PP-FFCY) study is a research project that focuses on the transitions of foster care alumni to and through postsecondary institutions. Through the Office of Community College Research and Leadership (OCCRL), the PP-FFCY project team is conducting a comprehensive needs assessment report that:…

This report responds to the legislative requirement of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (Public Law 110-234) to assess the effectiveness of State and local efforts to directly certify children for free school meals under the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). Direct certification is a process conducted by the States and by local…

This report responds to the requirement of Public Law 110-246 to assess the effectiveness of State and local efforts to directly certify children for free school meals. Direct certification is a process conducted by the States and by local educational agencies (LEAs) to certify eligible children for free meals without the need for household…

Spurred by the federal Race to the Top competition, the state of Tennessee implemented a comprehensive statewide educator evaluation system in 2011. The new system is designed to increase the rigor of evaluations and better differentiate teachers based on performance. The use of more differentiated ratings represents a significant shift in…