The five-year initiative New Skills for Youth (NSFY) aimed to transform career readiness education and bridge the skills gap by supporting innovative strategies in 10 states across the United States. NSFY was one of the earliest and most impactful philanthropic investments in career pathways and career readiness in recent history and helped spark…

Student participation in summer programming can be an effective way to address students' academic and developmental needs. When well implemented and well attended, summer enrichment programs, academic programs, and employment programs have demonstrated positive outcomes for youth in areas related to program content, including academic achievement…

As federal funding for summer learning as a pandemic recovery strategy phases out, state governments face decisions about their future role in supporting students' access to quality summer learning opportunities. This brief is based on the full report, "How States Are Expanding Quality Summer Learning Opportunities," and summarizes…

In the United States, higher education institutions must be authorized as postsecondary education providers -- through a process known as state authorization -- to be eligible to receive federal student financial aid funds. Through state authorization policies, state governments play a key role in maintaining accountability for higher education.…

Cynthia Coburn, in her 2016 article in the "American Journal of Education"--"What's Policy Got to Do With It?"--states that the field of policy implementation suffers from the propensity to learn the same lessons over and over again. This repetition of mistakes, I argue, stems from a failure to account for predictable patterns…

This article theorizes the wait list as an underexamined vehicle of administrative burden. Wait lists are now common within the U.S. social safety net, yet little research has considered their administration. Drawing on a surprising case of Massachusetts' declining wait list for subsidized childcare, I find that administrative burdens were…

The Massachusetts edTPA Pilot and Field Test (2010-2013) was launched by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to evaluate the possible adoption of edTPA within that state. Guided by Cochran-Smith et al.'s (2013) Politics of Policy Framework, this mixed-methods study examines this policy initiative by analyzing the…

Cynthia Coburn, in her 2016 article in the "American Journal of Education"--''What's Policy Got to Do With It?''--states that the field of policy implementation suffers from the propensity to learn the same lessons over and over again. This repetition of mistakes, I argue, stems from a failure to account for predictable patterns in how…

In "Evidence, Politics, and Education Policy," political scientists Lorraine M. McDonnell and M. Stephen Weatherford provide an original analysis of evidence use in education policymaking to help scholars and advocates shape policy more effectively. The book shows how multiple types of evidence are combined as elected officials and their…

The educator evaluation system has changed in the United States. Mandated by education reform, states are now required to look at their evaluation systems more closely to monitor the effectiveness of teachers and to see how students are learning in schools. The purpose of this Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) study is to understand…

Although parent involvement is a cornerstone of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), few individual parents of children with disabilities participate in civic engagement to voice their suggestions for the next IDEA reauthorization. To address this gap, a civic engagement training was conducted with 95 parents of children with…

In the fall of 2019, well before the appearance of COVID-19, there was heightened concern among U.S. business leaders, economists and investors about a global economic slowdown and the possibility of a recession in 2020. But a downturn in the technology sector was not prominent among their worries. In the decade from 2018 to 2028 computer and…

In recent years, a new breed of political organizations has had remarkable influence in American educational policymaking. Proponents of neoliberal reform, these groups have been labeled as Education Reform Advocacy Organizations, or ERAOs. I situate these organizations within the larger network of Intermediary Organizations (IOs). To understand…

This Policy Guide draws on work with five states to provide context and guidance for policymakers looking to strengthen the pre-K to K-3 continuum and create opportunities to close the achievement gap. It includes a tear-out page of guiding questions at the end.

This Promising Practices report explores the civic learning and engagement efforts of Massachusetts' public higher education system in five areas: vision of Preparing Citizens as a core educational commitment, development of a state higher education Policy on Civic Learning, creation of civic engagement and service-learning course designations,…