The Innovation Schools Act of 2008, § 22-32.5-102, et seq. C.R.S., was designed to provide a pathway for schools and districts to develop and implement innovative practices in a wide variety of areas and contexts to improve student outcomes. The Act provides a formal process that allows schools or groups of schools to make requests to their local…

The Innovation Schools Act of 2008, § 22-32.5-102, et seq. C.R.S., was designed to provide a pathway for schools and districts to develop and implement innovative practices in a wide variety of areas and contexts to improve student outcomes. Innovation schools are required to articulate a vision around the autonomies they are seeking, as well as…

In 2011, the state of Arizona banned the highly successful Tucson Unified School District Mexican American Studies program through the law ARS § 15-112. This article is a Critical Race Theory "counternarrative" regarding the role of statistics in the constitutional challenge to this state law. Through firsthand accounts of this process,…

This year's report examines the critical role community plays in education. Integrating learning that takes place inside and outside of school has always been a powerful strategy to support student success, but it gained special relevance this year, as school closures made family and community members integral parts of students' daily learning.…

This dissertation captures the 10-year contemporary history of implementing the facilities element of New Jersey's historic "Abbott V" decision. New Jersey's Legislature and Governor took this Supreme Court decision and created legislation responding to multiple constituencies and lobbyists while shaping a school construction program to…

In this position article, we explore what happens when school district policies regarding desegregation, accountability, and foreign language immersion education collide. Specifically, we contrast 2 immersion programs that experienced distinct outcomes as a result of the conflicting agendas underlying these 3 policies. One program, originally…

The Early Assessment Program (EAP) has emerged as a national model for states seeking to design policies that increase the number of students who leave high school ready for college and careers. In addition, the two national consortia designing new assessments aligned to the Common Core State Standards have recognized the EAP as a model for the…

This document discusses staff development in California schools from program development through implementation. Written in outline form, it offers step-by-step information on needs assessment, planning, roadblocks to watch for, implementation, and evaluation. An extensive appendix gives examples of staff development programs in California school…

This issue of "NERRC Focus" describes the activities of Vermont's Special Education Program and Fiscal Review Panel (the Panel), created by the Vermont Legislature in 1998, to study the delivery of special education and other support services in Vermont school districts. The Panel's primary goal has been to review the programs and…

The goal of this paper, and the symposium it represents, is to provide an examination of the perspectives of district personnel from four diverse states. The papers present the current status of legislated student assessment programs in California, Colorado, Connecticut, and Illinois. Similarities and differences in implementation methodology are…

With the passage of Article 31, Rhode Island set out to transform the state's education system. This report is the first annual analysis of the work catalyzed by Article 31. Section 1 briefly outlines the events leading to this historic initiative. Section 2 describes the 1996-97 student assessment results, which are the baseline against which…

For the past two years The Boston Project, a Massachusetts State Department of Education sponsored activity, has provided planning and technical assistance to the Boston public school system's administrative leadership in their efforts to comply with that state's Comprehensive Special Education Law, Chapter 766--a prototype of P.L. 94-142, the…

This report examines the first year of operation of the 21 Regional Educational Attendance Areas (REAAs) that were established in rural Alaska by the passage of Alaska Senate Bill 35 in 1975. The report is divided into four sections. Section 1 presents background information and an overview of the study and of the events that led up to the passage…

As required by state law, a consortium was developed by Eastern Washington University (consisting of the training institution, 10 school districts, and their professional organizations) whose responsibilities were the development of competencies for special education teacher training, supervision of teacher training programs, and evaluation of…