Drug use trends change rapidly among youth, leaving educators and researchers struggling to respond promptly. Widely adopted universal evidence-based interventions (EBIs), such as the Michigan Model for Health™ (MMH), and their delivery systems offer an opportunity to reach large youth populations and reduce the onset and escalation of emerging…

The Second Session of the 99th Nebraska Legislature, convened in 2007, produced an educational idea that was unique in the United States: The Learning Community of the Omaha metropolitan area. Aimed at creating greater educational funding equity, integrating the young people of the Omaha area, and improving student learning achievement, the…

Today's school librarians are taking the lead with legislative advocacy for education and their efforts are beginning to have an impact on legislation. Advocates for school library programs in the state of Washington made historic legislative in-roads in 2009 with the passage of Substitute House Bill 2261. Arguably, the most important factor in…

School personnel are using Schoolwide Positive Behavior Supports in public schools throughout the United States. A number of studies have evaluated the universal level, or Tier 1, of Schoolwide Positive Behavior Supports. In this study, the authors describe and analyze the interventions offered as options for use for Tier 2 in middle schools…

In 2009, the federal government committed over $3 billion nationwide to help states and districts turn around their worst-performing schools. The U.S. Department of Education intended for the School Improvement Grants (SIGs) to spur dramatic change.This report looks at the results of a field study of the first-year implementation of those grants…

This study examines Washington State's attempt to move toward an integrated, P-20 system of education that enhances student transitions from high school to college. In analyzing Washington as a single case study, a profile of the state is developed on key access related characteristics. Data for this study were gathered utilizing fundamental case…

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) provided $9 billion in education benefits to service-members and veterans in fiscal year 2010, mostly through the new Post-9/11 GI Bill. In providing education benefits, VA relies on State Approving Agencies (SAA) to approve schools; and on schools to report students' enrollment status. US Government…

Under No Child Left Behind (NCLB), state education agencies are required to assume new roles and responsibilities. Among these is the establishment of a state system to support schools identified for improvement under the Act. Conceptualizing and operationalizing these systems of support has been a challenge for many state agencies, in part…

"Title III Accountability and District Improvement Efforts: A Closer Look" (2010) summarizes findings from interviews with six Title III Directors and nine Title III district-level directors in the spring of 2009. States and districts were selected in order to collect information from some entities with a long history of serving English…

Since 1969, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has been the common yardstick for measuring the progress of students' education over time across the country. Teachers, principals, parents, policymakers, and researchers all use NAEP results to assess progress and develop ways to improve education in America. To make the…

A case study illustrating the political influences on higher education in a hypothetical state is presented. Higher education became a target for reform by the state's governor, who expressed interest in the sharing of resources between institutions in close geographic proximity; supported the more extensive use of management tools as a means of…

In the 1990s, Virginia launched one of the nation's most ambitious standards-based reform efforts. Encouraged by a budding national accountability movement and motivated by conservative distrust of the public school establishment, state officials sought to clarify what students needed to know and to hold students and educators accountable for…

This study was conducted in 1979-80 to obtain baseline opinions of members of the Wisconsin Legislature about vocational education. Sixty-six of the 132 legislators responded to 84 questions regarding the need for, financing of, quality of, and methods of delivering secondary and postsecondary vocational education in the state. The responses were…

A survey of state legislators was conducted in 1981 by the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) and the National Center for Research in Vocational Education to determine state legislators' views about vocational education and its outcomes; their views of what vocational education should be doing and how it could be improved; and their…

Almost 90% of all State and Federal prisons in the U.S. offer some form of substance abuse counseling, and one in eight prisoners have participated in a substance abuse treatment program while incarcerated. Evidence indicates that these programs can be successful in stopping prisoners' substance abuse. While some data are available about the…