Objective/Research Question: States have increasingly used merit-based criteria to distribute scholarships and grants, and the dominant conversation on merit-aid programs centers on students attending 4-year colleges and universities. This study examines the characteristics of state-funded merit-aid programs for community college students and…

In October 2022, the administration of Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin commissioned a secret rewrite of the state's History and Social Science Standards of Learning to replace the draft that the state Department of Education had developed through its own standards revision process. This unprecedented step galvanized supporters of public education…

Access to menstrual products is important to support adolescent health. Advocacy to increase access to menstrual products in schools is growing; however, ideal access requires policies that will require schools to support the menstrual health of menstruating students. We conducted a legislative review on the existence and status of state…

Objective: Two-thirds of U.S. colleges are near vape shops, where higher rates of underage sales exist. This study examined vape shop compliance with state-mandated age-of-sale signs, the presence of age-of-entry signs and the tobacco industry's "We Card" sign. Participants: Random sample of 614 California vape shops, stratified by…

Failure to complete is an unfortunately common occurrence in the nation's community colleges, and research demonstrates that not completing a credential is associated with negative student outcomes. In response to these issues, the Guided Pathways institutional redesign reform movement has spread rapidly across the United States over the past…

Lawmakers are debating a bill to add Wisconsin to the growing list of states banning K-12 students from using cell phones in schools during instructional time. Of the 309 districts and charter schools responding to a recent survey, most already restrict student cell phone usage to common areas, with smaller districts tending to favor more…

In 2009, the Lumina Foundation published "A Stronger Nation through Higher Education: How and Why Americans Must Meet a 'Big Goal' for College Attainment," which projected a staggering shortfall of college-educated adults to meet labor market demand--16 million nationally by 2025. Like many states, the Illinois P-20 Council quickly…

Every academic year, millions of college students change institutions before degree completion, confronting the challenge of validating credits across colleges. Despite state-level efforts to legislate strategies for smoother transfers, actual credit recognition relies on non-state-regulated bilateral partnerships that are more (i.e., articulation…

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…

At a time when schools are facing the most severe staffing challenges in recent memory and with interest in becoming a teacher a fraction of what it was a generation ago, it has never been more important for state policies to support innovative approaches to teacher hiring and retention and remove unnecessary barriers into the profession.Instead…

Advocacy is important in order to have policy that establishes best practices at the local, state, and national levels. Planning an advocacy initiative includes setting the goal, crafting the advocacy message, having a point person for coordinating communication, researching the individual or group that can make the decision to put the initiative…

"Beyond Good Intentions" provides a guide for states to craft equity-driven policies that are specific, actionable, measurable and well funded. It outlines four major steps states should take when considering and creating new policy: (1) Examine the Data to Set the Goal for the Policy: Specific types of data to consider when identifying…

What can the federal government do to help ensure that the public schools attended by children living in poverty have enough resources to serve their students? In this brief, we describe existing federal efforts to support education spending in high-poverty districts, discuss their limitations, and suggest alternative approaches for federal…

This critical literature review employs a novel combination of theoretical perspectives to examine the ways teachers navigate restrictive language policy. Specifically, we examine the documented effects of California's Proposition 227 on pre-service and in-service teachers' language ideologies and classroom practices. In our investigation, we…