Transforming schools through mastery learning may solve education's existential crisis, offering today's learners the relevance and individualization they need while returning to the most ancient form of assessment, proving that learning has occurred. Mastery learning requires significant change to all the norms and practices of school, altering…

Substantial shares of eligible students forgo or lose access to tuition-free college benefits, in part due to limited access to information on eligibility and other requirements. Given students' dependence on the Internet for information on how to pay for college, we examine the availability and digital accessibility of critical program…

Staff travel required to provide home visiting services can be a barrier to quality service provision. This may be of particular concern to rural programs, where the demands of staff travel are often thought to be greater than in urban settings. As part of a statewide needs assessment of the Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities Program in Kansas…

While civics learning was marginalized in an era of standardized testing and fiscal constraints, more states are incentivizing students, schools, and districts to foster civics learning and engagement opportunities through civic diploma seals and school recognition programs. With an eye toward equitable implementation, these early adopters…

A growing number of states use performance-based funding (PBF) systems to tie appropriations to student outcomes. Yet while many studies have examined the effects of PBF on enrollment and completion outcomes, no research has considered whether PBF affects post-college outcomes. This is of particular importance as more states directly incentivize…

Smart Start Illinois is a multiyear plan to provide every child with access to preschool, increase funding to child care providers to raise wages and quality, and reach more vulnerable families with early support. Launched with a $300 million investment in the fiscal year 2024 state budget, Smart Start Illinois has already yielded results. The…

Supported employment (SE) and customized employment (CE) are vocational rehabilitation services designed to assist job seekers with significant disabilities to find meaningful competitive integrated employment. We conducted an analysis of Rehabilitation Service Administration (RSA-911) data for fiscal years 2017-2020 to determine the outcomes at…

Background: Children residing in households with very low food sufficiency (VLFS), where there is "often" not enough to eat, are more likely to experience academic, health, and psychological challenges. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a temporary universal free school meals (UFSM) policy was implemented, improving food access for children…

For the last two decades, dual enrollment has rapidly grown across the country. Previous studies consistently show that dual enrollment is positively associated with college enrollment, readiness, and persistence. However, descriptive statistics show that low-income students and racial minority students are underrepresented in dual enrollment…

The use of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (IECMHC) has grown dramatically over the past decade to support the skills and reflective capacity of adults who care for infants and young children birth to kindergarten entry. Research to date has shown promise for IECMHC to support children's social and emotional development.…

Over sixty years following Brown vs. Board of Education, racial and socioeconomic segregation and lack of equal access to educational opportunities persist. Across the country, voluntary desegregation busing programs aim to ameliorate these imbalances and disparities. A longstanding Massachusetts program, METCO, buses K-12 students of color from…

A review of recent literature reveals an ever-growing number of papers related to the topics of service learning and community engagement incorporated into capstone classes. The current literature identifies examples of institutions that have sufficient resources to address large-scale industry-funded domestic projects or international projects in…

Unpaid (informal) family caregivers provide vitally important supports to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), but receive little support or training. This study's aim was to examine how states across the nation supported informal family caregivers in their Medicaid Home- and Community-Based Services (HCBS) programs for…

Neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) is a public health issue that affected more than 2% of live births in Kentucky in 2017. We analyzed data from Kentucky's early intervention (EI) program and the mandatory statewide NAS registry to learn more about how families of children with NAS utilize EI services. Out of 1,113 children in the study, 32% were…

People with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) often have higher rates of comorbid mental health conditions compared to the general population. Yet, many people with IDD also have unmet needs for mental and behavioral health services. The aim of this study was to examine how states provided mental and behavior health, and crisis…