Ensuring that students graduate high school prepared for college and careers has become a national priority in the last decade. To support this goal, states have adopted rigorous college and career readiness (CCR) standards in English language arts (ELA) and mathematics. Additionally, states have begun to require students to pass assessments, in…

The following profiles address how the state departments of education are helping educators prepare for and implement the Common Core and aligned assessments through professional learning. The major professional development efforts around the Common Core were examined in order to understand the overall efforts of each state. An exhaustive list of…

Nationwide, students in the middle grades and high school are failing to develop the reading and writing skills they need in order to meet higher academic standards. This report discusses the urgency of the problem and recommends that each Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) state develop a comprehensive set of policies that establishes…

Reports on the national demand for higher educational standards evident in the state legislation of the past three or four years that has mandated minimum competency testing programs. States that have adopted various kinds of such legislation are listed. (JD)

Beginning in the mid- to late-1980s, state policymakers began to rethink their strategies for influencing curriculum and instruction in public education and adopted a policy strategy known as standards-based, systemic reform. This issue of "Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) Policy Briefs" examines how standards-based, systemic…

Many southern states have taken action to improve the effectiveness of teaching by increasing teacher salaries, establishing career ladder and incentive programs, and ensuring teachers' knowledge of the subject area they teach. Attention is also now being directed to improvement of teacher education programs, and many of the southern states are…

This 1995 report presents information on the progress that Tennessee has made toward its 26 educational objectives for preschool through graduate education. It examines the following four areas: (1) the extent of duplication in elementary-secondary and postsecondary education; (2) the extent to which high-school graduation requirements are…

To ensure that school districts and schools meet acceptable performance levels, many school districts and states have enacted various accountability policies. Two of the most controversial approaches to accountability are reconstitutions of schools and state takeovers of school districts and schools. For each approach, this policy brief presents…