Council for American Private Education (CAPE) is a coalition of national associations serving private schools K-12. "Outlook" is published monthly by CAPE. This issue contains the following articles: (1) Louisiana Approves Two Sweeping Choice Initiatives; (2) Public and Private Schools in Philadelphia Sign Compact; (3) Green Schools; and…

Within the US Department of Education's new flexibility initiative, there are three key and fundamental areas of interest, each referred to as a "principle." The first of these is that State Education Agencies (SEAs) must adopt and implement college- and career-ready (CCR) standards for all students. This brief provides information on…

Missouri's Early Head Start/Child Care Partnership Project expands access to Early Head Start (EHS) services for children birth to age 3 by developing partnerships between federal Head Start, EHS contractors, and child care providers. Head Start and EHS contractors that participate in the initiative provide services through community child care…

Adolescents develop a sense of citizenship through the influence of the institutions of their socialization--the family, the school, the mass media, and so on. In the past few years, these institutions, along with all of Russian society, have undergone a transition to a new phase by "shock therapy," which brought about crisis phenomena…

As the 3,919 students who participated in the first year of Indiana's new, wide-reaching school voucher program near the end of the first semester in their new schools, the program faces its next challenge: A state court hearing opened on Dec. 19 on a lawsuit arguing the program violates Indiana's constitution. The Choice Scholarship program, one…

Purpose: The reimbursement rate that eligible veterans receive for travel to Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities increased from 11 to 28.5 cents per mile on February 1, 2008. We examined the effect of this policy change on utilization of outpatient, inpatient, and pharmacy services, stratifying veterans based on distance from a VA…

In this article, the author talks about the Common Core State Standards and what they mean to teachers and their students. The Common Core State Standards Initiative provides an opportunity for classroom practitioners across the nation to hone their skills, focus on student learning, and ensure that all the students they serve will be working…

The latest batch of states seeking relief under the No Child Left Behind Act dodge pitfalls that tripped up the first round of applicants. In the latest round of applications for waivers under the No Child Left Behind Act, states have learned lessons from their predecessors and dodged pitfalls that triggered some big revisions from first-round…

Recently, Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) completed a study to connect the scale of the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCA) Testing Program used for Minnesota's mathematics and reading assessments with NWEA's RIT (Rasch Unit) scale. Information from the state assessments was used in a study to establish performance-level scores on…

The United States is more accessible to deaf and hard of hearing individuals and people with disabilities today than it was 50, 20, or even 10 years ago. A variety of laws ensures equality in the treatment of deaf and hard of hearing people. Communication barriers have been addressed, and wider opportunities are available in education, employment,…

A national survey of secondary family and consumer sciences (FCS) programs from 2010-2012 academic years indicates that 3,427,601 students were enrolled in FCS classes and were taught by 27,894 FCS teachers. These numbers show a decline in enrollment and teachers over the past 10 years (Werhan & Way, 2006). However, FCS secondary programs…

The purpose of this study was to conduct a formative evaluation of the first two years of the Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) Aspirations Project (Aspirations) using a Context, Input, Process, and Product (CIPP) model so as to gain an in-depth understanding of the project during the middle school…

The goal of the Center on School Turnaround (CST) is to provide technical assistance on research-based practices and emerging promising practices that will increase the capacity of states to support their districts in turning around the lowest-performing schools. When the CST opened its doors in October 2012, it began its work by asking the…

There is a timely movement afoot to secure the rightful place of social studies as a core part of curriculum at a time when it is increasingly compromised across the nation. The authors present a model that accepts the call to consider the enterprise of social studies research and broaden it to address the needs of the day. They offer a brief…

In 2005, Kalamazoo, Michigan launched a bold and innovative economic development strategy, The Kalamazoo Promise (KP), which guarantees tuition to every high school graduate in the district. Since KP inception, high school enrollments are up and college attendance has increased, creating national attention. This paper analyzes the benefits and…