State and local educators encountered both opportunities and obstacles in their first year of implementing the School Improvement Grants (SIGs) funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). In 2009, the ARRA, better known as the economic stimulus package, provided $3 billion for SIGs to help reform persistently low-achieving…

Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, or GEAR UP, is a federally-funded system of grants that focuses on preparing low-income students to enter and succeed in postsecondary educational programs. GEAR UP grants extend across 6 school years and require that funded districts begin providing grant services to students no…

Public education is one of the central tasks of a democratic society, and the buildings that house this important task not only shape the way one teaches, but provide icons and symbols for the values people hold common as a society. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this context has placed school buildings squarely in a position of debate and innovation…

This brief describes collaboration and cost-sharing among agencies and Federal programs to improve transition supports for youth with disabilities. The brief reviews suggested activities for forming collaborations and pooling resources, and provides examples of programs that have "blended" or "braided" funds provided by partner agencies. It also…

Since its inception in 1990, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Teacher at Sea program has enabled more than 460 teachers to gain first-hand experience of science and life at sea. By participating in this program, it becomes possible for teachers to enrich their classroom curricula with a depth of understanding made possible…

When the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) went into effect in 2002, Georgia's statewide accountability system was already well underway. As a result, some schools faced the federal law's most serious consequences as early as 2004. That left Georgia policymakers with a dilemma on which there remains little federal guidance: what to do with…

"Job Corps," a federally funded education and job training program for economically disadvantaged youth, offers remedial education, GED (General Educational Development) preparation, vocational training, job placement assistance, and other supports. "Job Corps" participants typically reside in a "Job Corps" center…

Few things are more important for school safety and security than controlling access to buildings and grounds. It is relatively easy to incorporate effective access control measures in new school designs but more difficult in existing schools, where most building and site features cannot be readily altered or reconfigured. The National…

Rural communities face significant obstacles in providing access to the high-quality pre-k programs needed to help mitigate these problems. In addition to limited local tax revenues, many rural areas experience high rates of poverty and a scarcity of qualified teachers. Given these and other challenges, federal investments may be necessary in…

Although No Child Left Behind (NCLB) might have left an impression that only standardized tests and adequate yearly progress (AYP) mattered on the general public, the frustration over the narrow curricular focus also has created an opportunity in the education-policy realm, sparking conversations on what it takes to educate the whole child. This…

Context: Rural hospitals are heavily dependent on Medicare for their long-term financial solvency. A recent change to Medicare prospective payment system reimbursement--the occupational mix adjustment (OMA) to the wage index--has attracted a great deal of attention in rural policy circles. Purpose: This paper explores variation in the OMA across…

Multilevel programs--that is, programs with multiple levels of administration, funding, and implementation--present dynamic and challenging environments for the conduct and use of evaluation. The challenges include questions, priorities, audiences, and purposes that vary at each level. This chapter discusses the challenges as well as the…

The purpose of this study was to identify factors associated with the growing use of teacher specialists in the elementary schools, particularly in the area of mathematics. The elementary school principals of a large metropolitan school district located in northeastern Florida responded to an online survey that focused on the type of specialist…

This article presents an interview with Eric Barela, a K-12 school district internal evaluator who conducted the Title I Best Practices study for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), Research and Planning Division (formerly known as the Program Evaluation and Research Branch). In this interview, the author focuses not only on the…

What David J. Ferrero has called "the Hundred Year's War between "progressives" and "traditionalists"" continues unabated in the twenty-first century. Undoubtedly, current initiatives in public education favor those who support traditional approaches, yet many critics believe inflexible state tests are restricting…