In the majority of states using Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) to improve children's school readiness, the Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale-Revised (ECERS-R) is a core assessment of preschool program quality and is central to QRIS metrics and incentive structures. The present study utilizes nationally representative data…

Effective classroom management skills are essential for teachers. Unfortunately, many teachers do not receive adequate classroom management training prior to beginning their teaching careers and feel unprepared for the demands of managing student behaviors in their classrooms. In this article, we describe (a) the number of states with state policy…

Current national reforms in Australian higher education have prioritised efforts to reduce educational disadvantage within a vernacular expression of neoliberal education policy. Student-equity policy in universities is enmeshed in a set of competitive student recruitment relations. This raises practice-based tensions as universities strive to…

Finding effective ways to support all teachers--especially new and struggling teachers--has never been more critical. According to the U.S. Department of Education, approximately 419,000 new teachers will be hired in 2015 (National Center for Education Statistics, 2011). Estimates suggest that between 40 percent and 50 percent of these new…

National efforts to address the degree completion goals of the country cannot succeed without focusing on strategies to improve the educational attainment of Latinos. Latinos are the nation's second largest racial or ethnic group, and growing. Compared to other racial/ethnic populations, however, Latinos have lower rates of educational attainment…

Over the past few decades, many state departments of education have taken over low-performing schools or districts as a school turnaround strategy. Recently, that strategy has shifted to creating new districts--managed by the state--that include schools and parts of districts that face challenges in performance. The governance structure brings…

Public reporting makes data about schools and districts--including enrollment, student performance, teacher effectiveness, and more--available to the public. These data never include information that could be used to identify individuals and are critical to meeting the information needs of parents, educators, administrators, policymakers, and…

School safety policies are constantly evolving, often in response to fatal events. After several high-profile and tragic shootings over the past 15 years, school safety has become a major focus for parents, school officials, policymakers and the public nationwide. ECS [Education Commission of the States] conducted a scan of school safety-related…

Over the past decade, SREB state policy-makers have focused on actions to reduce dropout rates and increase high school graduation rates. Some policy-makers have suggested that raising their state's compulsory attendance age (often called the dropout age) to require students to stay in school until age 17 or 18 is an important step. However,…

This study seeks to address the question "How do school and district leaders and teachers become aware of, take steps to comprehend, and form opinions about state policies?" These "first impression processes" represent significant parts of the processes by which district administrators, school administrators, and teachers make…

Louisiana is currently one of the 19 states in the United States that still allow the use of corporal punishment in public schools. The research questions that drove this study explored Louisiana-published court cases involving corporal punishment in public schools, district policies regarding the use of corporal punishment, reported instances of…

A state department of education (SDE) served by the Southeast Comprehensive Center (SECC) at SEDL requested information regarding state use of schoolwide, large-scale professional learning communities (PLCs). Specifically, the SDE staff wanted to know the following with respect to PLC work in other states: (1) Are PLCs state-mandated through…

Over the next three years, the California State Board of Education (SBE) and the California Department of Education (CDE) will refine the college and career readiness (CCR) measures in the state's school accountability system. Determining which measures to use, given that they need to be robust, useful, equitable, and cost effective--and…

The Virginia Plan for Higher Education is designed to identify trends that the Commonwealth must address if it is to prosper and succeed. Through input by higher education partners, The Virginia Plan is intended to help guide a vision for Virginia's future through a common framework. This framework is built on the premise that all partners in…

The Southeast Comprehensive Center (SECC) at American Institutes for Research (AIR) publishes this biannual update of college- and career-readiness standards and assessment (CCRS-A) resources. This list of resources is designed to assist staff in state education agencies (SEAs) and other educators in their curricula, instruction, standards, and…