In "Accountability and Opportunity in Higher Education," leading scholars address the unforeseen impact of accountability standards on students of color and the institutions that disproportionately serve them. The book describes how federal policies can worsen existing racial inequalities in higher education and offers alternative…

Using state-representative teacher surveys in three states--Texas, Ohio, and Kentucky--we examine teachers' implementation of college- and career-readiness (CCR) standards. What do teachers report about the specificity, authority, consistency, power, and stability of their standards environment? How does their policy environment predict…

For most of U.S. history, local communities were the primary arbiters of school quality. Beginning in the mid-twentieth century, states began assuming more and more control over school standards and outcomes. The question we seek to answer is whether and the extent to which a particular kind of local voice--the voice of education practitioners--is…

Many states have responded to teacher shortages by granting certification to individuals traditionally prepared out-of-state; now, out-of-state prepared teachers comprise a sizable percentage of the teacher workforce in many states. We know little about these teachers, and therefore, in the present study, we estimate the effectiveness of…

This 5-month ethnographic comparative case study of two culturally and linguistically diverse U.S. elementary classrooms juxtaposes restrictive educational language policies with the theoretical principles of culturally sustaining pedagogy to explore a gap in our understanding of how teachers reflect educational language policies in the range of…

The impacts of poverty in this country cast a long shadow over the issues of education, social mobility, and global competitiveness. Although national conversations regarding income inequality have increased, the topic of poverty in America has not had as much attention. We seem to be at a loss about specific solutions that could address this…

Education Commission of the States (ECS) strives to keep its constituency apprised of education policy trends across the states. To provide a comprehensive overview of educational priorities outlined by governors, ECS summarized the education proposals and accomplishments detailed in every 2015 State of the State address delivered to date. Each…

"Promoting Student Achievement through Improved Health Policy" is a quick primer of the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] CDC's "Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child" model, which highlights 10 important areas for connecting health and learning: health education; physical education and physical activity;…

For nearly 20 years, the Public School Forum of North Carolina has been publishing its annual forecast of the ten issues most likely to impact K-12 schools across the state. They offer an overview of the issues and a set of principles they hope will guide consideration of the issue by all federal, state, and local leaders who understand that…

This technical assistance paper provides guidance to individuals with test administration responsibilities in adult education programs. These policies apply to the approved assessments that programs may use to report educational gains in compliance with the National Reporting System (NRS) requirements. The NRS is the accountability system for the…

This evaluation reviews efforts made by Illinois Action for Children (IAFC), with guidance from the Illinois Governor's Office for Early Childhood Development, to spur experimentation with new systemic change strategies to increase the number of children from priority populations--those considered to be the most vulnerable, with multiple risk…

This report is an evaluation of efforts made by Illinois Action for Children (IAFC), with oversight from the Illinois Governor's Office for Early Childhood Development (OECD), to test, support, and facilitate innovations in the early childhood system in 11 communities across the state. The Early Childhood Innovation Zones (IZ) initiative, funded…

The Early Childhood Innovation Zones initiative was established by Illinois Action for Children (IAFC), with guidance from the Illinois Governor's Office for Early Childhood Development. Funded by a Race to the Top--Early Learning Challenge grant, this initiative supported capacity building efforts for organizations working with young children in…

In 2016, 42 states carried out a total of 139 policy actions relevant to CTE, including laws, executive orders, board of education actions, budget provisions and ballot initiatives. This represents an increase over 2015 activity. Several states passed packages of legislation impacting multiple elements of CTE programming, such as…

This study investigated various state policies to determine their impact on the state share of instruction (SSI) funding to community colleges in the state of Ohio. To complete the policy analysis, the researcher utilized three policy analysis tools, defined by Gill and Saunders (2010) as iterative processes, intuition and judgment, and advice and…