The Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) represents a sea change in the way California funds public education. By directing resources to the students in greatest need, freeing districts from the constraints of categorical programs, and inviting stakeholder participation, the new funding system creates the conditions for districts to advance goals…

The need for STEM transfer students from low-income backgrounds to complete bachelor's degrees is a pressing issue. A substantial portion of those students start their educational journey at 2-year colleges. The lack of transfer and completion of these STEM students is deeply rooted in systemic and structural barriers, which leads to many students…

The Commission on Rehabilitation Counselor Certification (CRCC) has taken a proactive stance on perceived test inequities of the Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC) exam as it relates to people who are prelingually deaf and hard of hearing. This article describes the process developed and implemented by the CRCC to help maximize test equity…

Participatory evaluation tools have been shown to be effective for program development in various settings, including in higher education. Taking student perspectives into consideration is key for graduate program development, particularly in interdisciplinary programs. The current study utilizes Group Level Assessment (GLA), a participatory…

A key goal of school choice policies is to generate competition between schools, which should theoretically drive school leaders to improve their programs to attract and retain students. However, few studies examine how principals actually perceive and define competition. This article empirically examines school leaders' conceptions of competition…

We argue that teacher preparation programs considering approaches to assess teaching quality should choose measures that appropriately represent the complexity of teaching, have formative value in supporting teacher candidates develop as highly qualified teachers and consider the context, mission, and people that the program desires to serve. The…

It is widely understood that distinctive leadership programs must engage in assessment, and intentional program improvement practices. Design thinking can serve as one student-centered tool that engages students in the assessment process, while looping feedback into substantive programmatic changes. This paper explores the use of this innovative…

Leaders of higher education need practical solutions to engaging in program improvement, providing student supports, and fortifying partnerships with collaborators. Compounding these needs are the heightened demands thrust upon faculty to advise students online, reconfigure in-person courses to hybrid and online models, and attend to their…

The Mastery-based Learning (MBL) Work Group has examined opportunities to increase student access to relevant and robust mastery-based academic pathways aligned to personal career goals and postsecondary education, and reviewed the role of the High School and Beyond Plan (HSBP) in supporting mastery-based learning. The Work Group members believe…

Schools are experiencing unprecedented disruption, forcing educators to think differently about how they engage with their students and forcing changes to longstanding systems that have been established to deliver education. This presents an opportunity to not only discover ways to address education during the coronavirus pandemic, but also to…

Despite the link between school-lunch participation and student health, only half of adolescents with the program in their schools participate on a given day. A multi-pronged school lunch promotion intervention was implemented in middle and high schools in an urban, low-income school district to improve school lunch participation and reduce food…

The purpose of this evaluation was to understand how a literacy program based on 21st-century learning skills and social emotional learning was implemented and if it exemplified the 21st-Century Classroom Learning Community Framework. The results were used to learn how to improve the implementation of the Collaborative Literacy. Results were also…

This study explored how past students who attended the Learning Support Zone (LSZ) in Maltese secondary schools perceived their attendance at the LSZ and its impact on their home and work environments. In-depth interviews were conducted with eleven adults who attended the LSZ when they were in secondary school. Thematic analysis was used to elicit…

A Green Paper, "Support and aspiration: A new approach to special educational needs and disability," was published by the Department for Education in March 2011. The Green Paper, styled as a response to the frustrations of children and young people, their families, and the professionals who work with them, sets out the government's…

In a private room at the back of a busy restaurant just outside of Tampa, Florida, drinks and appetizers went unnoticed as 12 diners sat around one large table and engaged in multiple rapid-fire conversations about professional learning. On one side of each conversation were representatives of Memphis (Tennessee) City Schools. The district was in…