This article describes the North Carolina Youth Empowerment Study (NCYES), a 3-year participatory evaluation of youth programs addressing tobacco use prevention. The study goals of NCYES were to (1) convene an advisory board comprised of lay youths and adults in a participatory research process, (2) document the characteristics of youth programs…

A national commission formed to review the future of the 12th grade National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has recommended that the nation's primary barometer of student performance should expand dramatically to provide mandatory state results on the achievement of 12th graders and to measure their readiness for college, employment,…

The "2010 State Preschool Yearbook" is the eighth in a series of annual reports profiling state-funded prekindergarten programs in the United States. This latest Yearbook presents data on state-funded prekindergarten during the 2009-2010 school year. The first report in this series focused on programs for the 2001-2002 school year and…

Literacy assessments are transforming the contexts of secondary instruction. This article reports how literacy assessments are shaping the instructional choices of nine English Language Arts teachers who work in three different states in northeastern United States--New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. Through interviews, the teachers reported…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) Bill Gates Testifies Before Senate Committee: Microsoft Chairman Pushes for High School Reform, Says Every Child…

The 285 adult schools in California enrolled 1,206,864 adult learners supported through state apportionment funds in program year 2006-07. This report presents the results of data collected by the Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment Systems (CASAS) from all learners enrolled in California adult schools. The report analysis was prepared by…

The primary purpose of this study was to determine if there were commonalities in the approaches of 10 elementary school principals in the state of Florida identified as "success stories" in leading reading improvement in their schools in 2002, shortly after enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act at the national level and the Just…

Kentucky has developed an assessment and accountability system that provides outcome data for a set of state early childhood standards for children birth to 5 years of age that are aligned with early childhood outcomes designated by the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). Within this flexible and comprehensive state assessment system,…

School districts are central players in the child care delivery system: they operate a mix of child care centers and programs, serve a range of children of different ages, and fund their programs from a variety of federal, state, and local sources. This report provides a range of programmatic and fiscal information about the federal and state…

This guidebook has been developed to support and coordinate efforts across Pennsylvania to increase the connections between farms and schools. It is written for schools and school districts--and especially for food service directors, teachers, administrators, school nurses, and school health and wellness committees. It is also written for farmers…

State Compensatory Education (SCE) is a supplemental program designed to eliminate disparities in (a) student performance on assessment instruments administered under Chapter 39 of the Texas Education Code (1995, amended 2007), and (b) the rates of high school completion between students who are at risk of dropping out of school, as defined by…

This document chronicles some of the innovative uses of technology in the adult basic education and literacy field and the creative and cooperative efforts of local service providers to increase the instructional resources for learners. In 1-2 page profiles, it provides information about how the 50 states and the District of Columbia are using…

This report presents an update on school social work services in 8 of 13 states in the Western Alliance. Provided here are summaries of the nature of school social work in each state for 1995 (Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Washington). Included are the number of school social workers employed in each state,…

This report provides data on the goals and outcomes of a consortium established in 1994 by public and private safety agencies and community colleges in California. The opening sections describe the formation of the consortium, indicating that its main goals are to reduce duplication of public safety course offerings at adjacent locations; create…

In fall 1992, the Iowa Department of Education began pilot tests of the Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System (CASAS), an assessment system evaluating reading, math, and problem solving in a life skills context for adult remedial programs. This document provides reports from the nine community colleges that served as test sites, describing…