Drawing on rich case studies of Baltimore City and Boston, this volume identifies policy factors and processes critical to the successful district-wide adoption of community schools. By applying the Multiple Streams Model (Kingdon) to comparative analysis of policy determination and the narratives of local stakeholders across a 16-year period,…

Virtual charter schools--public charter schools that operate entirely or mostly online--largely depend on self-paced, asynchronous (accessed at any time) instruction and often rely on parents to act as instructors, according to the US Government Accountability Office's (GAO's) review of a nationally representative sample of virtual charter school…

As advocates for infants, toddlers, children, and youth with disabilities, the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) believes fully funding the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is integral to ensuring a strong public education system that can deliver on the promise of a free appropriate public education (FAPE) as guaranteed by…

The first of three "bright spot" briefs dives deeper into examples of how states are leveraging ARP funds to improve SEL for all students. The American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act (2021) provides a $122 billion historic federal investment to help states and districts safely reopen schools while addressing students' academic, social, and…

In 2014, California voters passed the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act, which was designed to shift the focus from housing and holding criminals towards prevention and support programs for K-12 schools. The California State Legislature established the Learning Communities for School Success Program (LCSSP) grant for the purpose of allocating…

This qualitative, phenomenological case study was to determine the impact the state accountability system has on school improvement practices for schools that have been designated under the statewide system of support. Nine district and school level leaders were interviewed from one suburban school district designated as…

To develop and support an effective, diverse educator workforce, education leaders in California are encouraged to coordinate, or braid, state funds, federal funds, and specialized grants. By braiding funds, education leaders can adapt to the ebb and flow of annual budgets to better meet local needs that can improve outcomes for students. This…

The 1960s launched the school movement of choice. Today, school choice is nationally threaded through many states serving a diversity of students. Indiana developed and implemented the Indiana Choice Scholarship Program (ICSP) policy in 2011 to align with these national initiatives to benefit students. The goal for Indiana was to ease the burden…

California is home to the nation's largest higher education systems which once served as "the model" for access, affordability, and excellence. However, decades of declining state investment and existing policies are "marginalizing the majority" of California students and perpetuating social stratification across the state.…

The relationship between educational expenditures and student achievement is a debate that has taken place over the course of nearly four decades. Accordingly, some researchers have labeled this question the "holy grail" of school finance (Stiefel, Schwartz, Rubenstein, & Zable, 2005). Most scholars trace this debate to the…

The landscape of school finance in Colorado paints an interesting picture of the influence of legislative initiatives on the equity of school per pupil revenue. Colorado has a convoluted history of enacting legislative initiatives designed to influence the influx and distribution of state revenue, which has created an environment in which the…

In an environment of increasingly diverse classrooms and evolving pedagogical techniques, it becomes increasingly difficult for teachers and administrators to know how to best support students, especially those with high needs. At the state level, education funding policies have been forced into similar renovation, impelled by everything from…

Teachers welcome the British Columbia government's review of the funding formula for public education. While inevitably suffused with technicalities, this exercise is fundamentally an opportunity to ensure that schools and classrooms reflect both the needs of students and, more broadly, British Columbia's values as a society. It is a chance to…

Student-Based Budgeting (SBB)--also called weighted student funding, fair student funding, student-based allocations, or student-centered funding--is a school funding system where schools receive dollars based on the number of enrolled students and their individual needs (such as English language learners, or students from high-poverty…

Globally, there exist bursary schemes that are in place to enhance access and equity in the provision of education to the disadvantaged. In Kenya, there have been bursary schemes that enhances access and equity in the provision of secondary school education. With Siaya County's 16% of the population having secondary school education, below the…