The "IDRA Newsletter" serves as a vehicle for communication with educators, school board members, decision-makers, parents, and the general public concerning the educational needs of all children across the United States. The focus of this issue is "Authentic Family & Community Engagement." Contents include: (1) Recent…

The 1994 National Standards for Arts Education were succeeded by a new generation of standards published in 2014 by the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (NCCAS). This iteration of voluntary standards provided a new foundation for designing curriculum for visual arts education. The design of the standards utilized the curriculum model…

The instructional programs educators design to help English Learner (EL) students work toward English proficiency look different in schools across the United States. This is due in part to the variety of approaches K-12 educators take to important questions such as: Should the program foster bilingualism or focus solely on English? Should ELs…

In order to create a greater abundance of effective and affordable pathways for low-income learners, the Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL) created Minds That Move Us (MTMU). MTMU challenges the bright minds of communities around the country to design innovative education and training models that create social equity and economic mobility…

The aim of this report is to provide context about the NYC Department of Education's (DOE) English Language Learners (ELLs) students. The data provided is based on the Bilingual Education Student Information Survey (BESIS). Just over 41% of the students enrolled in New York City public schools speak a language other than English at home. That…

The concept of community in higher education is broadly defined yet often exclusively linked with the undergraduate student population. Based on a two-year qualitative study at Oregon State University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, this article explores the notion of doctoral student community. Community as experienced by science…

For a project designed to increase understanding of cultural diversity in the United States as a preliminary to meeting the educational needs of all the country's children, 42 professionals and parents were asked to identify the critical issues in the education of children from minority backgrounds. Over 200 issues were identified in 8 areas: (1)…

This manual is designed to help teachers, businesses, Chambers of Commerce, and students start their own economic development activities and youth ventures. It describes a two-step plan to economic development through youth: development of an in-school student chamber of commerce program and development of a youth-owned venture. The first part of…

This guide for building family/school/community partnerships uses a model in which family members and professionals are seen as mutual mentors in partnerships built on mutual caring, trust, and respect in the effort to work collaboratively toward self-sufficiency for children with disabilities. Basic ground rules for successful team relationships…

This book provides a suggested model for district administrators, Job Service district directors, Private Industry Councils, and others working to create or re-implement in-school job placement programs in Wisconsin high schools. It includes a list of points to be considered and covered in the "statement of agreement" drawn up by…

The Central Educational Center (CEC) is a unique educational experience worth replicating in Georgia and nationally. It is a bold experiment--offering required academic courses and state-of-the-art technical and occupational courses to high-school students with the opportunity for dual-enrollment college credit while still in high school. Open to…

This issue brief offers principles and guidelines for evaluating educational policies on the inclusion of students with disabilities in general education settings. Special education's development into an increasingly separate system since 1975 is noted, as is the continuing influence of policies that segregate students by disability. The brief…

Measures of school achievement over a 4 year lag period in Virginia's 95 school districts were used to investigate the relationship of investment in education to student achievement since variations in spending among counties would have four years to affect student achievement levels. Because educational output is a function of selected…

This document, which is intended as a guide for work force preparation program providers, details the Illinois occupational skill standards for programs preparing students for employment in occupations in the row crop production cluster. The document begins with a brief overview of the Illinois perspective on occupational skill standards and…

Student achievement, cost, rural context, and qualitative differences relative to small/rural schools were analyzed in Alberta to address the choice between small elementary school construction and school consolidation with student busing. Studies in both the United States and Canada have found no consistant significant differences in student…