Teaching students to act as citizens significantly enhances preparation for college and career. It is incumbent upon the National Council for the Social Studies to provide guidance to states and local districts to develop social studies standards to achieve this goal. The recommendations presented here focus on the principle that standards…

Containing costs for students in higher education is a significant priority for the Colorado Department of Higher Education and the state of Colorado. Open educational resources (OER) are educational materials licensed to be freely shared and available at no cost to students. The Department champions OER as a strategic means of meeting the demand…

One of the broad intents of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is to encourage evidence-based decision-making as a way of doing business. Nonregulatory guidance issued in September 2016 by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) clarifies and expands on both the nature of…

This report is drafted with state leaders and policy makers in mind, including those who work with or support these education leaders. The information shared in this report will likely be most relevant to states that have either not yet considered a new data system on teacher preparation providers, are only now starting to consider the idea, or…

Roughly 270,000 school-aged youth were in foster care at the end of fiscal year 2017. Youth in foster care may change schools frequently, which can negatively affect their academic achievement. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), enacted in 2015, reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and included provisions to improve…

There is growing interest in the ability of improvement science--the systematic study of improvement strategies to identify promising practices for addressing issues in complex systems (Improvement Science Research Network, 2016)--to spur innovation and address complex problems. In education this methodology is often implemented through…

About 13 percent of children aged 3 through 21 enrolled in public schools received special education services in school year 2015-16, and about 3 percent of children from birth through age 2 received special education services. Concerns about the difficulties identifying and evaluating children for special education have been raised by the media,…

This resource is part of a series of reports about challenges facing statewide science assessments and innovative solutions states are enacting to meet those challenges. Deciding to implement a system of assessments is a critical step toward ensuring that all students are getting the high-quality science education they need--but it is also…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) challenges state education agencies (SEAs) to improve student outcomes by addressing the student-, teacher-, and school-level factors that drive achievement gains. This Guide for Identifying Evidence-Based Interventions for School Improvement is intended to help State Education Agencies (SEAs) carefully…

As state education agencies (SEAs) across the nation take on the ambitious work of implementing the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), it is critical that they have a clear understanding of the effectiveness of their efforts: Are educators being reached with the correct messages? Are the SEAs' supports and resources meeting the needs of the…

State educational accountability models are in transition. Whether modifying the present accountability system to comply with existing state and federal requirements or anticipating new ones--such as the U.S. Department of Education's (ED) Race to the Top competition--recording the experiences of state education agencies (SEAs) that are currently…

To fulfill an agreement with the 1992 General Assembly, the Virginia Department of Education conducted a study during the fall and winter of 1992-93 of school divisions' implementation of their Family Life Education (FLE) programs. The program was to provide comprehensive, age-appropriate, and sequential instruction in 10 specified content areas…

This guide outlines the purposes, rules, procedures, funding, and status of federal education grant programs in Hawaii. These projects--funded by the United States Department of Education's Offices of Elementary and Secondary Education, Vocational and Adult Education, Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, Educational Research and…

Describes the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction's three-phase planning model for microcomputer use to show other state departments how to make the integration of computer technology a much easier task. Includes information on development/implementation of the model, state recommendations, computer coordinator job responsibilities,…

To provide information about states' efforts to track implementation of key provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA), this study examined: state goals for student proficiency and their implications for whether schools will meet those goals; factors that facilitated or impeded state and school district implementation efforts; and how the…