In 2018, the United States Congress passed the "Strengthening of Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act." This legislation included the requirement to conduct a comprehensive local needs assessment, which must include input from community stakeholders. This project designed and evaluated a three-step process that…

Over the past several years, schools across the nation have seen historic declines in student performance in reading, math, and other academic subjects due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. School closures adversely affected student groups at different rates and further exacerbated long-standing learning gaps. There has been a debate among scholars for…

This brief seeks to improve staff effectiveness while maximizing and streamlining support for students and families experiencing homelessness, ensuring they receive the assistance they need and deserve. The guidance is intended for, but not limited to, Massachusetts policymakers and Boston Public Schools (BPS) administrators, offering key insights…

"The State of Career Technical Education: Credentials of Value" report draws on a 2024 national scan of state practices, a 50-state survey, and interviews with state leaders to gather insights and strategies for improving the identification, validation, incentivization, and data collection related to credentials that support learners'…

Multilingual learners (MLL) are a large and growing group of disadvantaged students in the United States public education system who come from refugee and immigrant backgrounds and require linguistic instruction, in addition to content instruction. MLLs are entitled to language instruction, and school districts receive additional funding for these…

In 2024, state legislators introduced hundreds of bills that would affect data collection, access, and use across early education, K-12, postsecondary, and the workforce. As in 2023, legislators continued to introduce and enact legislation governing cross-agency data systems. These policies are the most important step toward making statewide…

Inclusivity in data reports for undocumented students can be difficult to achieve. By nature of those students' status and livelihood, there is contention among academics and practitioners on whether this is a population that should not be formally tracked or identified, for a variety of reasons. Concerns about tracking arise because of the…