How do educators sustain K-12 district initiatives? Teaching and learning initiatives, despite being well-intentioned, often struggle to gain traction due to limited teacher acceptance or inconsistent program fidelity, so much so that many are familiar with the concept of "initiative decay." Even the most promising initiatives can…

States across the U.S. have been passing legislation aimed at identifying and supporting students who may have dyslexia. In Arizona, this legislation requires school districts to screen students for indicators of dyslexia, have one teacher in every K-3 school trained in dyslexia, and provide evidence-based reading instruction. However, it is…

A leadership academy is a formal professional learning opportunity for current school leaders, focused on augmenting knowledge and skills, increasing specialization, and refreshing leadership practices. States interested in supporting leadership academies through federal or other funding sources can look to current models of leadership academies…

All tax credit scholarship (TCS) programs are state programs. States develop program policies and requirements, including establishing the roles and responsibilities of scholarship granting organizations (SGOs) and participating private schools. The President's fiscal year 2020 budget request included a proposal for federal tax credits for…

The Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) has been studying the four-day school week since 2015. Since then, the phenomenon of the four-day school week has spread into non-rural areas and interest appears to be growing. Given these apparent changes, the author wanted to know more about recent trends in the initiative. As districts continue…

To explore the accessibility of school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports (SWPBIS) for students with severe disabilities, we conducted a survey of 179 schools implementing SWPBIS during the 2015-2016 school year. Personnel from each school reported the frequency and level of importance of SWPBIS implementation across Likert-type…

Research has shown principal support to be a critical variable for implementing and sustaining evidence-based practices. However, there remains little understanding of the factors that may influence a principal's personal decision to support a practice. The purpose of the current study was to examine events that influenced principals' support for…

By 2013, all 50 states and the District of Columbia had adopted college- and career-ready standards in English language arts and mathematics, placing a greater emphasis on argument writing to prepare students for life after high school. Solving the specific problem of how to help teachers teach to new standards for argument writing as well as the…

The purpose of this article is to increase understanding of the factors that most significantly influenced the decision made by the Tucson Unified School District to implement the Mexican American Studies program in the late 1990's and early 2000's. This article outlines the process that led to the adoption of the program. The article further…

Education policymakers at the national level have initiated reforms in K-12 education for that past several years that have focused on teacher quality and teacher evaluation. More recently, reforms have included legislation that focuses on administrator quality as well. Included in far-reaching recent legislation in Arizona is a requirement that…

Setting up a wireless network is easy enough. Place a few access points in strategic areas, then watch the network traffic fly! That approach may hold up reasonably well for a few dozen users, but there's no way it would support a schoolwide 1-to-1 program. Once students take to it with their wireless devices, "they're going to kill it,"…

When the 93rd Congress enacted the Equal Education Opportunity Act of 1974 (EEOA), it required states to take appropriate action to overcome language barriers that inhibited equal education participation by their resident students. An examination of the EEOA legislative testimony suggests elected officials established the law to set forth…

In December 2015, President Barack Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which replaced No Child Left Behind (NCLB), as the nation's major law governing public schools. ESSA retains the requirement that states test all students in reading and math in grades three through eight and once in high school, as well as the requirement that…

The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) published a series of case studies from 28 states to showcase examples of how ARRA EETT ("American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 Enhancing Education Through Technology") grant funds have impacted teaching and learning. SETDA collected data for the case studies through…

This volume is a unique contribution to the study of language policy and education for English Learners because it focuses on the decade long implementation of "English Only" in Arizona. How this policy influences teacher preparation and classroom practice is the central topic of this volume. Scholars and researchers present their latest…