Serve-and-return interactions between a young child and caregiver are cited as integral to healthy child development and language development. In this article, the authors assert that serve-and-return interactions offer a relevant model for policy development in early childhood music education. They share contemporary evidence that music learning…

The growing movement to strengthen PreK-3rd education as an essential foundation for student success, along with the rapid expansion in public funding for PreK, has created an urgent need to measure children's educational progress, in a continuous fashion, from the beginning of PreK through Grade Three. Currently, some state governments are…

Current state and federal reform initiatives rely heavily on the ability of multiple stakeholders to access and use information from statewide longitudinal data systems (SLDSs) to improve student achievement. State policymakers have indicated through reform plans that states are best positioned to achieve this goal by developing and implementing…

Nearly all governors have designated a state early childhood advisory council to advise policymakers in the state on how to best meet the needs of children from birth to school entry. Early childhood advisory councils in the states vary in their structure and scope, but all of them provide recommendations on improving the quality, availability,…

As states work to meet the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) requirement to follow individuals through the P-20 pipeline and into the workforce by 2011, their progress will be expedited and supported by using the following processes to guide the development and implementation of their cross-agency data sharing efforts: (1) Prioritize,…

State education data systems have often been described as data rich but information poor. Historically, these systems were created for compliance purposes and, therefore, designed and managed as information technology projects, but a culture change is under way. Educators and other stakeholders are beginning to value data as a tool to inform…

The U.S. Department of Education is conducting several activities to address privacy and security issues related to education data. Earlier this year a contractor for the Department convened a group of privacy and security experts and produced a report with recommendations to the Department on ways they can address emerging challenges in…