School accountability is a powerful force in education. Today, schools are within the early years of the "Every Student Succeeds Act" ("ESSA") which has introduced a new accountability model to states and districts, in a post-pandemic era in which schools' roles and responsibilities within the larger society have continued to…

For more than two decades, federal law has required states to identify schools failing to provide students with a high-quality education and has led to substantial debate about how best to do so. Appropriately identifying the lowest performing schools matters because it allows state and local education agencies to target limited resources for…

This is the appendices for the full report, "Identifying the Nation's Lowest Performing Schools: Shifts Following the Passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)." This study examines state identification of schools for the most intensive support to see how changes in federal laws and regulations played out nationally and at the…

The primary source of federal aid to elementary and secondary education is the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The ESEA was initially adopted in 1965 (P.L. 89-10), and was most recently reauthorized and amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA; P.L. 114-95), which authorized appropriations for ESEA programs through FY2020.…

Many states report school performance grades as a way to inform the public about school quality. However, past research has shown that when these grades drew largely on proficiency-based measures, they served to capture variation in school and community demographics rather than school quality. We extend this literature by examining whether a…

Since the passage of early federal K-12 school legislation such as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 1965 and its many evolutionary successors including the No Child Left Behind Act (2002) and the Every Student Succeeds Act (2015) there has been increased scrutiny on low-performing schools and particularly their leaders. These…

This document is designed to provide State educational agencies (SEAs) and local educational agencies (LEAs) with essential information about the Rural Education Achievement Program (REAP). This informational document will supersede non-regulatory guidance on REAP published in 2003, providing information consistent with changes to the program…

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework for designing lessons that is grounded in data and recognized as best practice under IDEA and ESSA. The use of the method allows for greater intervention with students socially, emotionally, and academically. UDL allows intentional and purposeful work with populations that are normally…

A continuing focus for American Education is to bridge, lessen, and eliminate the persistent achievement gap that has existed for over 50 years. Due to mandates of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), each state currently creates an individualized plan to narrow the gap. This study allowed for understanding of how the percentage of the total…

This position paper identifies the complexity of the special education teacher (SET) shortage and the social injustices of the already marginalized population of students with disabilities (SWD). Nationally, policy reforms and teacher certification initiatives may have unknowingly perpetuated the shortage of SET in an attempt to increase the…

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 compliance with The Every Student Succeeds Act, many states report "chronic absenteeism" as an indicator of student success. While chronic absenteeism is prevalent across the country, marginalized youth experience differential rates compared to their White peers. The disproportionate overrepresentation of marginalized youth is partly…

State summative assessments play an important role in measuring student learning and guiding educational improvement efforts, despite their limitations. But there is growing momentum in individual states and nationally to rethink these assessments with an eye toward reducing time spent on testing and increasing the tests' instructional relevance.…

Transitions between two educational settings can bring about new experiences and expectations for children and their families. In the early care and education (ECE) context, when children transition from Head Start to kindergarten, they are confronted with different places, people, activities, and relationships. This transition also occurs between…

This comparative case study investigated how two Title I elementary schools within the same school district implement, promote, and maintain familial/community engagement programs. The district adopted and implemented a family engagement model based on Dr. Karen Mapp's Academic Parent-Teacher Team approach within the Dual Capacity-Building…