This playbook provides ways in which Governors and teams can blur the lines between high school, postsecondary education, and the workforce. Governors play a significant role to Raise the Bar for student success by developing an "education-to-workforce system" that focuses on Unlocking Career Success.

The implementation of the Common Core State Standards has posed a number of challenges for school leaders. This study applies a policy implementation conceptual framework to analyze data gathered from 46 interviews in six states. Findings suggest the existence of multiple barriers to Common Core State Standards implementation. To promote…

Many layers of education governance press upon U.S. schools, so we separated state actors into those internal to and those external to the system. In the process, we unpacked the traditional state-local dichotomy. Using interview data (n = 45) from six case-study states, we analyzed local leaders', state-internal actors', and state-external…

Implementation of school turnaround strategies under School Improvement Grant and Race to the Top programs has provided States with a unique opportunity to rethink how to govern effectively and to organize their efforts to improve their lowest achieving schools. States have had to consider such issues as whether to provide support directly to…

In 2008, the U.S. Department of Education (the Department) launched a differentiated accountability pilot to allow states to distinguish between those schools identified for improvement in need of substantial help and those closer to meeting achievement goals. In July 2008 and January 2009, the Department approved waivers to give nine states the…

Too often, Boards of Trustees feel that final approval of the institution's Strategic Plan is sufficient. However, most Plans will only be successfully implemented if the Board has complete ownership and a commitment to be actively involved in many areas of the institution (not only fund raising). This article describes a successful process and…