The expansion of student opportunity through the flexible spending of Education Scholarship Accounts (ESAs) builds in direct accountability to the parents who choose and hold the power of the purse. Families can select different schools and service providers if they are dissatisfied with how their student is faring. But ESAs can also be designed…

The Vortex School District (VSD) utilized CASE benchmark assessments as their accountability tool to measure students' progress on Tennessee's standardized testing. The researchers sought to determine the predictive relationship between math scores on CASE benchmark assessments and math scores on state-mandated standardized tests within the VSD.…

The Vortex School District (VSD) utilized CASE benchmark assessments as their accountability tool to measure students' progress on Tennessee's standardized testing. The researchers sought to determine the predictive relationship between math scores on CASE benchmark assessments and math scores on state-mandated standardized tests within the VSD.…

The Vortex School District (VSD) utilized CASE benchmark assessments as their accountability tool to measure students' progress on Tennessee's standardized testing. The researchers sought to determine the predictive relationship between math scores on CASE benchmark assessments and math scores on state-mandated standardized tests within the VSD.…

One of the most hotly debated K-12 education issues in recent decades has been the appropriate federal role in defining how states should measure, identify, and intervene in low-performing schools. In December 2015, after more than a decade of complex debate, Congress passed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) to reauthorize the Elementary and…

State policymakers are in a unique position to enable the innovations in education necessary to prepare students for a rapidly changing world. Working with 8,000 educators nationwide, the Aurora Institute identified the top 10 issues to address in state policy for transforming the K-12 education system: (1) Profile of a Graduate; (2) Innovation…

For many students, developmental education is the largest obstacle to college success, hindering progress before they ever enroll in a college-level course. Postsecondary practitioners and researchers have been re-examining and challenging many traditional elements of developmental education from placement strategies to the sequence of courses…

In September 2015, Commissioner Candice McQueen and senior leadership at the Tennessee Department of Education laid out goals and priorities for Tennessee's students and a plan to reach these goals. This strategic plan, Tennessee Succeeds, aimed to give a clear, overarching vision for the key strategies the department would focus on in order to…

In higher education's environment of accountability, the development and assessment of student learning outcomes (SLOs) are driven by both external stakeholder requirements for accreditation and internal institutional pressures to demonstrate student learning as the core function of universities and colleges. This paper presents a framework to…

In a recent report entitled "All Together Now: Collaboration and Innovation for Youth Engagement,": the Commission on Youth Voting & Civic Knowledge concluded that civic education is a shared responsibility of schools and other institutions. Data suggests, however, that more work is required to provide all young people with the…

Preparing the next generation of Americans to engage in their communities civically and politically is a shared responsibility. Although civic education takes place every day in homes and community centers, our nation's K-12 schools are in a unique position to nurture and reinforce the civic development of all young people. States influence their…

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 purpose of this document is to describe the US ED growth model pilot program from its inception to the point at which the program was no longer a pilot and was opened up to all states. In addition, the paper is designed to help states in the process of planning to submit a growth model proposal. The information in this document is mostly…

All students, including students with disabilities, must be included in state accountability systems as required by law. In April 2007, federal regulations provided states the flexibility to offer another assessment option--an Alternate Assessment based on Modified Achievement Standards (AA-MAS) for some students with disabilities. The AA-MAS is…

This article presents a model that instructional leaders can use to engage in a change process that fosters effective instructional change in school districts and individual school buildings, specifically middle schools and alternative middle schools. The authors describe four dimensions of leadership and explain how each dimension informs…