Many states with preschool programs, as well as other interested organizations and individuals, have undertaken research and evaluation efforts to improve their understanding of state preschool program implementation, results, and impacts. A 2004 review by Gilliam and Zigler examined state efforts to evaluate preschool programs from 1997 to 2003.…

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act required states to adopt accountability systems measuring student proficiency on state-administered exams. The federal legislation contained several strict requirements for NCLB implementation, such as escalating student proficiency targets that reach 100% proficiency by 2014. But it also gave states…

In 2014, state and national leaders found many aspects of turning around America's low-performing schools even more daunting than in the previous year. These views were revealed in the Center on School Turnaround's (CST's) 2014 February/March survey of school turnaround leaders in State Education Agencies (SEA) and directors of the nation's…

The goal of the Center on School Turnaround (CST) is to provide technical assistance on research-based practices and emerging promising practices that will increase the capacity of states to support their districts in turning around the lowest-performing schools. When the CST opened its doors in October 2012, it began its work by asking the…

With the passage of P.L. 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, now the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and subsequent amendments, states and jurisdictions have made great strides in the provision of services to young children, ages 3 through 5 years, with disabilities. As of Fall 2007, America's…

This second in a series of three papers on models for communicating and disseminating career education programs highlights selected state models. Focus is on four levels of dissemination: spread, exchange, choice, and implementation. First, several spread mechanisms utilized by states to disseminate career education information are covered. Then…

In 1991, the Sex Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) developed guidelines for presenting age appropriate, comprehensive sexuality education. This publication reports on a 1993 study, using these guidelines as a framework to assess sexuality education curricula and guidelines in the United States. A survey instrument was…

Resting on the assertion that there is less criticism of the federal role in education in Australia than in the U.S., this paper attempts to identify the structures and practices associated with this less negative view and to determine if they are transferable to the U.S. The first section provides a contextual comparison for national education…

One-third of all U.S. school children attend school in rural settings. Rural schools are much poorer than urban America, with most of the poorest counties in the United States located in rural areas. Equity is a concern not only in terms of race, class, gender, disability, and sexual orientation, but also in terms of being geographically located…

In 2003, the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) released a "Strategic Plan for Early Childhood Health." In recognition of the critical role states play in the development of early childhood initiatives and of the unique contributions that state Title V programs can make to these initiatives, the Bureau operationalized their…