Place-based education is pedagogy rooted in local landscapes, community experts, and embodied communication. This essay explores the authors' initial findings from a two-year pilot project that connects students from the University of New Mexico and students from Colorado College in a multisite field experience connected to the Rio Grande…

In Colorado, a grassroots accountability and continuous improvement network is uniting far-flung rural school districts--with members as many as 400 miles apart--in a collaborative effort to address the unique needs of Colorado's rural students. As in other states, Colorado rural districts must deal with funding disparities, isolation, education…

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, K-12 schools are under immense pressure to meet the diverse needs of students. But policies and practices have not evolved quickly enough to meet those needs -- and as a result, the system continues to fail far too many young people. In "Levers of Change: How State Policies Support District…

The goal of this American Association of School Administrators (AASA) youth apprenticeship toolkit is to encourage the creation of school and business partnerships as a viable and expansive pathway to success in school, career and work. This toolkit provides resources for secondary and community college administrators to advocate for and build…

Using a comprehensive set of quality indicators grounded in evidence-based practices, evaluation, planning, and improvement of services for students with the most significant support needs can be completed. This nine-step process is described with examples for implementation.

In response to calls on physical education teacher education (PETE) programs to better prepare teachers for a broadened role in school-based physical activity promotion, the University of Northern Colorado has recently established a Master of Arts in teaching physical education and physical activity leadership (MAT PE-PAL) degree. The…

One of the biggest challenges that states and local intermediaries face in setting up and scaling high-quality youth apprenticeships is gathering relevant, accurate and actionable data. High-quality data is an essential ingredient for a strong youth apprenticeship program because it equips state and local leaders to evaluate impact, monitor…

This article presents a method for using mind mapping to assess social learning outcomes in collaborative environmental restoration and participatory natural resource management initiatives. Using mind mapping for preassessment and postassessment can reveal changes in individual and collective thinking about critical social and ecological issues.…

Through the Innovative Professional Development (iPD) Challenge, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has invested in helping school districts and networks redesign their professional development systems to serve educators better and improve student performance. MDRC's evaluation of the iPD Challenge involves case studies and multiple rounds of…

Career and technical education (CTE) programs of study are subject to rigorous state and federal accountability systems that provide information on key student outcomes. However, while these outcome measures can form a basis for identifying high- and low-performing programs, they are insufficient for answering underlying questions about how or why…

The Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) program, authorized by Congress in 2011, is designed to improve the quality of early learning and development programs for children from birth through age 5. This discretionary grant program is administered jointly by the U.S. Departments of Education (ED) and Health and Human Services…

Policymakers are recognizing that Pennsylvania has fallen behind in providing equitable access to high quality early childhood education. Governor Tom Wolf ran on a campaign promise of universal pre-k access and proposed an unprecedented budget increase for early childhood programs in 2016. In Philadelphia, Mayor Jim Kenney has made pre-k a…

This Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) annual performance report for the year 2016 describes Colorado's accomplishments, lessons learned, challenges, and strategies Colorado will implement to address those challenges. Guided by the vision of the Early Childhood Colorado Framework (their vision, goals, and priorities for a…

Communicators create clear engagement strategies and compelling messages, relentlessly reaching out using the latest tools, tactics and techniques. But many communicators are not sure whether those efforts are penetrating or engaging key audiences, particularly with the fire hose of information flooding through emails and mainstream and social…

Students with diabetes deserve a school nurse who can effectively manage the disease. Tensions between the school and families sometimes emerge when a child with diabetes goes to school. To resolve these tensions in Colorado, stakeholders collaborated to implement a statewide program to meet the needs of students with diabetes. Colorado school…