California is on the cusp of implementing universal preschool--a step that could help level the playing eld for young children. Over the next few years, all four-year-olds will become eligible for Transitional Kindergarten (TK), which has been part of the state's early learning programs since 2012. In the report, "Setting the Stage for…

The State of West Virginia is adopting the teacher residency model as the primary pathway to teacher certification in the state. By the fall of 2024, all educator preparation programs (EPPs) in the state must implement the West Virginia Residency Model (WVRM) for earning certification in all undergraduate licensure areas. However, implementing the…

Public health efforts have emphasized changes to policies, systems, and environments (PSEs) to improve health behaviors for individuals and communities. Extension has increasingly emphasized these approaches, particularly for the work of Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) agents. In part, this emphasis on PSEs in Extension has been driven by…

The California Next Generation Science Standards (CA NGSS) Toolkit for Instructional Materials Evaluation (TIME) is a suite of tools and processes for evaluating and selecting instructional materials aligned with the CA NGSS. This 11th report in the NGSS Early Implementers Initiative evaluation series is intended for school and district…

California is on the cusp of implementing universal preschool--a step that could help level the playing eld for young children. Over the next few years, all four-year-olds will become eligible for Transitional Kindergarten (TK), which has been part of the state's early learning programs since 2012. In this report, the authors examine the…

The passage of the 2015, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), affords states funding for many new options to address the needs of learners. One of the prominent options is personalized learning (PL). This study sought to determine how states positioned PL in their state plans. This study used a qualitative research design to analyze state ESSA plans…

Kentucky's educators are creating systemic change to produce noticeable improvements in learning for all students. Systemic change has vexed education systems for decades (Tyack & Cuban, 1999). In recent years, it has become clear that implementation science is the missing ingredient in efforts to purposefully improve student outcomes in state…

Louisiana has received recent attention for some of its new education policies and promising early results. In this report, RAND researchers provide an in-depth description of Louisiana's approach to improving student outcomes since 2012. The authors examine how the state has used various policy levers -- including mandates, resource alignment,…

West Virginia's Regional Education Service Agency 2 (RESA 2) serves six districts in the southwestern part of the state--Cabell, Lincoln, Logan, Mason, Mingo, Wayne--which together have 95 schools. RESA 2 was one of two RESAs to pilot implementation of the Learning School approach, beginning in the summer of 2014. RESA 2's first cohort included…

West Virginia's Regional Education Service Agency 6 (RESA 6) serves five districts in the northern panhandle of the state--Brooke, Hancock, Marshall, Ohio, and Wetzel--which together are home to 51 schools. RESA 6 joined the pilot implementation of the Learning School approach in the summer of 2015, as part of the second cohort. RESA 6's group…

This is the first in a series of reports based on a research study, Developing Effective Professional Learning Communities in Catalyst Schools, conducted between February 2015 and June 2016. "Catalyst schools" were elementary- and secondary-level schools selected to participate in a pilot project intended to explore how best to support…

In January 2012, the West Virginia Governor's Office released an influential report, "Education Efficiency Audit of West Virginia's Primary and Secondary Education System," written by Public Works (2012), a management consulting company headquartered in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Based largely on this report, the West Virginia…

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…

This report provides six mini-case studies of higher education policy reforms enacted in other states, exploring the important role that state policy leadership played in developing, promoting, and implementing these policies aimed at improving higher education outcomes, and discussing the relevance of each reform effort for California. This…

This evaluation study examined the effectiveness, efficiency, and impact of the statewide master plan for professional development (PD Master Plan) by investigating seven questions. With regard to effectiveness, (1) What was the level of implementation for the PD Master Plan, overall and by individual providers? (2) What were the impediments, if…