Engrossed House Bill 1121, signed into law during the 2021 Legislative session and codified in RCW 28A.230.320, provides the State Board of Education (SBE) the authority to establish an emergency waiver program to allow school districts and local educational agencies (LEAs) to waive certain high school graduation requirements on an individual…

With a rapidly globalizing and automating economy, there never has been a better time to have the right skills--or a worse time to have the wrong ones. The right skills include a combination of the academic, technical, and social-emotional preparation necessary to succeed in the workplace. Some students may begin careers right after high school,…

Only half of high school students report feeling prepared for their postsecondary lives, according to a Gallup poll. In a separate survey by Morning Consult, two-thirds of young people aged 16-24 said they did not know what career to pursue, and only 44 percent of 19- to 24-year-olds who had not enrolled in college were satisfied with their career…

Over the year, Advance CTE and the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) tracked state activity, cataloged final state policy actions, and categorized trends based on the policy areas of focus. "State Policies Impacting CTE: 2023 Year in Review" provides an analysis that spans 47 states that enacted 115 policies, which…

This report highlights the findings of the sixteenth survey of states conducted by the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO). It has been administered for more than three decades to collect information from states about the participation and performance of students with disabilities in the assessments that comprise the comprehensive…

This report identifies the statutory requirements, including programs, reports, evaluations, and accountability measures, impacted by the assessment waiver and describes how each statutory requirement is impacted by the assessment waiver. It discusses the data which the State Board has not collected or will not collect because of the assessment…

As a number of states have created Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)-focused options for students, and more states will make them available in the future, several important policy considerations merit analysis. These include the ways states have designed their STEM graduation options, with a focus on comparing the…

The purpose of this study was to explore the evidence-based best practices in transition and accountability policy data found within the New York State Education Department's education regulation policies for students with disabilities to graduate from high school with a standard diploma. Currently, there are gaps in the literature that make the…

The annual "State Policies Impacting CTE: Year in Review" report is released every February to report on developments in CTE-related legislation and other actions enacted nationwide for the previous calendar year. The report examines how CTE and career readiness initiatives are connected and advanced in states through 2024 state policy…

High school graduation rates have increased dramatically in the past two decades. Some skepticism has arisen, however, because of the confluence of the graduation rise and the starts of high-stakes accountability for graduation rates with "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB). In this study we provide some of the first evidence about the role of…

In recognition of the importance of education attainment to individual economic mobility and state workforce development needs, state leaders are advancing policies to support access to pathways into postsecondary education, training and the workforce. Although college and career readiness has long been a priority for policymakers, a growing…

edTPA is designed to strengthen teacher professionalization and provide a framework for program redesign. However, using a national assessment to shift the content of local programs is challenging because of their inherent organizational complexity. In this article, we focus on this complexity, using a systems lens to analyze edTPA implementation…

This report is an update to "Credentials Matter. Report 1: A National Landscape of High School Student Credential Attainment Compared to Workforce Demand" (ED612414). It explores the credentials earned by both K-12 and postsecondary students. The report examines whether those credentials are, or are not, aligned with employers' demand.…

This paper reviews state strategies for incorporating performance assessment in policy and practice. Specifically, the paper reviews the use of performance assessment in 12 states in the Innovation Lab Network, a group committed to developing systems of assessment that provide meaningful measures of college and career readiness. This review…

Statewide performance assessments have gone in and out of vogue for over 30 years. While embraced as authentic representations of student work, they often prove burdensome for standardized assessment purposes. They can be a strong addition to a balanced assessment system--when implemented well for the right purposes. State policymakers looking to…