Pursuant to section 22.30.7-109(1)(a) and (d) C.R.S., Online Programs are required to submit an annual report to the Unit of Online Learning within the Colorado Department of Education (CDE). As per the "CDE Rules for the Administration, Certification and Oversight of Colorado's Online Programs", individual program reports were submitted…

The Middle School Task Force was created in May 2007 as a result of the State Board of Education's High School Redesign efforts and recommendation for a committee to examine middle school issues to meet the following goals: (1) To ensure that all students are prepared to be successful in high school; (2) To increase academic engagement and student…

State efforts at establishing accountability programs have not been successful because few states could or did install the essential ingredients of accountability systems and even fewer took the elements they had very seriously; accountability systems are based on the false assumption that the people who operate an educational system actually have…

This statewide "Report Card to the Public" is published in accordance with Alaska Statute 14.03.120 for the school year 2013-2014. Under state law, each school district is required to report information about its performance. Public knowledge of the school system is an important part of Alaska's school accountability system. This report…

The lines between academic study and career and technical skills training are blurring. State and national leaders are beginning to recognize the transformational potential career and technical education (CTE) offers for such issues as secondary-postsecondary transitions, remediation, and the drop-out problem. At the national level, the National…

Today, state education agencies (SEAs) and their leaders face unprecedented demands. What was once a low-profile job of managing federal aid, providing curricular guidance, and ensuring compliance with various legal obligations is now a far more visible and politically fraught task. The new roles required of state education agencies due to the No…

2010 was a pioneering year for Massachusetts public schools. State leaders recognized that while the Commonwealth leads the nation in student achievement on national measures such as NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress), more needed to be done to close the persistent achievement gaps between our wealthy and poor students. Combining a…

The purpose of the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) program is to improve the quality of early learning and development and close the achievement gap for children with high needs. The RTT-ELC grant competition focuses on improving early learning and development for young children by supporting States' efforts to increase the…

This is the second book in a series entitled "P-16: The Last Education Reform." It was the purpose of the authors to chronicle the growth of existing state and local P-16 councils and compacts across the United States and to look at what might constitute successful efforts and an ideal relationship between state and local efforts. The…

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 examines how the states plan to implement the Programs of Study (POS) that were mandated by the 2006 reauthorization of the federal legislation for career and technical education. A coding system was developed for summarizing the methods described in the plans of all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, and the Virgin Islands.…

Because of the importance of developing highly skilled school leaders, statewide assessments of 784 Texas public school administrators were compared to determine how leadership skills varied by type of campus (urban, suburban and rural) and by campus student achievement ratings. Important findings indicate differences exist by campus type and by…

As the national education policy community prepares for the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), revamping the school improvement approach leveraged by accountability systems has risen to the top of the agenda. There is an emerging consensus that the school improvement process should be systemic, led by states and…

Explores statewide accountability systems in higher education, including what they are; the influences of K-12 reform, scarce resources, and distance learning and competing education providers on the drive toward accountability; different state accountability models; and potential disconnects between things measured and intended purposes of the…

Background/Context: This study examines the extent of reform in preparation programs in school leadership in six states employing a comprehensive, whole-state intervention design. Although no studies of these or other comprehensive reform designs are available, there is a rich context surrounding preparation reform work that informed our…