For far too long, the United States has neglected and wasted an enormous amount of human potential--much of it among groups that have never been given the opportunities they deserve. We're talking about bright students, advanced learners, striving pupils, and those with high but untapped potential--especially those who are Black, Hispanic, Native…

This topic paper details how dual and concurrent enrollment programs can help states overcome workforce readiness and postsecondary access and completion challenges and how governors can strengthen these programs by using their bully pulpit, agenda setting authority and budgetary authority to do so. It concludes with a number of examples of how…

This report describes the approach that REL Northeast and Islands (REL-NEI) used to guide its eight research alliances toward collaboratively identifying a shared research agenda. A key feature of their approach was a two-workshop series, during which alliance members created a set of research questions on a shared topic of education policy and/or…

To complement the 40-minute documentary, "Degrees of Hope: Redefining Access for the 21st Century Student," the "Institute for Higher Education Policy" (IHEP) has developed a viewing guide to help facilitate thought-provoking and meaningful dialogue. This guide provides a film synopsis, suggested discussion formats, profiles of…

The economic meltdown has hit U.S. college campuses, and higher education is on the chopping block in state budgets, with cuts totaling hundreds of millions of dollars already approved and hundreds of millions in more cuts on the way. As veteran legislators, the authors have seen this story play out before in previous recessions. The mindset on…

Representative democracy relies on the informed trust of the citizens. School board members serve their communities at a crucial place, governing large sums of money and the future of the community's children. Without the informed trust of the citizens, this enterprise will fail. Trust may be lost directly, or through inattention to detail. One of…

An international conference on the theme "Advancing the European Education Agenda" took place in Brussels and Leuven, Belgium from 30 November to 1 December 2007. This conference, part of a conference series organised by the European Education Policy Network, aimed to stimulate debate among policy researchers and policy makers who are…

The idea that lawsuits can move a public as well as a legal agenda is not new. In recent years, conservatives have brought high profile lawsuits designed both to vindicate the rights of an individual plaintiff and to educate the public about an important issue. For example, lawsuits filed nearly 10 years ago against the University of Michigan's…

This report discusses the State of California's fiscal condition and guides the reader through numerous factors that will influence State spending on higher education in the coming fiscal year. It also offers insight and observations on challenging policy decisions the Governor, the Legislature, and higher education leaders face in the coming…

Increasingly, public health promotion is about more than influencing individual behavior. Rather, it is equally important to undertake efforts to impact social, environmental, and political factors. Having a clear understanding of the inner workings of the legislative process enhances one's ability to effectively influence policy. It is important…

Critical analysis of change in public policy within and across nations recognizes that the education and welfare of children, families, and all citizens is intertwined with economics, politics, and cultural discourse(s). In the United States, increasingly narrow media, judiciary, and academic discourses have supported legislative actions that…

Working with schools and communities across the United States, the Education Commission of the States has learned that people want to express their opinions about schools in their communities. This guide was designed to help engage all sectors of the community in conversations about education. It is suggested that holding a series of meetings…

Model Policies in Support of High Performance School Buildings for All Children is to begin to create a coherent and comprehensive set of state policies that will provide the governmental infrastructure for effective and creative practice in facility management. There are examples of good policy in many states, but no state has a coherent set of…

Noting that the advance of new technologies and the rise of service economies have dramatically changed the socioeconomic development of the world and forced nations to adopt national information policies, this handbook explores the concept of such policies. It is based on the experiences reported in numerous country case studies, meeting…

Libraries are one of the world's greatest assets. Changes in the political, social, and economic climate in the U.S. mean that people cannot take public access to information for granted. Intense competition for public, private, and institutional dollars makes it more crucial than ever that policymakers understand that libraries--public, school,…