Purpose: This paper explores the school leadership career outcomes, timing and educator evaluation of those who complete the Massachusetts Performance Assessment for Leaders (PAL) in comparison with others who did not. It also compares outcomes for those with different PAL score completion requirements. Design/methodology/approach: Using PAL…

This case study describes the dynamics of a literacy curriculum that was collaboratively designed at a community language school. The curriculum teaches participants how to get a driver's license in Massachusetts, focusing on the English language literacies necessary for passing the written and road tests. This case study describes the…

In Massachusetts, as is true nationally, teachers are less racially diverse than students. As of the 2021-22 school year, 87 percent of teachers in the state were White, compared with only 54 percent of students. In response to this disparity, Massachusetts lawmakers have proposed legislation targeting the shortage of teachers of color. In this…

As the U.S. workforce ages, baby boomers retire, and birth rates decline, the United States is facing an estimated shortfall of 8 million workers between now and 2027. At the same time, the U.S. economy is becoming ever more knowledge-based. Having a marketable postsecondary credential, whether an academic degree or a professional certification or…

The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) developed the Adult Learner Leaders for Institutional Effectiveness (ALLIES) Framework to help guide institutional policies and practices in their work to support adult learners. This document begins by describing the Framework's series of planning and operational domains through which…

Accurately measuring the family incomes of students is essential to allocating school resources that meet the educational needs of all students, particularly the needs of students from low-income families. With the onset of the COVID-19 health and economic crisis, the need to accurately assess the financial condition of families who are suffering…

Free and reduced-price lunch status has long been used as a proxy measure for student poverty. This brief offers a short history of school lunch and its recent decline as a measure of economic disadvantage. It then provides a primer on "direct certification," the most promising alternative, which links student enrollment with public…

Anecdotal evidence points to the importance of school principals, but the limited existing research has neither provided consistent results nor indicated any set of essential characteristics of effective principals. This paper exploits extensive student-level panel data across six states to investigate both variations in principal performance and…

The importance of updating, expanding and improving what is taught in cybersecurity curricula is increasing as the security threat landscape becomes more dangerous, breaches become more frequent, and the number of deployed Internet of Things (IoT) devices, known for their security challenges, grows exponentially. This paper argues that a profile…

The Performance Assessment for Leaders (PAL) was developed by a team of nationally recognized experts in response to a Massachusetts requirement to determine and evaluate the leadership abilities of candidates seeking initial school principal licensure. This article describes and evaluates research conducted on all aspects of a 2014-2015 statewide…

This report shares data in the following categories as they relate to graduates in Ontario's economy: (1) Number of jobs for young adults without post-secondary credentials; (2) Matching credentials to employer needs: an international comparison; (3) Matching credentials to employer needs: industry, entrepreneurship, and innovation; (4) Access to…

This report examines the structural divide between for-credit and noncredit postsecondary education and the problems it presents for people seeking better jobs with higher pay. It highlights innovative ways that some community colleges are trying to bridge the gap nationally--creating more seamless pathways between credit and noncredit…

"Best of Both Worlds: How Massachusetts Vocational Schools are Preparing Students for College and Careers," highlights the state's policies that promote strong programming. Massachusetts encourages the completion of MassCore, the state's college- and career-ready course of study, incentivizes rigorous academic standards through school…

Massive open online courses (MOOC's) are the latest development in online education. Over the past decade, millions of students have taken free online versions of existing courses at well-known universities like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but such courses often offered little more than reading lists and lecture notes. MOOC's are…

Principals who are strong, effective, responsive leaders help to inspire and enhance the abilities of their teachers and other school staff to do excellent work. Such principals also tend to retain great teachers and create opportunities for them to take on new leadership roles. This leads to the following key question: What can state policymakers…