English learner (EL) education is widely conceived as services for immigrant-origin students, however nearly one in ten American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian students are classified in school as ELs. Title III of the Every Student Succeeds Act (2015) defines EL eligibility differently for Indigenous, compared to non-Indigenous,…

On December 10, 2015, President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) (P.L. 114-95), legislation which reauthorizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, and replaces the widely criticized No Child Left Behind Act. After various versions were offered, rejected, or revised, the ESSA ultimately passed both chambers of…

In almost any conversation about accountability for private schools, accountability for public schools is assumed. This is a dangerous myth. By assuming that the edifice that states and the federal government have created over the past several decades actually holds schools accountable, school choice advocates immediately find themselves in an…

This article analyzes how the Obama administration used executive power to grant waivers from federal education policies and assesses whether they used this power differently than previous administrations and in other sectors (e.g., health or welfare). The executive use of waivers to shape state policy is not a new trend. However, we find that…

Assessing the achievement of students in elementary and secondary schools and the nation's educational progress is fundamental to informing education policy approaches. Congressional interest in this area includes and extends beyond the annual assessments administered by states to comply with the educational accountability requirements of Title…

"Districts' Use of Weighted Student Funding Systems to Increase School Autonomy and Equity: Findings from a National Study. Volume 1," is intended to provide both practitioners and policymakers with detailed information about the design, implementation, and outcomes of weighted student funding (WSF) systems in the United States. Findings…

Concerns about the equitable distribution of school funding within and across school districts have led to new federal data collections on school-level expenditures. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) required states to collect and report, for the first time, school-level data on both personnel and non-personnel expenditures…

Response to intervention (RTI) can be considered an everyday practice in many parts of the United States, whereas, in Finland, only recently has a new framework for support in learning taken shape. Choosing Finland as the comparative partner for this policy paper is justified as its educational system has been widely referenced on the basis of…

Fifty years after the release of "Equality of Educational Opportunity"--widely known as the Coleman Report--much of what James Coleman and his colleagues reported holds up well to scrutiny. It is, in fact, remarkable to read through the 700-plus pages and see how little has changed about what the empirical evidence says matters. The…

The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) began a study to compare English Language Learner (ELL) enrollment in charter schools to ELL enrollment in traditional public schools. For the study, they obtained ELL enrollment counts for school year 2010-11 from the U.S. Department of Education's (Education's) only available dataset containing the…

This article uses data from California to analyze the results of the proposed accountability system in the Senate's Harkin-Enzi draft Elementary and Secondary Education Act reauthorization. The authors analyze existing statewide school-level data from California, applying the accountability criteria proposed in the draft law. Comparing the…

Federal stimulus funding expired in 2011-12. NCLB performance mandates approached the 2013-14 deadline. The ESEA waiver became an option with first year of implementation, 2012-13. This convergence of forces and timeline provided the opportunity for this study. The study sought to explore whether or not superintendents from Connecticut,…

The challenge of improving the performance of public schools has been given attention from a variety of advocacy groups, researchers, government agencies, education organizations and schools. Since the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 2002, titled No Child Left Behind, the stakes for public schools are higher.…

This study compares school-wide Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) results in Indiana schools earning the Recognized ASCA Model Program (RAMP) designation (n = 75) with a sample of control schools stratified by level and locale (n = 226). K-12 schools earning the RAMP designation in 2007, 2008, and 2009 comprise the experimental group. Findings indicate…

(Purpose) The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of math teacher program on students' performances in math teacher training programs in five selected colleges in North Carolina. (Methodology) This study collected 300 data (150 pre-tests and 150 post-tests) data of college students enrolled in the five selected colleges. The ANOVA and…