This report provides a summary of the 17 Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plans submitted by May 31, 2017 to the U.S. Department of Education. The purpose of this report is to provide an at-a-glance look at how states articulated decisions related to standards, assessment, accountability, and instruction of English learners in their submitted…

For many years, U.S. employers have stated that today's youth are not prepared for college or equipped with the skills necessary to succeed in the 21st Century workforce. As we enter into an age where the American Dream is no longer possible with just a high school diploma, there is an increasing need to prepare students for college and the…

The purpose of this paper is to share results of collaborative effort introducing special education portfolios into an inclusive teacher education program using the Tk20 assessment system. Tk20 is an assessment system for both providing evidence of educational skills and achieving that evidence in such a way as to demonstrate growth of teacher…

One central component of a great school system is a clear set of expectations, or standards, that educators help all students reach. In Iowa, that effort is known as the Iowa Core. The Iowa Core represents the statewide academic standards, which describe what students should know and be able to do in math, science, English language arts, and…

The Common Core is at a critical juncture. While many surveys show that support for the standards themselves remains strong, implementation has not been without major challenges. "State Accountability in the Transition to Common Core," a new policy brief from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, provides cautionary advice about what key…

The field of dance arts education in the United States is in an entirely different place today than it was at the turn of the century. Much of this change is due to a convergence of events that involved: federal and state legislation, policy, and funding that supported dance in arts education; a forty-year transition of dance out of departments of…

The growth of teachers' professional knowledge and skills has been the topic of policy, research, and even philosophy for many decades. The assessment of English Learners (ELs), a more specific concern, has become an interest of the educational community in just the past 40 years (e.g., Harris, 1969). The authors' task in this chapter is to…

This report, based on a survey of a nationally representative sample of school districts in Common Core-adopting states, examines school districts' efforts to implement the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The report addresses district leaders' views on the rigor of the CCSS and their impact on learning and instruction, progress on and…

"Transforming Science Assessment: Systems for Innovation," is a series of resources designed to provide state education leaders with: (1) Information about how states are currently pursuing statewide assessment systems in science; (2) Analyses of what features influence different approaches, with an eye to supporting state leaders as…

"Transforming Science Assessment: Systems for Innovation," is a series of resources designed to provide state education leaders with: (1) Information about how states are currently pursuing statewide assessment systems in science; (2) Analyses of what features influence different approaches, with an eye to supporting state leaders as…

The National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC), in collaboration with the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), and the Association for the Gifted (CEC-TAG), has developed national standards for teacher preparation programs in gifted and talented education. Typically, these programs are at the masters level, but they may also be endorsement…

IES is the primary research, evaluation, and statistics arm of the U.S. Department of Education. Established through the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (ESRA), the Institute's mission is to expand fundamental knowledge and understanding of education and to provide education leaders and practitioners, parents and students, researchers, and…

Curriculum mapping is an increasingly common concept within the field of education. A joint project between La Trobe University and the Public Health Agency of Canada attempted to map public health competencies with learning objectives from online learning modules developed by the two organisations. As part of this project a literature review was…

In this report, the authors present some initial findings on the early implementation of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in California. They report on their interviews with educators in all regions of the state, and on their views of how implementation is proceeding in their schools and districts. The authors then review some of the key…

The "Professional Learning Readiness Self-Assessment Tool" helps districts assess their capacity for effective, comprehensive professional learning. For the purposes of this tool, effective professional learning strategies are those strategies based upon research and aligned with professional standards. Comprehensive professional…