The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how secondary school counselors described the influence of COVID-19 on changes in delivering services to students in Utah. The framework included Lewin's change theory and Utah's school counseling model. The research questions addressed how do secondary school counselors described…

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, K-12 schools are under immense pressure to meet the diverse needs of students. But policies and practices have not evolved quickly enough to meet those needs -- and as a result, the system continues to fail far too many young people. In "Levers of Change: How State Policies Support District…

The pandemic hit the already vulnerable early childhood education (ECE) workforce especially hard, causing almost 40 percent of child care providers to shut their doors and many teachers to lose their jobs. In 2021, enrollment in state-funded preschool also dropped for the first time in 20 years--a nearly 20 percent decline that erased a decade of…

Utilizing longitudinal data from the national Schools to Watch (STW) program, this paper examines school demographic characteristics and teacher ratings of the implementation of STW criteria in STW schools and schools that have applied but have not yet been designated as a STW. The STW program was established by the National Forum to Accelerate…

Two distinct forces recently converged in Utah that led to the Board of Education office creating a training and mentoring program for new special education administrators and teachers: simultaneous steady growth of charter schools and nagging concerns about the quality of special education programs in these new schools and Results Driven…

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for K-12 English language arts/literacy and mathematics, released in 2010, have been adopted by 49 states and territories; the District of Columbia; and the U.S. Department of Defense schools, which serve the children of U.S. service members around the world. The widespread adoption of the CCSS is a major…

Although there have been any number of national reading reform efforts over the years, there is little evidence that such efforts have been sustained in schools over time. This study focused on addressing 2 questions: To what extent have Reading First schools in 2 states sustained the key elements of this reform over time? To what extent has…

In October 2010, WestEd's Strategic Literacy Initiative (SLI) won an i3 "Validation" grant to scale up and validate the Reading Apprenticeship (RA) model in three core secondary content area classes: U.S. history, biology, and English language arts. SLI's proposal stated two goals. Goal 1: To transform academic literacy teaching and…

Technological innovation is driving fundamental changes in all aspects of our lives. This is especially true of digital content, as our use of e-books, downloadable music, streaming television and movies, and online social networks has exploded. However, the explosive growth in our use of digital content seems so far to have eluded many of the 50…

Despite the blizzard of reform activity since 1983, neither state legislation nor state education department mandates have diminished the failure rates of at-risk youngsters. One-third of all elementary students are at risk of failing academically. This paper reviews past state department of education reform efforts and suggests innovative ways…

Conducted by the State Office of Education in cooperation with IBM Corporation, this study was designed to examine the uses of technology in Utah schools and how the implementation of technology could greatly assist the educational process. Six objectives are specified in Section I: (1) design state-of-the-art technological models to be offered by…

After recognizing the failures of the educational system to meet student needs, the Utah State Board of Education mandated annually reviewed individual education plans, modeled on those required under the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, for all students. This article reviews this program, its implementation, and its accomplishments.…

The Rural Education Program (REP) is funded to develop a strategy--the Rural Futures Development (RFD) Strategy--that encourages local initiative and participation in educational change. The strategy was installed in the San Juan School District in southeastern Utah (Site "A") from August 1974 to June 1976 and represented the first…