Given that standards-based education has been commonplace since the early 1980's, most practicing education professionals cannot remember a time where standards did not exist. Standards have historically served as a mechanism for accountability and academic achievement. In physical education, while not required in initial educational reforms, the…

The Race to the Top (RTTT) program incentivized states to use innovation for systemwide improvement of student outcomes, but little is known about how RTTT-funded innovation was sustained after the RTTT program ended. This mixed-methods study examined state and district approaches to sustaining an international innovation called "lesson…

Over the past two decades, federal education policies such as the No Child Left Behind Act and the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) have sought to improve school performance through accountability systems. As states emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic, many began exploring ways to expand accountability beyond ESSA requirements. These efforts…

The recent Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires states to identify and turn around their lowest performing schools, but it breaks somewhat from prior policies by granting states significant autonomy over how they identify and turn around these schools. This mixed-methods study, which draws on administrative, qualitative, and survey data,…

On February 2, 2023, the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) distributed a survey to 3,367 primary contacts at NASFAA member institutions. This survey asked participants to rate their institution's level of preparedness for individual provisions of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)…

Purpose: As the federal government has retreated from taking a dominant role in encouraging implementation of common K-12 standards, states and districts have moved to fill this education policy vacuum. This study aims to understand how state and district leaders are navigating this new policy environment. Research Methods/Approach: Drawing upon…

Purpose: As the federal government has retreated from taking a dominant role in encouraging implementation of common K-12 standards, states and districts have moved to fill this education policy vacuum. This study aims to understand how state and district leaders are navigating this new policy environment. Research Methods/Approach: Drawing upon…

As a follow-up to the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) February 2023 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) Simplification Pre-Implementation Survey, NASFAA administered a post-implementation Survey in October 2024 to at least one contact at NASFAA membership institutions with 2,906 potential…

In response to the global pressure that has led to an increased emphasis on international comparisons of student achievement since the 1980s, multiple federal reforms aimed at producing greater consistency in curricula have been initiated in the United States. The purpose of this study was to examine the feasibility of a national curriculum and…

Throughout much of the past quarter century, standards, testing, and accountability have composed the North Star of education reform. But over that time, the string of reform initiatives that failed to live up to their initial promise has effectively extinguished that guiding light. Now focus has turned to social and emotional learning (SEL). In a…

This article employs event history analysis to explore the factors that were associated with the rapid uptake of teacher evaluation reform. We investigate three hypotheses for this rapid adoption: (a) downward diffusion from the federal government through Race to the Top (RTTT), (b) upward diffusion from large school district policies, and (c) the…

Policy generally refers to outlined ways of doing things, which are usually linked to laws. Educational reforms are changes in educational policies, expectations, and implementations. Policy and educational reform includes reforms at the federal, state, and local levels. Examples of federal reform include the passing of the Americans with…

This study used public policy implementation framework to examine issues of policy implementation at higher educational institutions and the educational change that is required as well as the capacity to carry out the policy and the stakeholders crafting the policy. The theoretical framework is based upon Fullan's Factors affecting the policy…

The article deals with legal enforcement of teacher education in Great Britain. It has been found out that in Great Britain, the sources of education legislation are statutes and acts adopted by British government. All current statutes relating to education are classified either as public or private. Public laws contain general rules, that is,…

In 2017 the Texas Education Agency (TEA) launched the Systems of Great Schools (SGS) initiative. With a combination of incentives and capacity building, SGS attempts to transform how school districts approach school improvement. It calls on districts to manage school performance in new ways, expand access to school choice options, and take a…