The Every Student Succeeds Act's evidence requirements mandate the use of research in the selection of school improvement interventions, with the aim of ensuring that schools and districts invest their efforts and funding more wisely. This study of eight states presents three different approaches to the evidence requirements: using lists of…

Florida Senate Bill 1720 drastically changed developmental education, beginning in fall 2014. This paper considers affected faculty members' perceptions and experiences with the passage and implementation of reform, according to focus group data provided by 294 participants at 21 Florida College System institutions between 2014 and 2019. We found…

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…

A large body of evidence indicates that well-implemented social and emotional learning (SEL) programs improve academic, social, and emotional outcomes for students and educators. Education policy has the potential to influence the high-quality implementation of SEL, from the school district, to the school, to the classroom. Before and during the…

Personalized, competency-based learning efforts often take place in a single classroom or school, but not systematically across districts, let alone states. To address this dynamic and increase the scale of personalized, competency-based learning, KnowledgeWorks, an independent nonprofit organization that partners with education stakeholders to…

Background/Context: In the spring of 2015, about 135,000 New Jersey students--almost 20% of the test-eligible children--did not take the state's test. Opposition of this magnitude directly contradicted a central stipulation of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), which required states to test 95% of their eligible students to…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) reverses a trend toward centralization of education policy and instead provides greater authority to the states. This study explores states' interpretation and early implementation of ESSA's equity-related provisions. Using a qualitative case study approach, we find wide variation in the design and…

This qualitative case study examines how board members make sense of federal accountability policies and how their sensemaking shapes their use of assessment data as a policy instrument. Deviating from previous work on practitioner sensemaking, the participants' interpretations of assessments did not align with their ensuing use of the data.…

Three years after the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Patrick McGuinn reviews how the U.S. Department of Education has managed the approval process for state accountability plans, how state plans are shaping up as a result of their newfound flexibility, and what implementation challenges have emerged. States have required…

Social emotional learning (SEL) is a term that encompasses a set of essential life skills including self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making (Collaborative for Academic Social and Emotional Learning [CASEL], 2024, para. 1). Despite growing interest, many school districts struggle with…

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as reauthorized in 2015, includes a provision to help protect students from sexual abuse and misconduct. ESEA Section 8546 requires states to adopt laws or policies that prohibit K-12 employers from assisting or aiding and abetting school employees, contractors, or agents in obtaining a…

In 2015, Congress added a provision in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) to help protect students from sexual abuse and misconduct in schools. ESEA Section 85461 requires states to have in place laws or policies that prohibit schools, local school districts, or state education agencies (SEAs) from…

The passage of ESSA has ushered in a new era of educational governance and leadership, but questions remain regarding how well the new law will protect students' rights to an equitable education. Lance Fusarelli and Jennifer Ayscue examine key provisions of the law, provide an update of states' implementation, and speculate about whether ESSA will…

Transgender and nonbinary (collectively referred to here as "trans") students are ill-served by most school environments. They experience challenges trying to navigate institutions that, at best, are poorly designed to support them and that often work against them. Although some districts and states have developed laws and policies to…

Research Findings In this study, we examined states' kindergarten entry assessment (KEA) policies between 2011 and 2018 and the possible impact federal funding policies may have had in their implementation. Between 2011 and 2018, 31 states received federal Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge awards and/or Enhanced Assessment Grants to support…