State postsecondary education data systems are vital assets for policymakers, researchers, and the public. The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association's (SHEEO) Communities of Practice project builds upon SHEEO's efforts to measure the capacity and effective use of state postsecondary data systems and provides states with…

This brief presents findings describing how Pennsylvania compares to other states in providing its students with access to educational opportunity. Following a more detailed discussion of the indicators used to define educational opportunity, Pennsylvania's rankings on overall access are first examined and then how Pennsylvania compares to other…

Despite the myriad of challenges that families, students, teachers and policymakers faced in 2021, the momentum to transform education did not waver. New opportunities for students unfolded in more than a dozen states through expanded private and public school choice. An additional 1.7 million students gained eligibility for private choice alone,…

The fall 2014 entering honors class as Westminster College was drawn from the largest applicant pool in the program's almost three-decade history. Far from focusing on perks, 68% of these entering students claimed it was the interesting honors curriculum that caused them to submit an application. As for the larger applicant pool itself, the top…

Pennsylvania's students consistently score above the national average on overall student achievement. However, the state's achievement gaps between White students and Black and Hispanic students are consistently among the worst in the country, even when controlling for gaps in family income, poverty, unemployment, and parental educational…

Providing students with the opportunity to generate new content and share it with a wide audience invites students to compose texts with the care and conviction that cannot be duplicated when writing solely for the teacher. This piece documents one teacher's effort to engage 99 eighth graders with an authentic writing opportunity: the…

In this policy brief, the authors examine and provide examples of the ways that public libraries have become invaluable partners in supporting family STEM learning. Although emerging research points to the strong influence of families on children's growth and development, a focus on joint parent and child STEM learning is still nascent. This brief…

Not all high school students go to college. Yet, because there is currently such a dominant emphasis on "college for all," preparing non-college-bound students for career-readiness has received short shrift. This issue is particularly important for English learners (ELs) because close to half of high school ELs do not advance to…

The role of the public school principal has expanded dramatically in recent decades. The expanded role means they are now significant multipliers of effective teaching and have a real opportunity to affect student achievement. Most states have spent recent years working to improve teacher effectiveness, recognizing its importance in improving…

Some Southwestern Pennsylvania middle school (MS) principals who employ the teaming model, an aspect of transformational leadership (TL), are meeting the state proficiency standards. There are schools in the same geographic region whose principals employ the teaming model but are failing to meet the state proficiency standards. The purpose of this…

Earning college credit in high school matters to students and parents. Students who earn college credits by taking a college-level course while in high school are more likely to enter college and succeed. Through these experiences, students become familiar with college expectations, academic behaviors, and habits of mind; get a head start on…

This case study presents an overview of the development of a new Office for Leadership Programs at Villanova University, housed under the Office of Student Development. Adapting Kingdon's (1984) public policy model to the creation of new initiatives in student affairs, this article offers a conceptual framework for the design of new student…

With community colleges in the national spotlight as never before, a lot of talk has focused on the excellent work that community colleges are doing to help students succeed, especially the inroads that community colleges are making among their most academically vulnerable students. Thanks to the efforts of hard-working, dedicated faculty and…

The increase in shale gas drilling in Pennsylvania has resulted in thousands of landowners receiving predrilling testing of their drinking water. Landowners often have difficulty understanding test reports resulting in low awareness of pre-existing problems. Extension and several partners developed a program to improve understanding of…

In this study, we sought to contribute to research about the high-impact practice of undergraduate research from the understudied faculty perspective. We relied on focus group data from faculty members (N = 41) across five institutions to better understand the supporting and inhibiting factors that contribute to faculty members' engagement in…