The internship is a crucial component of principal preparation. This systematic research review aims to build on two prior syntheses of existing research on principal internships. We employed an exhaustive review of five search engines for empirical studies on principal internships in the United States between 2010 and 2023. Our search yielded 92…

In 2019, the Texas legislature passed a historic education finance bill that included an initiative to add up to 30 days to the school-year calendar. One way districts can do this is to offer a voluntary summer learning program. In 2020, the American Institutes for Research, with support from The Wallace Foundation, launched the six-year Texas…

Teacher professional development (PD) is among the most prominent levers used to improve teaching quality. The findings of research studies examining PD interventions are heterogeneous, with meta-analyses indicating mean positive impacts but also the existence of many ineffective programs. "Educational Researcher" has served as a…

Research on Teachers of Color and Indigenous Teachers (TOCIT) has gained traction in recent years in educational scholarship. Yet very few studies have evaluated teacher education programs that prepare TOCIT within the U.S. context or have focused on the promising pedagogical practices used to prepare TOCIT. The challenge of doing program…

"Pathways to Implementation" highlights innovative strategies and effective models in career pathways policy, implementation, and programming, as well as challenges states encounter in this work. This seven-part series addresses the key elements of Bellwether's framework for career pathways policy implementation. Each brief defines the…

State financial aid is a critical piece of college affordability for students from low-income backgrounds. Nearly three quarters of all students attend college in their home state - which is typically a requirement for state-based financial aid - and first-generation and students from low-income backgrounds are even more likely than their peers to…

Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) offer parents a publicly funded, government-authorized savings account they can draw on for certain K-12 educational expenses. As these programs have expanded in recent years, they have become a flashpoint in education policy debates. For some, ESAs are an extension of existing private school choice programs'…

The National Academy of Education (NAEd) undertook this consensus report on the evaluation and improvement of teacher preparation programs (TPPs). Specifically, this consensus report aims to (1) identify and disseminate best practices for evaluating and improving TPPs to promote teacher effectiveness and student achievement; (2) provide…

This abstract presents an analysis of federal policies concerning rural, regional, and remote (RRR) teaching, focusing on initial teacher education and teaching quality within these areas. The study utilises Bacchi's 'What's the Problem Represented to Be?' (WPR) approach to interrogate the framing of RRR teaching issues within policy discourse.…

This report analyzes the design process that campus teams use to create sustained professional development (SPD) programs such as faculty learning communities for VITAL faculty. The authors begin with a description of the larger research project that this report contributes to, including an overview of earlier research and methodology for the…

Among the 50 states, 44 use free and reduced-price lunch enrollment to identify low-income students. These data are also commonly used to allocate federal, state, and local funding to schools serving low-income children. School and district poverty rates, as determined by free and reduced-price lunch enrollment, additionally feature prominently in…

In 2008, Maine implemented the Educational Opportunity Tax Credit (EOTC), a tax credit that repays up to $4,400 of student loan debt to filers who live in Maine, work in Maine, are paying towards their student debt, and who have an eligible degree. In 2019, Maine Revenue Services (MRS) provided 14,341 EOTC tax credits to 19,798 people, with annual…

To identify the state-level policies and policy domains that state policymakers and advocates perceive as most important for positively impacting the use of children's mental health services (CMHS). We used a modified Delphi technique (i.e., two rounds of questionnaires and an interview) during Spring 2021 to elicit perceptions among state mental…

Recent teacher supervision and evaluation system (TSES) reform efforts have resulted in wide adoption of policies targeting improvements in teaching quality and student outcomes; however, impact of these policies has been inconsistent (Hazi, 2019; Stecher et al., 2018). Failure of TSES efforts to realize their intended outcomes is the result of…

During the global pandemic of the 2020-21 school year, school districts rapidly transitioned from the traditional in-person structure of school to distance learning. This research study sought to understand how superintendents envisioned virtual learning as an option within their school district portfolio, exploring the barriers faced in its…