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.…

Persistent disparities in exclusionary discipline procedures continue to portent negative educational outcomes for students from specific racial, income, and ability categories. Restorative practices (RP) has emerged as a promising approach to mitigate these disparities and improve school climate. This study describes the utility of…

To explore the accessibility of school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports (SWPBIS) for students with severe disabilities, we conducted a survey of 179 schools implementing SWPBIS during the 2015-2016 school year. Personnel from each school reported the frequency and level of importance of SWPBIS implementation across Likert-type…

The Center for Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) conducted a multiyear, multimethod effort to learn how school districts, charter schools, and regional partners can support the successful implementation, expansion, and sustainability of personalized learning (PL) in schools. The vision for PL is to tailor instruction to individual students'…

How might policymakers and educators utilize the work already being done as states redesign their accountability systems? The 2015 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), brought much needed attention to the performance of traditionally underserved subgroups of students. Supported by greater flexibility under ESEA…

While the basic tenets of the RtI model are well-established in the literature, few studies have been conducted to describe its implementation in rural schools. We conducted a qualitative study in three rural schools that had been designated as pilot sites by our state department of education. A cross-case analysis of the data collected through…

Although portfolio assessment offers exciting alternative to traditional testing methods, ensuring accurate representation and measurement of student performance is challenging task. As Vermont's experience shows, reliability of teacher evaluation is very low, and setting acceptable standards is difficult. Before adopting portfolio approach,…

To understand state-local ties involved in state education politics, policy effects and linking mechanisms in the reform-minded Public School Approval mandate in Vermont were studied using semistructured interviews. Results showed minimal involvement from board members, superintendents, principals, and teachers regarding policy formation. All…

This study provides a data profile on Vermont's middle level schools and draws several comparisons between these data and those collected in a similar study conducted in 1980. Section One reports the current data from surveyed principals. Section Two offers several comparisons between 1980 and 1989 data. Section Three draws conclusions and offers…

This manual provides guidelines and forms for implementing a planning team approach to support students with emotional and behavioral difficulties in regular education settings, developed as part of a 3-year federally funded project to enhance the capability of 30 Vermont public schools. Following an introduction, a student profile is reviewed…

The first of a series designed to advise school staff on the use of computers in the curriculum, this booklet outlines several ways that computers can fit into the program of study in Vermont schools and suggests a method for schools to use in planning for their use. Emphasis is on computers as tools to help reach traditional educational goals.…

The 1992-93 school year saw the second statewide implementation of the Vermont portfolio-assessment program, and RAND continued its ongoing evaluation of the program's implementation, effects, and data quality. While the first year's study found evidence of the impact of the assessment program and low reliability of portfolio scoring, this year's…

This case study was undertaken in order to discover if there are different types of policy language, and, if so, to describe relationships betweeen policy language types and policy implementation. Content analysis of three drafts of the state educational policy, "Standards for Approving Vermont's Public Schools," demonstrated the…

The Windham (Vermont) Partnership, a professional development school, cooperates with a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program that educates foreign language and English as a Second Language teachers. Within the Partnership, there are two seminars for mentors: the Reflective Teaching Seminar and the Teacher Research Seminar. Teachers are…