Social and emotional learning (SEL) is having a moment. After years of being neglected for an agenda heavily focused on test scores, the pendulum is swinging back toward the whole child. The 2015 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act asks states to develop at least one metric, outside reading and math scores, to measure…

This publication provides an overview of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The following topics are covered : (1) Introductory Information, including a timelime and ESSA modifications to the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB); (2) State Plan; 3) Statewide Accountability System, ; (4) Academic Assessments; (5) Standards; (6) School Improvement;…

In 2013, the national high school graduation rate hit a record high of 81.4 percent, and for the third year in a row, the nation remained on pace to meet the 90 percent goal by the Class of 2020. This sixth annual update on America's high school dropout challenge shows that these gains have been made possible by raising graduation rates for…

This project assesses the feasibility of creating a voluntary, nationwide data dictionary that can be used to standardize the reporting of postsecondary accountability reporting requirements for the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006 (otherwise known as Perkins IV). Variables, field codes, and programming instructions,…

The Race to the Top program is authorized under sections 14005 and 14006 of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). Race to the Top is a competitive grant program to encourage and reward States that are implementing significant reforms in the four education areas described in the ARRA: enhancing standards and assessments,…

The purpose of the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) program is to improve the quality of early learning and development and close the achievement gap for children with high needs. The RTT-ELC grant competition focuses on improving early learning and development for young children by supporting States' efforts to increase the…

Place- and community-based education--an approach to teaching and learning that starts with the local--addresses two critical gaps in the experience of many children now growing up in the United States: contact with the natural world and contact with community. It offers a way to extend young people's attention beyond the classroom to the world as…

Presenting information on the Indian Education Act (IEA), this brief pamphlet includes: (1) statistics documenting the educational problems afflicting the American Indian (e.g., an average educational level of 8.4 years for all Indians); (2) the unique educational needs of the Indian (e.g., rural isolation, urban assimilation, termination of…

Rural Education Achievement Program (REAP) grants give rural districts a new source of federal funds. REAP has two separate programs that address the specific needs of rural districts. The first is the Small and Rural Schools Achievement Program; the second is the Rural and Low Income Schools Program. Explains the differences in the programs and…

Designed to meet the requirements of recent federal legislation, the booklet describes Project DART, which provides services in adapted physical education for handicapped children in Georgia. The first section examines the state of the art in adapted physical education and reviews the mandates of Public Law 94-142 (the Education for All…

This issue brief addresses policy and administrative questions in preschool special education. Background information is provided on the history of early intervention and predictions for the future are made. Research is presented on early childhood special education effectiveness (longitudinal and shorter-term studies and third-party evaluations)…

A review of the legal basis for and a model of operationalizing definitions of handicapping conditions is presented along with a trend analysis of the association between operationalized criteria and stability in incidence rates. The role of Public Law 94-142 (the Education for All Handicapped Children Act), Public Law 93-380, and Section 504 of…

Defining basic concepts re: the New Federalism Acts, this monograph presents the following: (1) survey results of a study of 21 small cities in the California Sacramento Valley designed to determine why local administrative and elected officials had or had not taken advantage of the Housing and Community Development Act (H/CD) of 1974; (2) survey…

Constituting the third annual report of the National Advisory Council on Indian Education (NACIE), this document is divided into the following six sections: (1) The Lessons of Title IV of the Indian Education Act: Needs and Achievements (full funding for Title IV; the role of the American Indian Policy Review Commission; direct Federal funding;…

Major research findings are synthesized and innovations of current concern to vocational rehabilitation professionals are reported in this document, which covers the area of sheltered industrial employment. It is intended to provide a state-of-the-art review of worldwide experience and conceptualizations regarding accommodated or sheltered…