This letter was written by Adam Schott, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, to remind State educational agencies' (SEAs') of responsibilities to support the unique needs of students in foster care, as required under Title I, Part A (Title I) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA). This…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act has undergone revisions roughly every 5 years since inception. Despite these modifications, the academic and social outcomes for students with disabilities lag behind those of their regular education peers. Results-Driven Accountability (RDA) was initiated to improve special education outcomes and…

This is a recirculation of a 2023 letter written by Adam Schott, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, to remind State educational agencies' (SEAs') of responsibilities to support the unique needs of students in foster care, as required under Title I, Part A (Title I) of the Elementary and Secondary Education…

State and local report cards help ensure local educational agencies (LEAs), parents, families, educators, and communities have critical data and a common framework for gauging educational progress and success. Title I, Part A (Title I) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) requires States to annually share this important…

The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act is a consumer-protection law solely applicable to higher education institutions participating in student financial aid programs. This study addressed the perceived lack of sustainable institutional implementation efforts, which have become the focus of federal…

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) requires each State to develop and implement a single, statewide accountability system to support all public elementary school and secondary school students in meeting the challenging State academic standards. These systems are important tools in achieving the goal of improving outcomes for…

On March 13, 2017, the United States Department of Education (USED) released a revised template for the Consolidated State Plan under section 8302 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The purpose of the Consolidated State Plan is to provide stakeholders with quality,…

Accountability mechanisms and processes have evolved with changes in statute. State Education Agency (SEA) accountability systems may exhibit characteristics of compliance- and/or improvement-focused systems in light of requirements under the "Elementary and Secondary Education Act" (ESEA) and its reauthorizations under the…

School turnaround--the rapid improvement of student achievement in low-performing schools--is increasingly a major topic of interest in K-12 public education. Federal legislation has left varying degrees of school improvement-related responsibilities up to states, and policy makers have divergent views about how to realize turnaround. We…

Purpose: Alongside the inequities surfaced by COVID-19, a confluence of demographic and policy-related shifts over the last few decades has elevated the education of multilingual learners (MLs) in state education agency (SEA) leaders' work. This study employs an ecological perspective to examine how SEA leaders promote social justice policy…

States across the country are urgently building and initiating systems to improve schools, including those identified as low-performing under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). With their state ESSA plans approved by the U.S. Department of Education in 2017-2018, state education agencies (SEAs) are moving forward to carry out the vision,…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) gives states more power than they had under previous federal law to determine which schools are low-performing and gives school districts greater latitude to decide on strategies to improve these schools. This report describes findings from the first phase of a project by the Center on Education Policy (CEP)…

This document, created by the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE), provides guidance for newly opening charter schools. This guide can be used to keep track of MDE deadlines, access the reporting calendar and follow the steps necessary to ensure the utilization of all the resources and revenue available from the state. This guidance document…

Under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, states created statewide systems of support, in collaboration with existing agencies, to deliver targeted assistance to districts and schools identified as in need of support. With limited personnel and resources, state education agencies partnered with outside agents to address the needs of a growing…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), passed in 2015, signaled a major shift in the roles of states and districts in supporting school improvement. Under ESSA, state education agencies (SEAs) and local education agencies (LEAs) have more responsibility and flexibility in developing and implementing plans, informed by local context, to support the…