Changing schools may greatly impede the academic achievement and social development of students experiencing homelessness. Research studies have demonstrated a link between high mobility due to homelessness and poor school performance (Cunningham, Harwood, & Hall, 2010; Obradovic, Long, Cutuli, Chan, Hinz, Heistad & Masten, 2009). Students…

The Self-Assessment Comparison (SAC) Tool is for state Part C and Section 619/Preschool programs to use to assess changes in the implementation of one or more components of the ECTA System Framework and/or subcomponenets of the DaSy Data System Framework. It is a companion to the ECTA/DaSy Framework Self-Assessment. Key features of the SAC are…

There is a growing body of research that suggests the first year of high school is a critical transition point for students. It also finds course-taking and successful completion of those courses in 9th grade to be valuable predictors of students' success in high school. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) provides states an opportunity to…

State accountability systems have been a primary school reform initiative in the US for the past 20 years, but often produce unintended negative consequences. In 2004, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) implemented the Performance Based Monitoring and Analysis System (PBMAS), which included an accountability indicator focused on the percentage of…

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) began to take form when dozens of educators from across the country were led by governors and chief state school officers in gathering and reviewing the academic standards of states that had the best outcomes. Their goal was to determine what the current best academic standards were in the country and then…

This is the "43rd Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 2021." Section 664(d) of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), as reauthorized in 2004, requires that the Department of Education report annually on the progress made toward the provision of a free…

The Linking Learning to Careers (LLC) program offered high school students with disabilities an individualized and targeted approach to strategically plan for their futures. The Vermont Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR) designed LLC to build on its usual services for high school students to emphasize unpaid and paid work-based learning…

Present-day educational inequities are the result of systemic racism rooted in longstanding policies and practices. The move to achieve equity is not a new phenomenon; however, the desire to achieve educational equity has become more prevalent in national conversations. Conversations about educational equity have trickled down to the school…

Many adult education providers are developing career pathways (CP) programs, which are viewed as an important workforce development and poverty alleviation strategy in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, by state and local governments, and by private funders. Based on a three-year researcher-practitioner partnership, this paper uses…

This publication highlights how state leaders tackle data interoperability with the emergence of data standards for student information, assessment, digital content, and other educational applications. While states are at various maturity levels for interoperability, each state shares goals for interoperability, the drivers for those goals,…

As a response to the 2004 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) federal statute, Maine enacted a rule requiring all schools to provide additional support to students who are not on track for meeting state learning standards beginning in 2012. One intent of the requirement was to improve student achievement, and another was to reduce…

Roughly 270,000 school-aged youth were in foster care at the end of fiscal year 2017. Youth in foster care may change schools frequently, which can negatively affect their academic achievement. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), enacted in 2015, reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and included provisions to improve…

School-based mental health services are those delivered by school-employed and community-employed providers in school buildings. With the implementation of provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010) that funds school-based health centers, school-based mental health services could become more broadly available in…

Kindergarten has become increasingly academically oriented, and U.S. kindergarten teachers are increasingly called upon to implement policies that require assessment and promote accountability. However, little recent research has focused on kindergarten teachers' beliefs about kindergarten readiness. The authors examined teachers' beliefs related…

The passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) marked the beginning of a new development cycle for accountability systems. State leaders once again have an opportunity to redesign their accountability systems based on the provisions included in ESSA and to ensure that systems improve outcomes for all students. The correct identification of…