Nationally, school-based mental health (SBMH) is seen as an avenue to increase access to children's mental health services and promote mental health awareness. The current article describes the implementation of a statewide SBMH program focusing on partnerships between community-based providers and local school systems, with providers embedded…

Continuous improvement is a holistic and research-based approach to education grounded in the belief that every system is designed to achieve the results it gets; therefore, change must be systemwide, not piecemeal. California is a national leader in the continuous improvement movement that is spreading throughout local school districts as well as…

The effectiveness of the Instructional Partnership Network (IPN), a collaborative initiative that provides professional development to school principals, has not been previously measured. An investigation of the impact of this state initiative on teacher efficacy, teacher trust in colleagues and teacher trust in the principal was conducted. The…

The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) has a codified responsibility to develop the Commonwealth's state-level strategic plan for higher education and to review The Plan every six years to ensure its relevance in addressing critical issues. In 2019, to fulfill a Code requirement and more important, to identify the main near-…

This report urges states to participate in the State Wage Interchange System (SWIS), as it can aide states in satisfying Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) reporting requirements, and help states better understand whether former participants in workforce training and education programs are finding good jobs. SWIS is a data sharing…

In this paper we investigate the impact of a statewide program aimed at better aligning K-12 to higher education and improving college readiness. We replicate an earlier study focused on the effects of this program at one campus by employing detailed administrative data on the census of California students that enroll at all twenty-three campuses…

The debate over school vouchers continues as more states offer government dollars to fund private schooling for students as a method of improving choice and quality in K-12 education. Previous research in the charter school sector has found that special education enrollment discrepancies between charters and traditional public schools is likely…

Indiana, Oklahoma, and Washington each have programs designed to address college enrollment gaps by offering a promise of state-based college financial aid to low-income middle school students in exchange for making a pledge to do well in high school, be a good citizen, not be convicted of a felony, and apply for financial aid to college. Using a…

This report documents the results to date of reforms underway from California Community Colleges (CCC)--Strong Start to Finish, one of the six systems that make up the first phase of the Strong Start to Finish initiative, an initiative of Education Commission of the States. Beginning in May 2019, CCC-Strong Start to Finish was created as a…

In this dissertation, I examine how two major social programs in Kentucky--state-funded preK and Family Resource and Youth Service Centers--impact children's outcomes across the state, including racial, ethnic, and economic equity through elementary school. In each chapter, I will analyze how early childhood opportunities relate to outcomes…

Louisiana's Believe and Prepare pilot program, supported by grants from the Louisiana Department of Education, aimed to prepare teacher candidates or in-service teachers through a residency with a mentor and a competency-based curriculum. To improve teacher preparation and teacher residencies, state and teacher education leaders in Louisiana…

This Study Snapshot highlights key findings from a larger study on Louisiana's Believe and Prepare pilot program. The program aimed to provide teacher candidates or in-service teachers a competency-based curriculum and a residency with a mentor. State and teacher education leaders in Louisiana sought to better understand the early career outcomes…

The "Outcomes for Early Career Teachers Prepared through a Pilot Residency Program in Louisiana" study examined early career outcomes for participants in the Louisiana Believe and Prepare pilot program that launched in 2014. The pilot program provided grants to school districts (known as "school systems" in Louisiana), in…

Faced with many applicants with very low math skills, community colleges are responding with a variety of reforms, including restricting developmental courses to students with high-school-level skills. This brief provides context for the policy changes and describes the alternatives two colleges offer to those who don't make the cut. [This brief…

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is essential to improving the health and nutrition among low-income individuals. During Fiscal Year 2017, over 42 million people living in nearly 21 million households received SNAP in the United States. Within the Mountain Plains Region (Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska,…