A leadership academy is a formal professional learning opportunity for current school leaders, focused on augmenting knowledge and skills, increasing specialization, and refreshing leadership practices. States interested in supporting leadership academies through federal or other funding sources can look to current models of leadership academies…

This is the third paper on the topic of outcomes-based funding written by Dennis Jones for Complete College America. The first paper, "Performance Funding: From Idea to Action" (ED535356), proposed a set of design and implementation principles to help states develop and implement their own outcomes-based funding models. The second paper,…

High-quality professional development is needed to prepare teachers to help students learn how to conduct online academic research and meet Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts. This study created and evaluated a Web-based professional development program with five instructional modules designed to prepare middle-school teachers…

"Accelerating Opportunity" responds to the nation's growing need for improved pathways from Adult Basic Education (ABE) to credentials of value in the labor market. It builds on promising practices developed in "Breaking Through," an initiative of Jobs for the Future and the National Council for Workforce Education, and…

In January 2007, the Oregon State Board of Education mandated a new Oregon diploma that strengthened high school graduation requirements with the aim of improving student readiness for college and career. Among the major changes was a requirement that students demonstrate proficiency in nine "essential skills" that included the…

Despite many barriers, a group of Oregon educators began to discuss ideas about how they could provide information that would build skills to improve the entry and success rate for high school students with disabilities in postsecondary education. These educators included high school, community college, and university staff. The Postsecondary…

Interest is growing in planning and implementing new systems of holding child and family services accountable for results. The Results-Based Accountability (RBA) Project at the Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) has supported and built upon recent state efforts to develop these new accountability systems for child and family services. The RBA…

Written in both English and Spanish, this booklet briefly summarizes the general concepts and requirements behind Title I Migrant activities for use by project personnel, parents, and others interested in those projects. After a brief discussion of project funding and definitions of commonly used terms, there is an outline of requirements which…

Partnerships between schools and businesses are becoming more frequent and more reciprocal as the two find common interests; the Salem-Keizer (Oregon) Public Schools provide a nationally recognized example of such a partnership. Salem's program began in 1981 with a joint school board and Chamber of Commerce policy statement. Despite economic…

To arrive at the key components of a comprehensive school-to-work transition strategy, researchers for the study reported here reviewed the literature in the field of school-to-work transition and also consulted with numerous experts in the field. To determine how many states have adopted the components of comprehensive strategies, the researchers…

Intended to assist the vocational teacher in designing and implementing a cluster program in health occupations, this guide suggests ideas for teaching the specific knowledge and skills that qualify students for entry-level employment in the health occupations field. The knowledge and skills are applicable to 12 occupations: dental assistant;…