Approximately 450 community colleges nationally are part of formal statewide or national initiatives to implement guided pathways reforms to improve student success, and many other colleges are implementing guided pathways practices on their own. Because guided pathways is a whole-college reform--and because it takes several years to fully…

This program model describes the phases of planning, implementing, and evaluating a program designed for Tennessee public schools to manage student behavior in at-risk populations. This program model employs a hybrid asset-based community development, logic, and interactive model to implement interventions based on the principles of applied…

In 2015, Tennessee launched Tennessee Promise (TN Promise), one of the most comprehensive and well-funded statewide free-college scholarship programs in the country. To support TN Promise students, and especially those from the lowest-income households, tnAchieves, a key partner facilitating all non-financial components of TN Promise, implemented…

Social and emotional learning (SEL) has been increasingly emphasized in educational research and practice for promoting children's wellbeing. Perhaps the most well-known SEL framework is the model provided by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). This framework has become the dominant framework informing state SEL…

Developed by the National Writing Project (NWP), the College, Career, and Community Writers Program (C3WP) seeks to improve students' argument writing by building teachers' understanding of and skill in teaching source-based argument writing. The program features intensive professional development, skill-based instructional resources, and…

The book analyses and evaluates several key community college reform programs that emerged after the Recession of 2008 and as a result of major initiatives in California, New York, Tennessee, Florida, Connecticut and Wisconsin. Because of the economic downturn in the early 21st Century, an already eroding financial base for public higher education…

Community colleges in Tennessee, either directly or indirectly, experienced unprecedented change as a result of Tennessee Promise. The present study explored how student support service administrators at three community colleges responded to organizational change as a result of the Tennessee Promise legislation. Investigators selected community…

The Career and Technical Education (CTE) playbook series has explored strategies and processes states can use to strengthen CTE program quality and provide students with pathways to postsecondary credentialing and middle- and higher-wage career opportunities. This fifth playbook in the series addresses the final set of steps for strengthening…

In December 2014, then Secretary of Education Arnie Duncan announced that $226 million had been awarded to 18 states under the Preschool Development Grants (PDG) program. Duncan said that expanding access to high quality preschool programs was critically important, and that the states receiving funding would serve as a model for others. The goal…

Once dubbed Vocational Education, Career and Technical Education (CTE) celebrated its centennial anniversary in 2017. The federal Smith-Hughes National Vocational Education Act signed in 1917 marked the first nationwide investment in career training at the secondary level. That initial investment has continued through the Vocational Education Act,…

Summative performance assessments in teacher education, such as the Performance Assessment for California Teachers (PACT) and the edTPA, have been heralded through polices intended to enhance the quality of the teaching profession and raise its stature among other professions. However, the development and implementation of the PACT, and…

This publication uses draft equity plans developed by three Reform Support Network pilot States to demonstrate several approaches to the development of State equity plans in response to the Secretary's Excellent Educators for All initiative. It summarizes how the State education agencies addressed each component of the equity plan and their…

This article explores the application of Whitaker, King, and Vogel's (2004) best practices for the implementation of partnerships regarding school leadership preparation programs in 3 school district-university collaboratives located in urban settings with large minority student populations. The 3 partnerships studied include the Nashville…

Background: Since 1984, Students Taking a Right Stand (STARS) Nashville has implemented Student Assistance Programs (SAPs) in the middle Tennessee area, to include 14 counties and 16 school districts. STARS Nashville serves K-12 with a focus in middle and high schools. Methods: The current study reviewed studies that utilized quasi-experimental…

To improve the U.S. education system through more-effective classroom teaching, in school year 2009-2010, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced four Intensive Partnership for Effective Teaching sites. The Intensive Partnerships Initiative is based on the premise that efforts to improve instruction can benefit from high-quality measures…