The Innovation Schools Act of 2008, § 22-32.5-102, et seq. C.R.S., was designed to provide a pathway for schools and districts to develop and implement innovative practices in a wide variety of areas and contexts to improve student outcomes. Innovation schools are required to articulate a vision around the autonomies they are seeking, as well as…

On June 25 and 26, 2018, 211 STEM education leaders, 176 of whom were representatives from the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and several tribal territories, gathered in Washington, D.C. for the first State-Federal STEM Summit. On Day 2 of the Summit, these…

As states move forward on the development of their Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plans, incorporating the best of the feedback received from stakeholders along the way is a critical step in the process. All states are required by law to meaningfully engage with a wide array of stakeholders as they develop their plans to ensure that new…

The "Every Student Succeeds Act" (ESSA), signed into law in 2015 and still in the midst of implementation, requires states to develop and submit to the U.S. Department of Education a state education accountability plan. Compared to the previous federal education law, the "No Child Left Behind Act" (NCLB), ESSA mandates that…

Louisiana has received recent attention for some of its new education policies and promising early results. In this report, RAND researchers provide an in-depth description of Louisiana's approach to improving student outcomes since 2012. The authors examine how the state has used various policy levers -- including mandates, resource alignment,…

The pivot point for educational change is now firmly placed with the district, rebalancing the position of the state and the school relative to the local education agency (LEA). The state education agency (SEA) has been shifting its emphasis for decades, from a compliance-focused authority to a change agent equipped with systems, processes,…

Stakeholder engagement is a critical component of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Under the law, states are required to engage specific stakeholders as they develop the consolidated state plan to submit to the U.S. Department of Education. But states should not only engage with their stakeholders because it's required under the law --…

This guide is intended to help states assess the engagement strategies used during the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) development stage, identify the ones to sustain or refine, and develop a long-term plan that will continue to create opportunities for stakeholders to be heard on this and other education issues. The guidance in this document…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) offers states an incredible opportunity to develop or refine a strategic vision for education to chart their own path forward. The new federal law allows education leaders and stakeholders to rethink their own accountability, funding, school improvement and grant-making systems by gathering input from the…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) has drastically changed the federal education landscape for the first time in more than a decade. State education agencies (SEAs) have been granted additional flexibility under the new law but first must establish their state strategic vision and evaluate how the new law will affect their accountability,…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) asks states to engage with a wide array of stakeholders throughout the development of their plans, encouraging outreach that goes well beyond the organizational leaders with whom the state education agency is most familiar. The purpose behind this outreach is to ensure that the state's ESSA plan truly…

This report provides six mini-case studies of higher education policy reforms enacted in other states, exploring the important role that state policy leadership played in developing, promoting, and implementing these policies aimed at improving higher education outcomes, and discussing the relevance of each reform effort for California. This…

This evaluation study examined the effectiveness, efficiency, and impact of the statewide master plan for professional development (PD Master Plan) by investigating seven questions. With regard to effectiveness, (1) What was the level of implementation for the PD Master Plan, overall and by individual providers? (2) What were the impediments, if…

The Department of Education (Education) created Race to The Top (RTT) under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to provide incentives for states to reform K-12 education in areas such as improving the lowest performing schools and developing effective teachers and leaders. In 2010, Education awarded 12 states nearly $4 billion in…

In this evaluation, as in previous years, four main aspects of the implementation of the West Virginia Board of Education's Master Plan for Statewide Professional Development were examined: (a) basic information reported by providers about the size and scope of the effort, including attendance, and adherence to the newly adopted standards for…