The Forum Guide to Data Quality provides best practices from districts and states for maintaining quality data as these agencies regularly review and revise their methods for working with data, as well as their expectations for all staff who are responsible for education data and their quality. This resource is intended to help districts and…

Most states in the United States operate their public preschool programs in a mixed delivery system that serves children in local education agencies (LEAs) as well as non-LEA settings, such as Head Start agencies, child care centers, private schools, and family child care homes. To inform state preschool administrators and policymakers as they…

Disproportionate rates of suspensions and expulsions among racial/ethnic groups are a local, state, and national concern. Maryland has made significant progress in decreasing the use of exclusionary discipline, but there is substantial work left to do to move toward equity. Maryland has cut the use of exclusionary discipline practices by half in…

The "Principles & Standards for Quality Charter School Authorizing," first established in 2004, reflect the lessons learned by experienced authorizers. This foundational resource for National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) has been used to guide authorizing practices across the country and is referenced in state…

The Head Start Act mandates that each Head Start recipient receive a monitoring review at least once every 3 years; each newly designated recipient be reviewed after the completion of its first year (and then at least once every 3 years thereafter); and all recipients that "fail to meet the standards" receive Follow-up reviews. Reviewers…

Curriculum is the heart of the mission of every college. College curriculum approval processes have been established to ensure that rigorous, high quality curriculum is offered that meets the needs of students. While some concerns may exist regarding the effectiveness and efficiency of local curriculum processes, all participants in the process…

The Head Start Act mandates that each Head Start grantee receive a monitoring review at least once every 3 years; each newly designated grantee be reviewed after the completion of its first year (and then at least once every 3 years thereafter); and all grantees that "fail to meet the standards" receive Follow-up reviews. Reviewers…

The Head Start Act mandates that each Head Start grantee receive a monitoring review at least once every 3 years; each newly designated grantee be reviewed after the completion of its first year (and then at least once every 3 years thereafter); and all grantees that "fail to meet the standards" receive Follow-up reviews. Reviewers…

Charter school authorizing is a powerful strategy for making excellent public schools and educational opportunities available to all students. Done well, charter authorizing increases student achievement by expanding the supply of quality public schools to satisfy unmet needs--particularly by providing life-changing opportunities for students…

The growing prominence of value-added models for measuring teacher effectiveness has prompted a recent surge in policies that consider students' classroom performance part of a teacher's evaluation. Yet, in light of the criticism and limitations of the current models, whether and how evaluation systems will adapt over time is unclear. This paper…

"Fundraising Strategies for Community Colleges" is a hands-on, step-by-step guide to building a million-dollar-a-year development office. Community colleges educate nearly half the undergraduates in America yet receive as little as two percent of all gifts to higher education. Private philanthropy is now essential to the mission of community…

This dissertation considers the effects of national rankings, specifically the 2010 National Research Council (NRC)'s Data-Based Assessment of Research-Doctorate Programs, on higher education institutions' behavior. National research studies of graduate education require significant resources and data, yet it is uncertain how universities make…

"Degrees of Freedom" challenges California to include currently and formerly incarcerated students in the vision set by the state's 1964 Master Plan for Higher Education--a vision of college access for all, for the benefit of the entire state. A college education strengthens economies, changes lives and renews communities, and yet, for…

"Degrees of Freedom" finds that California has not been adequately providing effective college opportunities for criminal justice-involved students, despite the fact that such access will help California build safer and more economically viable communities. This report is part of a larger initiative--Renewing Communities--to expand…

As the education reform movement increasingly focuses on teachers and teaching, educators, policy-makers, and researchers need valid and reliable measures that can be used to evaluate individual teachers, provide guidance for improving teaching performance, and support research in ways that advance instruction and classroom dialog and practice. A…