Providing and using technical assistance for capacity building within educational agencies is a complex endeavor. The U.S. Department of Education funds technical assistance centers to support state education agencies (SEAs) and local education agencies (LEAs) in the capacity-building process. Established in 2018, the Center to Improve Social and…

Programs for gifted and talented education should be guided by research-based practices, but states' policies vary in their recommendations for programming, and in how they hold local education agencies accountable for implementing those recommendations. State plans for gifted and talented education rely on the voluntary compliance of districts to…

Given the authority of state government over public education, one means of narrowing the best-practice to actual-practice gap in education is by putting forth clear state guidance and recommendations to schools. To date, however, little is known about the national landscape of procedural guidance that is readily available to practitioners looking…

This article provides a systematic and impartial analysis of the law, including hearing and review officer as well as judicial decisions, specific to the intersection of response to intervention (RTI) and school districts' ongoing affirmative obligation of child find. The results reveal that this intersection has not been the subject of…

Background: By 2014, all states implemented concussion laws that schools must translate into daily practice; yet, limited knowledge exists regarding implementation of these laws. We examined the extent to which concussion management policies and procedure (P&P) documents of New York State school districts comply with the State's Concussion…

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the process by which children and adults learn to understand and manage emotions, maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions. This is the second in a series of four related reports about what is known about SEL programs for students ages 3-8. The report series addresses four issues raised…

While some state and local education agencies may raise concerns over shifting legal principles and political apprehension in pursuing strategies that integrate students across race, socioeconomic status, and other factors, the changing demographics warrant serious inquiry into integration opportunities. This paper surveys the landscape of K-12…

Background/Context: In recent years, states, districts, schools, and external partners have recognized the need to proactively foster the use of data to guide educational decision-making and practice. Understanding that data alone will not guarantee use, individuals at all levels have invested in interventions to support better access to,…

To achieve the goal of attracting and retaining talented professionals in education, performance-based compensation systems (PBCS) must offer salaries that are both fair and sufficiently competitive at each point across an educator's career continuum. Although many states, especially with the support of the Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) grants,…

This article reviews the literature base on class size reduction and proposes a new analytic framework that we believe provides practically useful explanations of how primary class size reduction works. It presents descriptions of classroom practice and grounded explanations for how class size reduction affects educational core activities by…

Response to intervention (RTI) is an approach to instruction, assessment, and intervention that enables early identification of students who are experiencing academic or behavioral difficulties. The jurisdictions served by the Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast and Islands expressed interest in a study of whether and how state education…

When the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (now known as the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act [IDEA]) was initially passed in 1975, it indicated that districts were required to provide children in private schools with access to special education and related services, but it was unclear whether they were entitled to…

Response to intervention (RTI) is a framework for providing interventions and services at increasing levels of intensity until students succeed. The framework helps teachers and schools provide instruction and interventions matched to student needs, monitor progress frequently to guide decisions about changes in instruction or goals, and apply…

This report presents findings from case studies conducted during the 2003-04 school year, the second year that the supplemental services provisions of NCLB had been in effect. It follows up on baseline data collected the previous school year. This study conducted interviews in a purposive sample of six states and nine school districts, which were…

Reviews small-scale, exploratory research into British schools' management of concurrent educational reform innovations generated by government, local education authorities, and the schools themselves. Describes changing innovations patterns, key factors influencing their adoption and implementation, the central management strategies employed, and…