When the state of Texas took control of the Houston Independent School District (HISD) in the summer of 2023, it marked the end of a multi-year legal battle between the district and the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and the beginning of a community-led campaign to re-take control of the district. Since, students and community groups have rallied to…

Costs for transporting public school students have risen 33% from 2008 to 2018, reaching, on average, $1,152 per student transported. The reasons behind this shift include higher labor costs, various forms of school choice requiring longer commutes from students' neighborhoods, and environmentally friendly upgrades to bus fleets. As a result, some…

As discussed in "Splitting the Bill: How Are State Education Funding Formulas Structured?," state school funding formulas generally fit one of three structures -- student-based, resource-based, or program-based. The cornerstone of a student-based funding formula is the per-student base amount (also appropriately called the…

According to Maine's Education Commissioner, the pandemic has stretched both the Maine Department of Education (DOE) staff and local educational leaders. To ensure efficiency and effectiveness of limited time, the Maine DOE sought to increase communication opportunities with the field. Specifically, the Maine DOE prioritized communications on…

Many education leaders may wonder how to implement sustainable policy changes that will benefit youth, families, and the community. Arielle Lentz, Laura Desimone, Amy Stornaiuolo, Katie Pak, Nelson Flores, Philip Nichols, Morgan Polikoff, and Andy Porter share findings from school change efforts in more than 170 districts in five states. They…

Conducting rigorous impact studies that produce actionable evidence for educators and policymakers is a key goal of the Standards for Excellence in Education Research (SEER). Although studies can be initiated by individual districts or schools, researchers often conduct their own studies to address broadly relevant questions about the…

This is the executive summary for the full report, "Crossing the Line: Segregation and Resource Inequality between America's School Districts." School funding debates in the United States tend to center on how much money school districts should receive, and through what policies and formulas. But they almost never focus on the district…

This collection of reflections serves as a companion to the California Collaborative's report, "Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing: Lessons About Effective School Board Governance From Napa Valley and San José Unified School Districts." The report describes the experiences, practices, and learnings from two school boards in California…

Research suggests that takeovers are not a silver bullet for improving struggling school systems. State takeovers of school districts have happened in all major regions of the country but disproportionately affect some types of communities more than others. There are two main reasons states typically give for enacting takeover: low academic…

Expertise about how best to address the challenges schools face does not reside solely in the central office. Columnist Joshua P. Starr discusses how district leaders should rethink their roles to ensure that they are focused on the work that only they can do. Some tasks will be better suited to leaders at the school level, and sometimes expertise…

Over the past five years, enrollment has declined at nearly three-quarters of California school districts, and losses are expected to continue across nearly all regions through at least the next decade. The California Department of Finance (DOF) projects enrollment to fall below 5.2 million by 2032; the federal government projects an even larger…

The School Spending & Outcomes Snapshot allows users to view and print data visualizations to explore spending and outcomes data in order to foster thoughtful conversations to improve equity and outcomes in their schools communities.

Aggregate national test score data have shown that student learning declined from SY19 to SY21, and that recovery began occurring from SY21 to SY22. To further the understanding of how districts in Illinois' performances have changed since the onset of the pandemic, the authors explored variation in districts' change in standardized test scores…

Purpose: Annually, the National Association of School-University Partnerships (NASUP) awards individuals with the Exemplary PK-20 Boundary Spanner Award. The award goes to a university-based or a PK-12 school or school district-based individual who "innovates the systems or practices to enhance the learning of all of those involved in the…

Most people associate summer with activities that have nothing to do with school, or, if they do, summer school comes to mind -- the remediation variety. Historically, summer school is for struggling students who need to relearn and firm up skills from prior years or for those required to retake a class. But what if it could be reimagined how to…