This study explores the prevalence and implementation of four key school counseling policies at the state level and to what extent they are monitored for positive impact on the school counseling profession. Drawing on an analysis of state school counseling policy documents and interviews with school counseling leaders from 30 state education…

Many state education agencies provide supports for local education agencies (LEAs) that are implementing tiered frameworks or Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS). With a 61% response rate to an online survey, 35 LEA-level systems coaches identified what state-level supports were helpful in facilitating MTSS implementation. Responses highlighted…

The Partnership Model for School and District Turnaround is Michigan's policy for improving student outcomes in its lowest-performing schools. In compliance with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) identifies schools that rank in the bottom 5% of the Michigan School Index System as Partnership schools.…

"Transforming Science Assessment: Systems for Innovation," is a series of resources designed to provide state education leaders with: (1) Information about how states are currently pursuing statewide assessment systems in science; (2) Analyses of what features influence different approaches, with an eye to supporting state leaders as…

"Transforming Science Assessment: Systems for Innovation," is a series of resources designed to provide state education leaders with: (1) Information about how states are currently pursuing statewide assessment systems in science; (2) Analyses of what features influence different approaches, with an eye to supporting state leaders as…

As states and districts begin the work of turning common academic standards into curriculum and instruction, educators searching for teaching resources are often finding that process frustrating and fruitless. Teachers and curriculum developers who are trying to craft road maps that reflect the Common Core State Standards can find themselves in a…

The federal School Improvement Grants (SIG) program, to which $3 billion were allocated under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), supports schools attempting to turn around a history of low performance. School turnaround also is a focus of Race to the Top (RTT), another ARRA-supported initiative, which involved a roughly $4…

Mentor program coordinators from school districts in California responded to a survey pertaining to the implementation of the California Mentor Teacher Program. Survey responses indicate that the pace of implementation has been rapid in the first six months of the program. Agreements have been forged among teachers, administrators, and school…

New York state established several types of grants to improve local educational practice, and three are examined in this report: Developer grants, Demonstrator grants, and Replicator grants. Policy evaluation performed at the level of a grants administration agency requires many types of data collection and analysis. This study compares the…

The major findings of nine State case studies on the effects and implementation of Chapter 2 of the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act (ECIA) of 1981, are summarized and synthesized in this report. The States examined (Colorado, Maine, Michigan, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington) were selected to…

Discusses the power that local school districts and schools exert over the eventual success or failure of state government initiatives. Analyzes three major hurdles that reform efforts must surmount at the district and school levels: affecting classroom instruction; eliciting a commitment of local resources; and becoming integrated into other…

Procedures are presented for state departments of education and the local educational agencies to share the responsibility of showing that a minimum competency test is a fair measure of what is taught. It is recommended that the state lead in technical assistance, provide models, and monitor and evaluate the entire process. (CM)

Discusses the use of instructional systems design for setting instructional objectives in public schools. Goals for elementary and secondary schools are reviewed, the ways teachers use instructional materials and develop learning activities are described, and prospects on the national, state, and local levels are discussed. (24 references) (LRW)

Findings of a study that examined superintendents' perceptions of the methods used by the Ohio State Department of Education to implement legislative mandates are presented in this paper. Etzioni's compliance theory is used as a framework to understand superintendents' perceptions about the state's use of power. A survey of 205 Ohio public school…

This report presents findings from a study of state and local administration of Chapter 1 of the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act. The report is divided into six chapters. Chapter 1 presents an overview of the history of Title 1/Chapter 1 and the major conclusions of the study. Chapter 2 describes current administrative practices and…