In an era where information is both abundant and increasingly complex, school library media centers (LMCs) serve as hubs for learning, creativity, and critical thought. Yet, little to no data exist describing the state of school LMCs in Minnesota. During the 2023 Minnesota legislative session, Minnesota's Multicounty Multitype Library Systems…

The report "State Approaches to Short-Term Postsecondary Credentials: Challenges, Opportunities, and Policy Gaps" explores how state policymakers engage with short-term postsecondary credentials, highlighting key policy levers such as state authorization, consumer protections, financial aid, and quality standards. It examines the…

Public Agenda surveyed Illinois residents to learn about how they view public higher education and what would help it serve them and the state better. Three research briefs highlight key findings from the broader survey findings. This brief finds that nearly three in four residents--including majorities of Democrats, independents and…

Unpaid (informal) family caregivers provide vitally important supports to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), but receive little support or training. This study's aim was to examine how states across the nation supported informal family caregivers in their Medicaid Home- and Community-Based Services (HCBS) programs for…

Grading inflation is a major problem in academia. The paper's purpose is to assess graduate students' perception of grade inflation. Students' results (n = 120) are examined by gender and grade point average. According to students, grade inflation is not a problem and grades accurately reflect performance. Respondents believe that some students…

Addressing the needs of all student groups is paramount for ensuring equitable access to learning opportunities and fostering high academic success for all students. Students in the United States come from a diverse range of backgrounds, bringing with them knowledge, experiences, and other assets that inform the way they learn, but may also come…

By age 18, students have spent on average 85 percent of their waking hours outside of school. Their use of that time--constructive or not--helps direct their futures. In afterschool and summer programs, young people explore new interests, develop new skill sets, and create lasting relationships with peers and caring adults that shape who they are,…

The State of the States in Gifted Education report is a biennial report that has been published by the Council of State Directors of Programs for the Gifted since 1985. The current study examines financial data from these reports relating to the funding of gifted and talented education (GATE) by state-level funding authorities descriptively. We…

For at least two decades, several California schools have embraced a community schools model that marries schools and community organizations to seamlessly provide a variety of supports to students and families in communities with the highest needs. But when the pandemic hit, those needs multiplied. Members of the California State Board of…

In the United States, K-12 school finance is largely controlled by the states. Every year, hundreds of billions of dollars in public funds are distributed based on 51 different configurations of formulas, rules, and regulations to over 13,000 districts that vary in terms of the students they serve, their ability to raise revenue locally, and many…

Between 1997 and 2019, 16 out of 41 performance-based funding (PBF) states discontinued their PBF policies for public colleges and universities. Adapting policy diffusion theory to PBF discontinuation, we investigate whether policy discontinuation in one state is related to discontinuations in other states, and differentiate between the two policy…

The Tennessee Education Lottery Scholarship (TELS) program was designed to meet the unique needs of the State of Tennessee, while also incorporating the hallmark elements of existing merit-based aid programs in other states. This manuscript provides a snapshot of TELS recipients and their outcomes, including narrative discussion on the current…

Arising from a research-based, comprehensive school transformation strategy, community schools organize in- and out-of-school resources and supports such as mental health services, meals, health care, tutoring, internships, and other learning and career opportunities to fit specific community needs. Through this strategy, students, families,…

This report examines state-funded loan forgiveness and conditional grant programs, designed to alleviate student loan debt and address workforce shortages in high-need fields. These service-contingent programs incentivize graduates to work in targeted occupations or underserved areas in exchange for debt relief.

Given the proliferation of college promise programs and the increasing popularity of last-dollar designs, we explore changes to states' financial aid resource environments following the adoption of two of the largest and longest-operating state programs: Tennessee Promise and Oregon Promise. We leverage descriptive tools and a causal-inference…