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…

In 1997, the state of California labeled Markham Middle School as low-performing. Located in the Watts neighborhood of Southeastern Los Angeles, Markham is stuffed with over 1,500 students in just three grades, sixth-eighth. Roughly 70 percent of the students are Hispanic, and 30 percent are black. Eighty-two percent are poor. That year, the…

Accountability policies imply much about high school teachers' abilities and willingness to use state assessment data to improve instruction. This study asked what teacher- and school-level variables best predict how frequently teachers use state assessment data and how much instructional benefit they derive from use of data. Research has…

The efforts of states to differentiate regulatory treatment among districts and schools are examined in this paper. Data were derived from case studies of four state programs: Kentucky's Educational Deficiency Program of receivership for troubled districts; New Jersey's Plan to Intervene in Deficient School Districts; South Carolina's Flexibility…

The consequences of not graduating from high school are increasingly serious for both individuals and society as a whole. As a result, state and federal accountability systems now require reporting of more detailed graduation and dropout data. The federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) requires states to report disaggregated…

Educational Service Agencies (ESA's) are public education agencies that provide specialized programs and services to a group of school districts in a specified geographical region and to the state department of education. Most states have encouraged the development of ESA's that have either evolved out of county districts or have been created to…

Washington's recently enacted Student Learning Objectives Law demands that local districts implement a program designed to provide statewide educational accountability. The law ignores the complexity of such an implementation, providing no funding, no rewards for success, no assistance or training in developing implementation techniques, and a…

Investigates alternative measures of school district wealth, focusing on the issue of intergovernmental aid (particularly equalization aid), arguments for and against different wealth measures, jurisdictional implications of the use of alternative wealth measures in four states, and the effect of alternative wealth measures on state equalization…

This report includes information derived from a survey of 24 states on out of state placement of students with disabilities. Survey questions address: (1) whether local education agencies (LEAs) are notified by agencies outside of education when an out of state placement for purposes other than education is immanent; (2) whether LEAs are given…

This case study reports on a program that permits waivers of individual rules in order to encourage local innovation. Enacted in 1989, Washington State's Schools for the 21st Century program allows participating schools and districts to request waivers from state rules believed to impede restructuring efforts. The pilot project also supplies…

The mutual efforts of committees of the Washington Association of School Administrators (WASA), the Washington Association of School Business Officials (WASBO), and the state's Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to reduce, control, and manage the flow of paperwork to and from local school districts are reported here. In the…

In 1993, Project FORUM issued a report (Ahearn, 1993) that provided information on resources available to states and districts in accessing Medicaid reimbursements for services for students with disabilities, a relatively new source of funding at that time. It is now over 10 years since Medicaid funds were approved for use for special education…

This document presents the results of a mandated study of commercialism in the schools carried out by Washington State's Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. The study was prompted by the issues surrounding Channel One, a 12-minute televised news program designed for secondary school students that includes 2 minutes of commercials.…

IN 1965-66, AN INDEPENDENT RESEARCH AGENCY STUDIED THE EXISTING STRUCTURE OF COMMUNITY COLLEGES IN WASHINGTON AND CONCLUDED THAT (1) DEMAND FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGE EDUCATION WILL INCREASE, ESPECIALLY IN NONTRANSFER PROGRAMS, (2) THE STATE SHOULD CONTINUE AND STRENGTHEN ITS OPEN DOOR POLICY, (3) A SYSTEM OF INDEPENDENT COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICTS IS…

For five years running, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) has tracked states' teacher policies, preparing a detailed and thorough compendium of teacher policy in the United States on topics related to teacher preparation, licensure, evaluation, career advancement, tenure, compensation, pensions and dismissal. The "2011 State…