The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) represent an extraordinary opportunity for education in the U.S.: Not only do they provide for the first time a common platform for states to collaborate and to compare performance, but they also align expectations for student achievement with the demands of college and careers in the 21st century and the…

Congress's role in defining and promoting equality of educational opportunity has evolved over the past 55 years since "Brown v. Board of Education." Most recently, all three branches of the federal government have focused more on equality of educational opportunity for "individual" students rather than for protected classes.…

Concerns about rising tuition and how students can afford to finance their major investments in postsecondary education are widespread. Solid insights into these questions require accurate and up-to-date information about prices. "Trends in College Pricing, 2013" reports on the prices charged by colleges and universities in 2013-14, how…

Information Resource Management-State University System of Florida (IRM-SUS) is the primary collector and provider of data concerning state universities that is used to make sound education policy decisions. The office provides technical assistance to those using the information, state and federal reporting support, those supplying information,…

Fingertip Facts is a compendium of some of the most frequently requested data sets from the Utah State Office of Education. Data sets in this year's Fingertip Facts include: Core CRT Language Arts Testing, 2012; Core CRT Mathematics Testing, 2012; 2012 Public Education General Fund; 2011-2012 Enrollment Demographics; Public Schools by Grade Level,…

This brochure presents state statistics for the following categories; Alabama public schools, 2012-13; Alabama State Board of Education members; financial data, FY 2012; public school size and enrollment, 2012-13 school year; transportation, 2012-13; school meals, 2011-12; school personnel, 2012-13; graduation rates, 2010-11; graduation…

The Indiana General Assembly increased the state grant funds for full-day kindergarten from $8.5 million for 2006/07 to $33.5 million for 2007/08. Following the increase in funding, the Indiana Department of Education and the Indiana State Board of Education requested assistance from Regional Educational Laboratory Midwest to analyze Indiana…

This publication provides instructions for completing the State of Arizona's Consolidated State Application Accountability Workbook. The first part provides an overview of States' implementation of the critical elements required for approval of their State accountability systems. The second part presents the state's response and activities for…

Each year, the National Association of State Student Grant and Aid Programs (NASSGAP) completes a survey regarding state-funded expenditures for postsecondary student financial aid. This report, the 40th annual survey, represents data from academic year 2008-09. Data highlights of this survey include: (1) In the 2008-2009 academic year, the states…

Maryland's governor, Martin J. O'Malley, didn't get much of his legislative agenda through the General Assembly this year, but he did succeed on one front: preserving enough state aid for the public-university system to stave off a tuition increase for the fourth consecutive year. Like politicians in several states, Mr. O'Malley, a Democrat, made…

California entered 2010-11 with a longstanding imbalance between ongoing spending and income. To help close that gap, state policymakers suspended Proposition 98, the minimum funding guarantee for K-12 schools and community colleges. In total, revenues for K-12 schools are down nearly 10% this year compared with 2007-08. Yet more cuts loom as the…

Low-income children tend to be concentrated in low-income school districts, and these children often attend schools that receive far fewer resources per pupil despite their greater need. Since education is primarily a state responsibility, more than 90 percent of school funding comes from state and local sources, and the federal government…

Reforming the way a state distributes its funding to local school districts is clearly a challenging task. This paper presents the Rhode Island story on school funding reform. First, the paper begins with a short history of Rhode Island's school finance system and the key factors that called for school funding reform. Second, the paper discusses…

Expanding economic opportunity in Texas depends on our state's ability to increase the college graduation rate for the thousands of college freshmen arriving on campuses each year. The pending budget bills would hamper college access for thousands of Texans through severe cuts to successful financial aid programs, including TEXAS Grants (Towards…

In our previous essay, we considered the role of institutional financial aid and the practice of enrollment management. In that essay we explored the use of financial aid as a tool to enhance equity increase prestige, as a revenue enhancement tool and as a means to shape institutional image in the various markets that comprise our diverse system…