Funding from the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) grant has allowed Massachusetts an unprecedented opportunity to accelerate early childhood education so that the states' children have access to high quality early education that will put them on an early path to school success and productive citizenship. The Massachusetts…

In January 2010, the General Assembly passed the Complete College Tennessee Act (CCTA), a comprehensive reform agenda that seeks to transform public higher education through changes in academic, fiscal and administrative policies at the state and institutional levels. While the higher education landscape has been shaped by the CCTA, higher…

The tragic series of events that took place on September 11, 2001, changed the course of this nation and became the catalyst for wars that have spanned for more than a decade. As a result, over 2 million veterans have been deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), and Operation New Dawn. In 2008,…

This study, released in July 2012, is the thirteenth in a series of studies by the Amerian Association of School Administrators (AASA) looking at the impact of the economic recession on the nation's schools. Unlike earlier surveys in the series, though, this survey focused on one particular aspect of the recession: sequestration. This fiscal…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) Education Appropriations: U.S. Department of Education Would Receive Slight Funding Increase Under Senate Committee…

In this article, the author talks about the Race to the Top-District (RttT-D) grant competition. People need to pay attention to RttT-D because the priorities expressed in its requirements are very likely to be harbingers for other competition requirements. If one thinks he/she might apply for any type of competitive federal funding in the future,…

Human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research has sparked incredible scientific and public excitement, as well as significant controversy. hESCs are pluripotent, which means, in theory, that they can be differentiated into any type of cell found in the human body. Thus, they evoke great enthusiasm about potential clinical applications. They are…

The latest batch of states seeking relief under the No Child Left Behind Act dodge pitfalls that tripped up the first round of applicants. In the latest round of applications for waivers under the No Child Left Behind Act, states have learned lessons from their predecessors and dodged pitfalls that triggered some big revisions from first-round…

This past year has been unlike any in recent history. In March, the global COVID-19 pandemic forced Illinois to shift suddenly to remote learning for all students. This adjustment exposed the digital divide as a stark reality. One bright spot in the year occurred in May, when the Illinois' plan for career and technical education (CTE) received…

As the Biden-Harris administration seeks to hasten the country's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, reforming the U.S. higher education system to ensure equitable access and attainment for all adults is more important than ever. Most student parents are mothers, students of color, adult and working learners, students with low incomes, and…

The Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) provides grants to support performance-based compensation systems for teachers and principals in high-need schools. The study measures the impact of pay-for-performance bonuses as part of a comprehensive compensation system within a large, multisite random assignment study design. The treatment schools were to…

An important recent development in evidence-based policy is the federal government's use of a "tiered evidence" approach to allocating funding in grant programs such as the U.S. Department of Education's Investing in Innovation Fund (i3). A central feature of this approach is that the largest grants are awarded to fund large-scale…

Early Head Start (EHS) is a federally-funded, community-based program that provides comprehensive child and family development services to low-income pregnant women and families with children under the age of 3. The mission of EHS is to support healthy prenatal outcomes and enhance the intellectual, social, and emotional development of infants and…

The web tables in this report provide original and revised estimates of statistics previously published in 2007-08 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:08): Student Financial Aid Estimates for 2007-08 (NCES 2009-166). The revised estimates were generated using revised weights that were updated in August 2013. NPSAS:08 data were…

For more than 25 years, the Public School Forum of North Carolina has isolated local spending from state and federal spending to examine the capacity and actual effort of counties to support public schools. The annual Local School Finance Study examines not only on the amount that counties spend on schools, but also each county's investment in the…