The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the U.S. education system in both immediate and long-term ways, calling into question how K-12 accountability will function in the 2020-21 school year and well into the future. States face considerable uncertainty about how to meet federal and state accountability requirements for this school year and beyond. It…

With the passage of the 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), states were required to add a fifth indicator on "School Quality or Student Success" (SQSS) to their school accountability systems. An analysis of submitted ESSA state plans found that 13 states included measures of school climate as their SQSS indicator or incorporated…

English learners (ELs) represent a growing share of the student population in the United States, yet are often sidelined in federal education policy discussions. At present, an uneven approach has yielded sharp differences in ELs' educational experiences, with some states prioritizing bilingual education models and others emphasizing…

As full-time virtual learning moved from the fringe to the mainstream in mid-March 2020, onlookers expressed concerns about access for learners and accountability for the learning itself. Concerns have not applied only to full-time virtual schools, however. Alternative schools that serve students who have dropped out or transferred from…

The Inspector General Act of 1978 (Public Law 95-452), as amended, requires that the Inspector General report semiannually to the Congress on the activities of the Office of Inspector General (OIG) during the 6-month periods ending March 31 and September 30. This Semiannual Report presents the activities and accomplishments of the U.S. Department…

High school administrators in the Carter School District (CSD) are aware of the negative impact exclusionary discipline has on students, but they exclude students anyway. This study used qualitative methods to answer the following research questions: How do high school administrators in CSD describe and explain their discipline decision-making?…

The author writes this letter to provide an update on assessment, accountability, and reporting requirements for the 2020-2021 school year. President Biden's first priority is to safely re-open schools and get students back in classrooms, learning face-to-face from teachers with their fellow students. To be successful once schools have re-opened,…

American early childhood education is in the midst of drastic change. In recent years, states have begun the process of overhauling early childhood education systems in response to federal grant competitions, bringing an increased focus on assessment and accountability for early learning programs. The assessment of young children is fraught with…

Sense-making is a process of engaging with complex and dynamic environments that provides organisations and their leaders with a flexible and agile model of the world. The seven key properties of sense-making describe a process that is social and that respects the range of different stakeholders in an organisation. It also addresses the need to…

Conflict of interest is heavily intertwined with research. The purpose of this study was to examine the literature and regulations in order to describe efforts required to properly monitor and disclose conflict of interest as researchers become steadily involved in innovation and discovery. The public assumes that when a conflict is disclosed, it…

Over the last quarter century, California youth affiliated with community-based organizations have participated in a variety of local and state campaigns to influence educational policy and practice. But, until recently, youth have had limited say in school budgets. Dramatic changes to this historic trend have emerged in the last few years. In…

This memorandum presents results from a scan of states' accountability and accreditation systems, focusing on measures of student achievement and outcomes that are associated with school improvement. Particular attention was given to indicators that can lead to increased student achievement and school quality other than state assessments. The data…

As the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is implemented, states are evaluating their accountability systems to gauge these systems' alignment with ESSA stipulations. The implementation of ESSA provides states with opportunities to change the compositions of their accountability systems and to select indicators that are aligned with their visions…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to create a predictive model to account for the variance in student performance based upon school district categorical expenditures. The study analyzed seven independent variables, which accounted for 16.1% of the variance in student performance of Missouri schools. The study indicated total instructional…

With the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015, California must integrate additional measures of student and school performance into the state-wide accountability system. To support the conversation as policymakers consider if/how to include chronic absenteeism data in the state's accountability system, PACE has conducted an…