The Tennessee Department of Education releases this report annually to highlight the progress of Tennessee's public charter schools during the previous academic year. This year's report provides information relative to the operation and viability of public charter schools for the 2023-24 school year. In compliance with state statute, the report…

The passage of ESSA in 2015 created a novel mandate for States to develop school accountability systems that use alternative measures of school quality beyond test scores. This created an opportunity for States to be innovative and make new forms of data available that could potentially lead to new strategies for improving schools. This study…

In this study we investigated the internal factor structure of a large-scale K--12 assessment of English language proficiency (ELP) using samples of fourth- and eighth-grade English learners (ELs) in one state. While U.S. schools are mandated to measure students' ELP in four language domains (listening, reading, speaking, and writing), some ELP…

Despite a century of research searching for what works in teaching and learning, a project that has benefited from political support in the form of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965, any individual child's experience of learning in school is marked by inequalities based on socioeconomic status, race, immigrant status, and…

The results of recent cases indicate that residences and dormitories owned by higher education institutions should be considered "dwellings," and thus subject to the Fair Housing Act. The Fair Housing Act (1968) as amended requires that the providers of dwellings accommodate assistance animals, which includes not only service animals,…

In this chapter, we unpack "intersectionality as an analytical framework." First, we cite Black Lives Matter as an impetus for discussing intersectionality's current traction. Second, we review the genealogy of "intersectionality" beginning with Kimberlé Crenshaw's formulation, which brought a Black Studies provocation into…

The Transition Planning Inventory-Second Edition (TPI-2) is an instrument to help plan the postsecondary transition of students who are benefiting from special education (SPED) services. It aims to identify the strengths, needs, and interests of students with disabilities. It is also a tool to support school systems to comply with the U.S. federal…

College and Career Readiness (CCR) is broadly defined as the ability of an individual to be successful in postsecondary education and employment. Although the definition of CCR continues to develop within policy and research, scholars suggest that both academic and nonacademic skills are crucial components. Recently a CCR framework for students…

This First Look report introduces new data for national and state-level public elementary and secondary revenues and expenditures for fiscal year (FY) 2015. Specifically, this report includes the following school finance data: (1) revenue and expenditure totals; (2) revenues by source; (3) expenditures by function and object; (4) current…

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) submits this report to the House of Representatives' Committee on Education and the Workforce and the Senate's Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions pursuant to section 649(l)(1) through (3) of the Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act (Act), Public Law 110-134. This report…

This paper discusses practical implications of formative assessment effectiveness research in grades one through six. Formative assessment effectiveness is a timely topic for state and district leaders as they develop implementation plans for Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), including their approaches to supporting school-based practitioners…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires states to outline their academic and English language proficiency goals and provide a detailed proposal for the statewide accountability system in a state ESSA plan. This brief, a collaboration between Achieve and UnidosUS, provides a two-part analysis of states' goals for English learners (ELs) in…

The Race to the Top (RTTT) federal grant program was an initiative that targeted improving Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education. However, the evaluation of the program reported only student outcomes for mathematics and reading/language arts. The purpose of this study was to estimate the effects of RTTT program on…

To obtain a better understanding of country-specific policies, a country-specific literature review was undertaken. The search entailed key-terms focusing on relevance and the three higher education relevance dimensions. The main outcomes of the country-specific literature review are discussed in this chapter. We do so by analysing the typically…

Under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, states created statewide systems of support, in collaboration with existing agencies, to deliver targeted assistance to districts and schools identified as in need of support. With limited personnel and resources, state education agencies partnered with outside agents to address the needs of a growing…