This policy statement presents a vision for a "new deal" to guide reauthorization of the Elementary & Secondary Education Act (ESEA). First, states must continue to lead the way with bold, thoughtful education reforms to ensure that all students graduate from high school ready for college and career. This includes developing and…

This edition of the eBulletin highlights the issues of raising standards, ensuring access to rigorous curricula and assessments, and ensuring that every child is both work and college ready upon graduation. With the increased emphasis placed on these issues in recent years through the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) and the American…

This "Third Annual Report Card" looks at improvements in the cradle-to-career educational pipeline, the areas where Boston has made modest progress but still has a great deal of work to do, and the places where observers have failed to see the gains that are needed to ensure that Boston is a city of opportunity for all. This report card…

High school career academies are a time-tested model for improving academic outcomes and preparing students for both college and careers. Career academies (1) are smaller learning communities taught by a team of interdisciplinary teachers, (2) provide a rigorous academic curriculum based on a career theme that demonstrates how knowledge is used…

On February 17, 2009, President Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), historic legislation designed to stimulate the economy, support job creation, and invest in critical sectors, including education. The ARRA lays the foundation for education reform by supporting investments in innovative strategies that…

Secondary vocational-technical education programs in Mississippi are faced with many challenges resulting from sweeping educational reforms at the national and state levels. Schools and teachers are increasingly being held accountable for providing true learning activities to every student in the classroom. This accountability is measured through…

Concern about rigor is not new. Since the release of "A Nation At Risk" (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983) the debate about the quality of America's schools has grown exponentially. This debate calls for dramatically different schools, schools that are much more responsive to student need, and provide a rigorous…

Pressing Forward: Increasing and Expanding Rigor and Relevance in America's High Schools is organized to place secondary education, specifically the goals of preparing young adults to be college and career ready, in contemporary perspective, emphasizing the changing global economy and trends in policy and practice. High school students must be…

Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, or GEAR UP, is a federally-funded system of grants that focuses on preparing low-income students to enter and succeed in postsecondary educational programs. GEAR UP grants extend across 6 school years and require that funded districts begin providing grant services to students no…

This report provides the Nebraska Legislature with comparative statistics to monitor and evaluate progress toward achieving "three key priorities" for Nebraska's postsecondary education system: (1) Increase the number of students who enter postsecondary education in Nebraska; (2) Increase the percentage of students who enroll and…

Despite skyrocketing growth in its English Language Learner (ELL) population, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) has been remarkably effective in improving outcomes for ELL students across the district. Achievement has increased, and gaps between ELL students and their native English-speaking peers have decreased. This success is intentional.…

In El Paso, Texas, the public institutions of higher education have joined with area school districts to create the El Paso College Readiness Initiative. Through a great deal of coordination and cooperation among the participating institutions, high school faculty, students, and parents are introduced to the placement test used by the city's…

This is the fourth report in a series of five reports resulting from the Texas College and Career Readiness Initiative (TCCRI) established by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) under contract with the Educational Policy Improvement Center (EPIC). The purpose of the TCCRI is the Facilitation of the Development and Implementation…

Achieve has put together a set of materials--"Taking Root: Strategies for Sustaining the College- and Career-Ready Agenda"--that seeks to help states develop and implement strategies to support the sustainability of the college- and career-ready agenda. This sustainability audit was created for states to use to evaluate their own…

Since the year 2000, Saudi universities have cancelled all admission tests and have adopted an open admission policy that depends on high school GPA only. Many high school graduates in Saudi Arabia, especially females, show a great interest in joining colleges of languages and translation and admission to those colleges has been highly…