A significant body of research has shown that teacher effectiveness influences student outcomes and that teacher efficacy is one of the most salient factors influencing student achievement. However, teacher preparation and professional learning often minimally addresses the cultural considerations and research-based strategies for working with…

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as reauthorized in 2015, includes a provision to help protect students from sexual abuse and misconduct. ESEA Section 8546 requires states to adopt laws or policies that prohibit K-12 employers from assisting or aiding and abetting school employees, contractors, or agents in obtaining a…

This research examines the gap between federal and state legal standards and policies related to educational provision for school-age youth detained in the United States, and secondary evidence documenting the educational services that are provided to unaccompanied im/migrant children in federal custody. The educational provision for unaccompanied…

Purpose: Schools across the predominately rural state of West Virginia are experiencing widespread teacher shortages, though recruitment and retention difficulties are unevenly distributed across place. Using spatial in/justice as our framework, we explore how principals define place, how place influences principal perceptions of teacher…

"Prioritizing an Integrated Approach to Educator Shortages and Workforce Diversity, Part 1: An Effective Workforce Is a Diverse Workforce" makes the case for integrating policies, programs, and practices that address teacher shortages and those that aim to diversify the teacher workforce. Three critical realities illustrate the ways in…

In the years since the 2015 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) placed a 1.0% cap for states on participation in the alternate assessment based on alternate academic achievement standards (AA-AAAS), states have worked hard to navigate the new restrictions on participation in…

Beginning in the fall of 2017, Maryland severely restricted the use of out-of-school suspensions in grades PK-2. The policy presented a valuable opportunity to examine the effects of state-level discipline policies. This study researched the effects of the suspension ban on student discipline outcomes (e.g., number and frequency of different…

This study presents a critical policy analysis of California's Assembly Bill 329 (AB 329) regarding inclusive sex education, coupled with a series of coding phases of relevant data. AB 329, enacted in 2015, mandates comprehensive sexual health education in California schools, aiming to address the needs of diverse student populations, including…

In 2024, state legislators introduced hundreds of bills that would affect data collection, access, and use across early education, K-12, postsecondary, and the workforce. As in 2023, legislators continued to introduce and enact legislation governing cross-agency data systems. These policies are the most important step toward making statewide…

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Child Care, requires states to use information about the provider cost of child care to inform the setting of payment rates under the Child Care Development Fund (CCDF) program. This requirement is consistent with the growing recognition that…

Undocumented children have a right to a public k-12 education in the United States, however there is no standard approach to higher education. About half of states allow undocumented immigrants to attend public colleges and universities at in-state rates of tuition (ISRT) and a subset of these also allow them access to state financial aid. This…

The diversity of California's teaching force continues to lag behind its student population. While students of Color make up 78% of the state's K-12 population, Teachers of Color and Indigenous Teachers (TOCIT) comprise just 34% of the teaching workforce (California Department of Education, 2018), a statistic that has dominated the teacher…

Since 2016, the biennial "Early Childhood Workforce Index" has tracked the status of Early childhood educators (ECE) workforce policies in order to identify promising practices for improving early educator jobs and changes over time. This fourth edition includes new analyses as well as updated policy recommendations. Highlights include:…

This chapter discusses an innovative state public policy which has incentivized Iowa's community colleges to become the economic drivers of their region. Created in the 1983 legislation, it continues to this day to affect Iowa's rural communities and their colleges.

This exploratory study uses data from 413 principals to examine whether and how competency-based education has been implemented in the Northeast states and the extent to which there is variation in implementation between states with different policies. Results suggest that competency-based practices that are most similar to current practices are…