This Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) annual performance report for the year 2015 describes Colorado's accomplishments, lessons learned, challenges, and strategies Colorado will implement to address those challenges. Guided by the vision of the Early Childhood Colorado Framework--the vision, goals, and priorities for a unified…

This Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) annual performance report for the year 2015 describes Michigan's accomplishments, lessons learned, challenges, and strategies Michigan will implement to address those challenges. Michigan was awarded $51,737,456 for the purposes of improving early learning and development in the state over…

This Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) annual performance report for the year 2015 describes Illinois' accomplishments, lessons learned, challenges, and strategies Illinois will implement to address those challenges. Illinois' Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) grant initiatives reflect the State's three…

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…

This paper focuses on a project developed in Texas that utilizes community organizing strategies to advance childhood food security. With a dual focus on organizing policymakers and local communities, The Texas Hunger Initiative provides an example of an organizing project with the goal of ending childhood food insecurity in Texas.

The 2011 Occupy Wall Street protests brought countless media reports about unemployed college graduates struggling to repay their student loans and headlines sounding alarms that outstanding student loan debt will soon reach $1 trillion. Even though evidence is mixed on whether today's college graduates leave school with significantly more debt…

Missouri's Early Head Start/Child Care Partnership Project expands access to Early Head Start (EHS) services for children birth to age 3 by developing partnerships between federal Head Start, EHS contractors, and child care providers. Head Start and EHS contractors that participate in the initiative provide services through community child care…

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,…

Since Programs of Study (POS) were introduced in 2006, implementation has been uneven around the country. POS were one of the landmark features of the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act (Perkins Act), and have been one of the biggest areas of focus during its implementation. In 2009, the U.S. Department of Education's Office of…

At some level, principals always have been instructional leaders--but never before has their role been more prominent. First, the accountability movement--No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in particular--thrust principals into the spotlight on academic achievement. Then budget cuts peeled away capacity at both the district and school levels, thinning…

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…

Few people would disagree that children with disabilities need adequate health insurance. But what kind of health insurance coverage would be optimal for these children? Peter Szilagyi surveys the current state of insurance coverage for children with special health care needs and examines critical aspects of coverage with an eye to helping policy…

Research Findings: The purpose of the present study is to examine the degree to which assistant and lead teachers work together in Head Start classrooms in 3 domains: emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support. Pairs of lead and assistant teachers from 14 Head Start classrooms were simultaneously observed for 1 morning to…

Farmers are commonly regarded as stewards of the land. Farmers have, however, become cynical toward nature (Meister, Hest, & Burnett, 2009) and distrustful of the government (Cantrill, 2003). This study examines whether or not that cynicism and distrust is reflected in U.S. farmers' opinions of and future participation in conservation buffer…

The Good Behavior Game (GBG) has been widely supported as an effective intervention to alter a variety of target behaviors, in various settings, with varying age groups; however, there are areas warranting further investigation. Prior to the present study, no study has examined the GBG's effectiveness in decreasing disruptive behaviors while…