Every year, an average of 20% of schools replace their principals. This book will inform and enhance the process of recruiting new personnel with its insights and practical suggestions for a successful search. This book also offers current thinking and research to help school boards and policy makers retain the professional leaders they have. This…

Many of the Bureau of Indian Education's (BIE) 183 schools are located in remote tribal lands that faced extraordinary challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to experience ongoing effects. Congress appropriated about $1.5 billion to help BIE and its schools respond to the pandemic. The US Government Accountability Office (GAO)…

In the United States, most students attend a public school in a district overseen by a democratically elected school board. In political science, school boards are often portrayed as ten thousand democracies (Berkman and Plutzer, 2005). School board members are often described as "citizens-policymakers" because they "constitute a…

Over the last decade, there have been multiple recommendations for evaluating, assessing, or holding teacher preparation accountable. This article analyzes recent policy proposals regarding "best practices for evaluating teacher preparation programs" by critiquing 19 major reports explicitly focused on evaluation. The analysis revealed…

Little is known about the way that teachers cope with the formalisation of professional inquiry in New Zealand. Despite its systemic implementation as an accountability-driven initiative to improve the quality of education, there are varied interpretations and enactments of professional inquiry. In this article, we will explore one teacher's…

Career Technical Education (CTE) calls upon states to lead with an equity lens, which requires vigilance to quality expectations while also ensuring that CTE programs and interventions intentionally meet the needs of learners with the greatest need, including justice-involved learners--the human-centered term that refers to a person who has…

Over the last quarter-century, tax-credit scholarship (TCS) policies have helped hundreds of thousands of American families provide their children with the learning environment that meets their individual needs. Although less well-known than school vouchers, TCS policies are the most-used form of private school choice. Now available in 23 states,…

Education today is evolving to foster essential psychosocial skills like creativity, critical thinking, and responsibility, equipping students for 21st-century challenges. However, it is crucial to examine the motivations driving these changes and their alignment with broader societal goals beyond merely economic interests. This article explores…

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act requires a grantee receiving more than $150,000 to report to the Department of Education on a quarterly basis, which the Department considers satisfied through the more frequent, monthly reporting requirements of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (FFATA).…

Recent higher education accountability policies and proposals have often linked programs' or institutions' federal aid access to students' postcompletion earnings. But proposals differ regarding when to measure earnings. Policymakers may want to know how fast earnings typically grow and when in an individual's career earnings growth rates change.…

Engrossed House Bill 1121, signed into law during the 2021 Legislative session and codified in RCW 28A.230.320, provides the State Board of Education (SBE) the authority to establish an emergency waiver program to allow school districts and local educational agencies (LEAs) to waive certain high school graduation requirements on an individual…

Charter schools are public schools established under charters, typically with state or local entities. In return for more flexibility and autonomy, charter schools must meet specific accountability standards. This briefing from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) describes: (1) the challenges charter schools face when attempting to…

Outstanding federal student loan debt exceeds $1.6 trillion and is owed by approximately 45 million borrowers. Thus, a policy to broadly cancel federal student loan debt would directly apply to a discrete segment of the U.S. population. Cancelling some amount of federal student loan debt would alleviate loan repayment burdens for qualifying…

This statutory report presents the activities and accomplishments of the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Inspector General (OIG) from April 1, 2024, through September 30, 2024. The audits, investigations, and related work highlighted in the report are products of OIG's mission to identify and stop fraud, waste, and abuse; and promote…

Quality non-degree credentials can lead to good jobs and family-sustaining wages. But not all non-degree credentials lead to good outcomes -- and when they don't, they entrench economic inequalities that impact people of color and women. National Skills Coalition's new report "The Non-Degree Credential Quality Imperative" encourages…