Summer school programs have been a part of national, state, and local education systems' instructional programming for decades. These programs exist in varying forms and rarely have a prescribed way in which they should be implemented. There is little to no research about teacher and administrator perceptions about these summer programs. The…

The "IDRA Newsletter" serves as a vehicle for communication with educators, school board members, decision-makers, parents, and the general public concerning the educational needs of all children across the United States. The focus of this issue is "Students Are Speaking." Contents include: (1) Books Are for Learning, Not…

California's child early care and education (ECE) system is underfunded, and California policymakers have not been willing to acknowledge the true cost of creating a comprehensive ECE system. Proposals for ECE reform have focused primarily on improving access and affordability for families but have ignored the elephant in the room: Early care and…

A recent survey of 41 different state boards of education revealed that officials from 28 states indicate that they are experiencing teacher shortages. The shortages in some states are significant. While the teacher shortage in many states is tied to different factors, one frequently cited reason for leaving the teaching profession is low pay.…

In October 2019, the Public School Forum of North Carolina launched Study Group XVII: Supporting North Carolina's Rural Students. Building on the Forum's long history of exploring the most pressing issues impacting North Carolina's public schools, the seventeenth Study Group convened thought leaders from education, academia, policy, and business…

Purpose: 2020 is the concluding year of the basic preschool education popularization policy in China and marks the beginning of "China's Education Modernization 2035." This study focuses on the top-level design and the prospect of the development plan of China's preschool education toward 2035. Design/Approach/Methods: The research…

Teacher attrition has been a problem for school systems for more than 30 years. Large numbers of new teachers leave the profession within their first 5 years of service, creating a significant cost associated with hiring and training of replacement teachers. Attrition is problematic for a middle school in the state of Georgia. New teachers at the…

This report for Austria forms part of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Review of Policies to Improve the Effectiveness of Resource Use in Schools. The purpose of the review is to explore how school resources can be governed, distributed, utilised and managed to improve the quality, equity and efficiency of school…

In spring 2020, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic led to an unprecedented and sweeping shift in the landscape of public schooling in the United States. Beginning in March, schools across the country closed their doors and adopted remote learning supports that varied in degree and type. In May 2020, researchers from the RAND…

Kim Farris-Berg, Edward J. Dirkswager and Amy Junge originally identified ten potential areas in which teachers could secure collective autonomy when conducting research for "Trusting Teachers with School Success: What Happens When Teachers Call the Shots." That list was developed from research about school decentralization and autonomy…

In today's Turkey, the problems faced in the provincial regions have several causes and dimensions. At first glance we can count a set of them: insufficiency of the resources allocated to education and the inability to use the education budget effectively with proper planning; frequent central restructuring of the education system without taking…

In spring 2011, public higher education is under attack as never before. Public institutions have been targeted for drastic cuts in the past, but now the attacks are aimed at the very core of the educational enterprise and at the basic rights of college faculty and staff. This, in turn, has the potential of placing at risk the practices and…

Each edition of the IDRA Newsletter strives to provide many different perspectives on the issues in education topics discussed and to define its significance in the state and national dialogue. This issue focuses on Fair Funding and includes: (1) Fair Funding of Texas Schools is Even More Critical in Tough Economic Times (Albert Cortez); (2)…

This article explores the use of scoring rubrics in the context of deteriorating material conditions of writing instruction. The author hopes to offer a consideration of rubrics that enables a revision of rubric designs, in order to facilitate teacher response to student writing, and that offers suggestions for uses of rubrics that account for…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) Two Roads Diverged in a Hearing Room: Congressional Hearing on the Federal Education Budget Previews Two Possible…