Local authority music services have held a central place in the UK's music education landscape since the end of the Second World War. Nonetheless, the provision of these services has always been a non-statutory responsibility, and local levels of opportunity have varied in response to prevailing economic and political climates, along with broader…

Consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables helps to reduce childhood obesity and improves academic achievement and attendance. However, providing fresh fruits and vegetables is challenging for some schools due to cost, administrative burden, and concern for food waste. To address these challenges, the Fruit and Vegetable Access for Children Act…

Across all 50 states, there are different ways in which states allocate K-12 funding to districts. This document provides information for each state on: at-risk funding for low-income students and funding mechanism, at-risk identifier, at-risk citation, gifted and talented funding and funding mechanism, gifted and talented citation, small size or…

In the spring of 2015, the National Charter School Resource Center (NCSRC), the Colorado League of Charter Schools (the League), the Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools (OAPCS), and the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (the Alliance) collaborated to collect data and information about charter school facilities and facilities…

This report responds to the legislative requirement of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (Public Law 110-234) to assess the effectiveness of State and local efforts to directly certify children for free school meals under the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). Direct certification is a process conducted by the States and by local…

This report responds to the requirement of Public Law 110-246 to assess the effectiveness of State and local efforts to directly certify children for free school meals. Direct certification is a process conducted by the States and by local educational agencies (LEAs) to certify eligible children for free meals without the need for household…

Background: We assessed the associations of 5 school and 7 neighborhood variables with fifth-grade students achieving Healthy Fitness Zone (HFZ) or Needs Improvement-Health Risk (NI-HR) on aerobic capacity (AC) and body composition (BC) physical fitness components of the state-mandated FITNESSGRAM® physical fitness test. Methods: Data for outcome…

Drawing on a recent doctoral research project that examined the everyday life perspectives during kindergarten mealtime, this paper discusses the methodological issues related to the concepts of child and adult perspectives during mealtime, and to the children's participation in research. Through the paper, we take part in a critical discussion of…

Purpose/Objectives: The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) new school meals regulations went into effect in July 2012. The purpose of this research was to explore school nutrition director's (SNDs) perspectives and attitudes about the new regulations and to identify strategies used to prepare for and subsequently implement the regulations.…

Official poverty statistics have been criticized, however, for being based on an outdated measure of poverty (Blank, 2008; Citro and Michael, 1995). First put into use in the 1960s, the official poverty measure's (OPM) concept of needs has been updated for inflation but still reflects the living standards, family budgets, and family structures of…

The Education Trust-West partnered with Global Strategy Group to conduct a poll that tested a long list of potential concerns among parents amidst the coronavirus pandemic and found academic concerns rose to the top. Key findings in this infographic include: (1) In the immediate aftermath of school closures, California parents give positive…

Public spending on children is an investment in the nation's future, as it aims to support their healthy development and human potential. To inform policymakers, children's advocates, and the general public about how public funds are spent on children, this 14th edition of the annual "Kids' Share" report provides an updated analysis of…

Regional Educational Laboratory Southwest partnered with the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) to examine Arkansas's middle and high school indicators of postsecondary readiness and success, building on an earlier study of these indicators (Hester et al., 2021). Academic indicators include attaining proficiency on state achievement tests,…

The purpose of this study is to explore curricular and young people's orientations to, and representations of, the areas in which they live contrasted against curricular representations of place in Wales. This is accomplished through a mixed methods approach incorporating statistical and content analysis. Responses were coded with a positive,…

Moving from middle to high school can bring challenges for adolescents in the United States, with self-reports indicating areas that might need attention. Christian ninth grade students gave structured interviews about their perceptions of the transition. Issues like a change in the type (e.g., private to public) or size of school were discussed.…