In 2010, the Massachusetts Legislature lifted the cap on the number of charter schools that the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) can authorize in low-performing school districts. The "smart cap" requires the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to rank district performance (based on student outcomes)…

Online teaching and learning and the need for qualified online teachers are on the rise across the United States. Currently, the majority of teacher preparation programs do not formally prepare teacher candidates to teach online. The purpose of this study was to gain insight into the ways teacher preparation programs are responding to the…

Depending on their experience, local special education directors may be familiar with the complaint procedures (CP) avenue that the IDEA requires each state education agency (SEA) to provide. Yet most special education professors and many parents of students with disabilities have negligible knowledge about this avenue of decisional dispute…

Despite recommendations to extend prevention and early intervention related to behavioral health into school settings, limited research has been directed toward understanding how these recommendations have been translated by states into education policies and initiatives. This macro-level information is important toward understanding the…

Engagement in Phase 2 focused on refining the Phase 1 foundational elements such as the mission, vision, values, priorities and enablers, as well as identifying emerging goals and metrics. In addition to the engagement methods outlined in first phase, this phase involved discussions centered around data focused on specific regions in Maryland…

Representing a sequel to a similar case law snapshot in mid-2010, this article provides an updated overview of the judicial and administrative case law concerning students with traumatic and nontraumatic brain injury in the P-12 school context. The scope is limited to cases under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the pair of…

In 2000, the Government of Manitoba initiated an inter-sectoral policy strategy referred to as Healthy Child Manitoba. This article reports on a research project that studied the success and challenges of this horizontal policy strategy. The research suggests that while this policy approach--which places education within the broader context of a…

No vision of personalized learning can be realized without support for data use. State strategies to create student-centered classrooms require critical policy conditions that allow those closest to students to access and use timely, safeguarded data to make decisions. This case study outlines steps SEAs can take to ensure the effective use of…

The Multistate Longitudinal Data Exchange (MLDE) facilitates data sharing between states from K-12 education, higher education, and labor agencies. Its goal is to provide practitioners, policymakers, and researchers with a comprehensive data source to understand educational and career trajectories, including how these trajectories can cross state…

Charter school authorizers (authorizers) that are committed to fostering high-quality charter school options for all students have an imperative to understand the nature of school distress and failure. Authorizers and other stakeholders need to be able to identify and understand schools experiencing distress, long before a state accountability…

New academic demands and challenges in schools require increased capacity to support instructional improvement. Capacity comes in many forms: technical, organizational, and political. In addition, there are different sources of capacity, such as the state government and networks. This report examines: (1) What sources of capacity to support…

In keeping with the provisions of Tennessee Code Annotated 49-1-201(12), this Annual Statistical and Financial Report for the scholastic year ending June 30, 2018, provides a numerical record of information describing the condition of education in the state of Tennessee. The report provides the following information: (1) Public School Officers;…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) has ushered in a new era of flexibility for state policies and practices related to low-performing schools. Will the states make changes? What aspects of change will need additional support? This descriptive, mixed methods study uses survey data from turnaround leaders in all 50 states and an extant document…

In keeping with the provisions of Tennessee Code Annotated 49-1-201(12), this Annual Statistical and Financial Report for the scholastic year ending June 30, 2017, provides a numerical record of information describing the condition of education in the state of Tennessee. The report provides the following information: (1) Public School Officers;…

Professional development providers can shape how teachers understand and implement new policies. Yet little research explores how providers develop the ideas teacher encounter. We explore this by examining social capital among mathematics PD providers in a region. Using social network and interview data, we identify providers in brokerage…