In 2019, the Washington Student Achievement Council adopted a Strategic Framework to better understand how state higher education policy contributes to campus and student success. The framework organizes the policy work into four areas deemed essential to achieve the 70 percent goal: (1) Affordability; (2) Enrollment; (3) Completion; and (4)…

The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) is the Department of Defense component charged with providing high-quality education for military-connected students domestically and overseas. DoDEA operates 160 schools in eight districts in 11 foreign countries, seven states, and two territories and enrolls more than 66,000 students,…

Most public K-12 schools in the United States enact a school improvement plan each year based upon the state testing results from the previous year. Despite the many frameworks, research, and recommendations, few scholars tackled what the plans contain and the results. Using a sequential explanatory mixed methods model, two stages examined school…

The Maryland State Board of Education and Maryland State Department of Education are developing a multiyear Strategic Plan that will be released in three phases leading up to June 2023. The Strategic Plan will anchor the vision, mission, values, priorities, enablers, goals, and flagship programs, initiatives, and strategies to realize the…

Each year, school systems and lead agencies plan for how to improve student learning in the coming year. This process involves reviewing student achievement and progress data, establishing priorities, aligning budgets to these priorities, and using all available funding sources. Ensuring children receive the supports they deserve will require…

The U.S. Department of Education (Department) Office of Inspector General (OIG) annual plan identifies the audits, inspections, and other activities that the OIG intends to undertake to assist the Department in fulfilling its responsibilities to America's citizens and students. The FY 2023 Annual Plan details the assignment areas and resources…

The modest impact of national policy efforts on school digitalisation relates to a gap between views among policy-makers and practitioners, giving rise to complexity in translating policy into action. Acknowledging changes in governing through alternative policy formation-processes, and Ward and Parr's (2011) arguing for the importance of…

In 2023, the U.S. Department of Education announced the "Raise the Bar: Lead the World" initiative to use decades of research and professional experience to transform public education and advance education equity. There are three focus areas: (1) Achieve Academic Excellence; (2) Boldly Improve Learning Conditions; and (3) Create Pathways…

Safe, secure, resilient, and accessible education system infrastructure, both physical and digital, is an essential factor for success. Yet, the digital infrastructure in the nation's K-12 schools is increasingly under threat from malicious cyber actors. This fact sheet: (1) describes the most common types of cyber threats currently facing school…

In "Democracy and Reform in Public Schools," Saul Rubinstein, Charles Heckscher, and John McCarthy apply their expertise in labor relations to public school reform. They envision a model of K-12 education that shifts away from the tenets of neoliberalism and centers on productive collaboration among school boards, school administrators,…

The potent combination of a global pandemic, crises involving human and civil rights, economic shortfalls, and public policy challenges has import for the field of physical education. The time has arrived for physical education professionals to engage in planning for a more desirable future. One aim of this paper is to provide a theoretical…

With more students returning to in-person instruction, school systems can begin to shift their focus from surviving the crisis to helping students recover. Above all else, that means accelerating students back to grade level--not by rushing through the curriculum, but by using proven strategies that help students engage with the most critical work…

Large-scale learning assessments can be used to generate performance and contextual data on student learning outcomes. They can be national, regional, or international; school based or household based. The UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP-UNESCO) has conducted a qualitative study to explore both how and why learning…

The ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic on society affected several facets including formal education. Significantly, the indefinite closure of schools was introduced to control the spread and related fatality of the pandemic making the decision to reopen schools for all learners in January 2021 after several months of closure a preparedness concern.…

Resources for school improvement efforts, such as school improvement plan (SIP) templates, can espouse governmental entities' perspectives on and requirements and recommendations for the school improvement planning process. These resources, in turn, can influence how educators enact school improvement efforts generally and the school improvement…