The purpose of this paper is to take a closer look at the states that have designed strong history standards and note what has made them exceptional so other states might do the same. They include Alabama, California, Indiana, Massachusetts, New York, and South Carolina. The report draws on interviews with individuals from each state who sat on…

Concerns about the equitable distribution of school funding within and across school districts have led to new federal data collections on school-level expenditures. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) required states to collect and report, for the first time, school-level data on both personnel and non-personnel expenditures…

"The SEA of the Future" is an education publication series examining how state education agencies can shift from a compliance to a performance-oriented organization through strategic planning and performance management tools to meet growing demands to support education reform while improving productivity. This is the fourth volume in the…

This document recommends a set of "core" practices, operations, and templates that can be adopted and adapted by state education agencies (SEAs) as they consider how to respond to requests for data about the education enterprise, including data maintained in longitudinal data systems. These recommendations reflect core practices and…

The Missouri State Board of Education and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education are dedicated to ensuring that all children have access to good schools that prepare them for college and career success. The Missouri School Improvement Program: Support and Intervention Plan takes a differentiated approach to state support based on…

This resource is part of a series of reports about challenges facing statewide science assessments and innovative solutions states are enacting to meet those challenges. Deciding to implement a system of assessments is a critical step toward ensuring that all students are getting the high-quality science education they need--but it is also…

Differentiating state services to support district and school improvement makes sense for two reasons: (1) support is most effective when targeted to the specific needs of the district or school, based on both performance data and diagnostic data about prevailing operational and professional practice; and (2) state resources of time and money are…

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, 2014, 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 Southeast Comprehensive Center (SECC) at SEDL, an affiliate of American Institutes for Research (AIR), partnered with the Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) in 2014 to assist in evaluating Alabama Plan 2020, mainly focusing on learners and the graduation rate. SECC provided professional development and analytic technical assistance…

Providing access to robust connectivity is critical to ensuring today's students are college and career ready. As such, federal, state, and district-level leaders have dedicated a significant amount of time, effort, and resources toward improving our schools' external broadband access, including both Internet access and wide area network (WAN).…

This brief describes findings on the percentage of English learner students entering school in kindergarten in seven Washington school districts who developed the English proficiency necessary to be reclassified as former English learner students and the average time to reclassification. Eighty-five percent of English learner students who entered…

Background: The Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model calls for greater collaboration across the community, school, and health sectors to meet the needs and support the full potential of each child. This article reports on how 3 states and 2 local school districts have implemented aspects of the WSCC model through collaboration,…

This report, based on surveys completed by all 50 State Education Agencies (SEAs) and the District of Columbia (DC) and nationally representative samples of districts and schools during spring 2011 and 2012, examines implementation of the key education reform strategies promoted by the Recovery Act in 2011-12, the extent to which implementation…

"Transforming Science Assessment: Systems for Innovation," is a series of resources designed to provide state education leaders with: (1) Information about how states are currently pursuing statewide assessment systems in science; (2) Analyses of what features influence different approaches, with an eye to supporting state leaders as…

In 2010, the National Dropout Prevention Center for Students with Disabilities (NDPC-SD) partnered with the West Virginia Department of Education Office of Special Programs to provide intensive technical assistance to 12 school districts to help them design and implement evidence-based programs to increase the graduation rates of students with…