In 1906, the Carnegie unit, or credit hour, was introduced to standardize U.S. public education. It defined the precise number of minutes students needed to learn a particular subject and the number of credit hours required to earn a high school or college degree. At the dawn of the 20th century, the Carnegie unit served the important purpose of…

Career and technical education (CTE), sometimes referred to as vocational education, provides occupational and non-occupational preparation at the secondary and postsecondary levels. CTE is a key element of the nation's workforce development system, providing students of all ages with both academic and technical skills to succeed in further…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) has replaced No Child Left Behind (NCLB), and many changes were made to offer more flexibility for English language learners (ELLs). Historically, teachers have not been well informed of the changes made to the specific requirements of educational policy despite being at the frontline to implement these…

States and districts allocate hundreds of billions of dollars annually to fund K-12 schools, and this allocation is largely driven by one calculation: how states count student enrollment. They do this in one of five ways: (1) A single count on a single day; (2) Two counts twice per year; (3) Multiple counts over a period of time; (4) An attendance…

During the Spring 2020 semester, K-12 teachers throughout many parts of the world adapted from face-to-face to online teaching. To better understand these experiences, seven advanced placement (AP) Statistics high school teachers were interviewed following a semi-structured protocol. A collaborative and consensus-driven analysis of transcripts…

During the Spring 2020 semester, K-12 teachers throughout many parts of the world adapted from face-to-face to online teaching. To better understand these experiences, seven advanced placement (AP) Statistics high school teachers were interviewed following a semi-structured protocol. A collaborative and consensus-driven analysis of transcripts…

Despite Indiana's school choice landscape -- including private school vouchers, tax-credit scholarships, inter-district and intra-district enrollment, magnet schools, and charter schools -- not all Indiana communities have reasonable access to options outside of their traditional public schools. This research explores what lack-of-reasonable…

Indiana's Schooling Deserts uses Geographic Information System (GIS) software to generate drive-time distances to different schooling types to examine the state's robust K-12 choice environment, under which more than 100,000 families are choosing a school for their children other than one that has been residentially assigned. The maps produced for…

Community. Collaboration. Co-creation. These are the three principles that the Community Engagement Coalition (CEC) has applied for more than ten years to tackle myriad community-wide challenges. A partnership of several coalitions in the southeast Indiana region, the CEC understands that increased rates of postsecondary completion benefit not…

Recently adopted state standards for middle grades and high school mathematics content have an increased emphasis on statistical topics. With this change, teacher education programs may need to adapt how they prepare preservice secondary mathematics teachers (PSMTs) to teach statistics and require measures related to statistics teaching to assess…

Career Technical Education (CTE) teacher recruitment is a challenge that has dogged state CTE leaders for decades. According to a recent survey of State CTE Directors, 98 percent said that increasing access to industry experts is a high priority in their state. And 20.4 percent of rural districts with CTE teacher vacancies report that CTE…

As school choice expands in different states and districts, it appears in several different forms: (1) open enrollment policies among traditional public schools; (2) charter schools available to students regardless of their neighborhood (including online charter schools); or (3) school vouchers that families can use to enroll in other districts or…

Since 2012, community colleges have made a considerable effort to increase student success and completion. Today, as much greater attention is being paid to drawing stronger linkages between education and workforce needs, institutions are becoming more strategic and deliberate in this work. In particular, many institutions are building stronger…

This paper argues for a radical restructuring of education for grades 11-14--by erasing the arbitrary dividing line between high school and college--to open opportunities for the learners the current systems leave behind. The authors make the case for an entirely new type of institution--neither high school nor college--designed specifically to…

The Career and Technical Education (CTE) playbook series has explored strategies and processes states can use to strengthen CTE program quality and provide students with pathways to postsecondary credentialing and middle- and higher wage career opportunities. In the first three CTE Playbooks, ExcelinEd provided a high-level view of how states can…