A wide variety of legislation impacts the jobs of special education teachers in the United States. In 2002, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was signed into law, mandating that states develop standards and report outcomes for all students in the key areas of math and reading. In 2004, the reauthorized Individuals with Disabilities Education…

The First Amendment Schools project holds rich lessons in how to change school cultures into "laboratories of democracy"--as well as in how to increase the odds of success for any school reform effort. School reform programs of any sort need to make sure to build in sustainability, to provide ways to spread their lessons beyond the…

This is the second of two articles reporting the results of a study by the author regarding the status of elementary music education in the state of Utah. This article focuses on the qualifications of Utah's elementary music teachers (music certified, elementary classroom certified, artists-in-residence, volunteers, and paraprofessionals) and the…

The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) is working to respond to increased interest in the use of growth models for school accountability. Growth models are based on tracking change in individual student achievement scores over multiple years. While growth models have been used for decades in academic research and program evaluation, a…

In today's economy, employers increasingly demand that workers have a high school diploma, yet America's graduation rates are unacceptably low, particularly among poor and minority students. Nationally, only about 70 percent of students graduate from high school on time with a regular diploma; for African American and Hispanic students, this…

Graduation rates are a fundamental indicator of whether or not the nation's public school system is doing what it is intended to do: enroll, engage, and educate youth to be productive members of society. Since almost 90 percent of the fastest-growing and highest-paying jobs require some postsecondary education, having a high school diploma and the…

This paper profiles the student subgroup achievement and gap trends in Utah for 2010. Utah implemented new standards and cut scores in math so trend data that include 2009 are not available. In grade 8 (the only grade in which subgroup trends were analyzed by achievement level), Utah showed across-the-board gains in reading at the basic,…

Since the inception of Standards for Technological Literacy (STL) in 2000 by the International Technology Education Association (ITEA), a number of changes have occurred in technology education programs at the state level. With the release of the latest standards publication, Advancing Excellence in Technological Literacy (AETL) (ITEA, 2003),…

This workbook, submitted by the State of Utah to the U.S. Department of Education, is for State Grants under Title IX, Part C, Section 9302 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (Public Law 107-110). By January 31, 2003, States must complete and submit to the Department this Consolidated State Application Accountability Workbook. The…

Utah state Representative Margaret Dayton adored President Bush. Her conservative politics lined up with his. One of her favorite memories was being at an intimate gathering and hearing the president echo her top priorities, God, family, and country. However, Dayton had drove one of Bush's biggest education-relation headaches. Dayton led a…

The "State Teacher Policy Yearbook" examines what is arguably the single most powerful authority over the teaching profession: state government. This Utah edition of the National Council on Teacher Quality's (NCTQ's) "State Teacher Policy Yearbook" is the first of what will be an annual look at the status of state policies…

This year the Center on Education Policy analyzed data on the achievement of different groups of students in two distinct ways. First, it looked at grade 4 test results to determine whether the performance of various groups improved at three achievement levels--basic and above, proficient and above, and advanced. Second, it looked at gaps between…

This paper presents the appendices to the "High-Stakes Testing and Student Achievement: Problems for the No Child Left Behind Act" report. It contains the following appendices: (1) Example of Context for Assessing State-Level Stakes Sheet--Connecticut; (2) Example of Completed Rewards and Sanctions Worksheet--Connecticut; (3) Directions…

Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), standardized test scores are the indicator used to hold schools and school districts accountable for student achievement. Each state is responsible for constructing an accountability system, attaching consequences--or stakes--for student performance. The theory of action implied by this…