The purpose of this phenomenological study is to gain an understanding of what school innovation looks like as well as how school and district leaders address the concept. Technology has forever changed society. We must be careful not to confuse school innovation as the implementation of technology in the classroom. Educational leaders face the…

The COVID-19 pandemic has given the entire country a crash course in virtual education and digital education platforms. School leaders have been forced to consider a set of very imperfect options as they struggle to reopen their schools. This three-brief collection identifies key issues for school leaders to consider before adopting a digital…

This report contains the proceedings of a forum held on June 28, 2023 in New Orleans, Louisiana, to discuss issues surrounding meaningful accessibility of assessments. The forum was a post-session to the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) National Conference on Student Assessment (NCSA) and was a collaboration of the "Assessment,…

Introduction: The primary purpose of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is to ensure free appropriate public education for individuals with disabilities in the least restrictive environment. The statute also mandates student's access and services for students' access to devices and technology as part of the individual education…

One of the key concepts of the NCLB legislation was the improvement of student achievement in academics with the use of technology (NCLB, 2001). Ironically, the NCLB mandate of accountability has not provided the necessary resources for achieving its goals, and students with disabilities are, in fact, being left behind. Therefore, the law is…

This article chronicles the development of a portfolio system used primarily to assess special education high school students on a variety of traditional and non-traditional standards and skills. Developing, capturing, sharing, and assessing student learning can be problematic when traditional testing or classroom assessment methods are not an…

In recent years, the federal government (under Republican and Democratic administrations alike) has encouraged the outsourcing of core parts of public education's work, including testing and test preparation, teaching and tutoring, data collection, and human resources management. However, researchers have found little evidence to support policy…

The last 20 years of federal legislation have seen a growth in the requirement that evidence-based practices be used to ensure improved student outcomes. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (2004) and No Child Left Behind (2001) each require educators to research, develop, and implement new practices aimed at meeting this expectation.…

U.S. federal policies No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top resulted in a policy overlap that created unique challenges and opportunities for administrators. This study examined principals' perceptions of an overlapping accountability-innovation policy context and their sense of how the policies affected their role as leaders. Primary data for…

Computer-assisted instruction (CAI) in English-Language environments offer practice time, motivates students, enhance student learning, increase authentic materials that students can study, and has the potential to encourage teamwork between students. The findings from this particular study suggested that students who used computer assisted…

Drawing upon the results of two nationally representative surveys, this report sums up 10 broad K-12 trends in 10 accompanying charts. The surveys were conducted as educators continued to grapple with the turmoil caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the debates that sometimes draw education policies into the culture wars surrounding social and…

Recent increases in high school graduation rates have been linked anecdotally to online course-taking for credit recovery. Online course-taking that supports high school completion could open opportunities for postsecondary education pursuits. Alternatively, poorer quality online instruction could diminish student learning and discourage…

Physical education is at a crossroads in the 21st century. With government mandates related to the No Child Left Behind Act (U.S. Department of Education, 2001) emphasizing core subjects, such as math and literacy, non-core subjects have been deemphasized. The most recent "Shape of the Nation Report" (National Association for Sport and…

This is a paper focuses on two issues central to improving student achievement, the integration of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles into general education and the inclusion of this framework into the preparation program for school administrators. First, this paper details the need to examine curriculum, instruction and assessment in…

There is a great need for new innovative tools to integrate individuals with intellectual disability into educational experiences. This multiple baseline study examined the effects of various adaptations for improving factual and inferential comprehension of non-fiction videos by six postsecondary students with intellectual disability. Video…