This Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) annual performance report for the year 2014 describes Kentucky's accomplishments, lessons learned, challenges, and strategies Kentucky will implement to address those challenges. In December of 2013, Kentucky received notice that they would join 19 other States as a winner of the Race to…

This Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) annual performance report for the year 2014 describes Michigan's accomplishments, lessons learned, challenges, and strategies Michigan will implement to address those challenges. The Michigan Department of Education, Office of Great Start was identified as the lead agency for RTT-ELC…

This Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) annual performance report for the year 2014 describes North Carolina's accomplishments, lessons learned, challenges, and strategies North Carolina will implement to address those challenges. North Carolina's Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge grant is an investment in high-quality…

This Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) annual performance report for the year 2014 describes New Mexico's accomplishments, lessons learned, challenges, and strategies New Mexico will implement to address those challenges. New Mexico implemented a coordinated governance model that places authority and accountability across the…

This Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) annual performance report for the year 2014 describes Rhode Island's accomplishments, lessons learned, challenges, and strategies Rhode Island will implement to address those challenges. Rhode Island has made progress toward its ambitious but achievable goals under the Race to the Top Early…

This paper examines the effect of a federally supported school turnaround program in North Carolina elementary and middle schools. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find that the turnaround program did not improve, and may have reduced, average school-level passing rates in math and reading. One potential contributor to that finding…

Research across the decades has confirmed that effective school leadership is associated with better outcomes for students and schools. A high-quality school leader affects dozens of teachers and hundreds or thousands of students. It is a pivotal role. From 2011 to 2016, The Wallace Foundation, through its Principal Pipeline Initiative (PPI),…

The purpose of this study was to examine and compare key elements of the actions that states in the USA and Australia took to implement the Common Core State Standards or Phase One of the Australian Curriculum, and what processes and products they used to facilitate implementation of these innovations. A rubric adapted from a diagnostic tool,…

Children's academic and social development before third grade is highly predictive of later success in school and beyond. Research shows that during those early years, the gains children make in language and literacy, mathematics and social skills, and their growth as learners and thinkers are associated with a range of benefits, from academic…

This resource was prepared in response to a request for information from a Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) State about how other States are using a Shared Services strategy to support their child care providers, in particular family child care providers. By sharing common management, professional development, and infrastructure…

School districts within the USA face ever-decreasing autonomy in rendering decisions regarding instruction, curriculum and the leading and managing of schools at the local level due to the ever-increasing accountability measures implemented by district, state and federal governments. This study investigates a joint university-school district…

Between 2011 and 2015, K-12 education experienced an infusion of funds by the U.S. Department of Education going directly to school districts that implemented reforms in key areas to address truancy, dropout and achievement in our nation's most severely underperforming schools. There is limited research studying truancy reduction, relationship…

Special education, a discipline that aims to provide specialized instruction to meet the unique needs of each child with a disability, has turned 40 years old in the United States. Ever since the passage of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (P.L. 94-142) in 1975, every state has been directed to provide a free and appropriate…

When the going gets tough, the tough get...innovative. That's the approach some forward-thinking community college leaders are taking as their institutions set about the task of restocking the nation's workforce in the face of historic enrollments and severe, if seemingly unending, budget cuts. Recognized by the Aspen Institute as the most…

This article explores the research on turning around low performing schools to summarize what we know, what we don't know, and what this means for scaling school turnaround efforts. "School turnaround" is defined here as quick, dramatic gains in academic achievement for persistently low performing schools. The article first considers the…