Career-connected learning is an educational strategy that combines high-quality academic instruction, skill-based learning, and real-world experiences to prepare students with the knowledge and skills that they need to pursue their career goals. Career-connected learning is especially important for an often-overlooked group of students including…

A leadership academy is a formal professional learning opportunity for current school leaders, focused on augmenting knowledge and skills, increasing specialization, and refreshing leadership practices. States interested in supporting leadership academies through federal or other funding sources can look to current models of leadership academies…

This guide aims to help states look beyond the major sources of child care and early education funding and consider alternative federal financing sources to bring comprehensive services into early childhood settings. Why? Because the sources of child care funding historically available to states have limited supply and allowable uses, and…

The Adult Education Coordination and Planning (AECAP) guide is designed to assist state adult education staff in forming partnerships at the state level and facilitating coordination at the local level as a lever for expanding and improving the quality of adult basic education (ABE) and workforce development services. Coordination plays a critical…

Designed for special education due process hearing officers in Arizona, this manual is intended to provide a reference system for accessing and understanding state and federal laws, regulations, case-law, and policy with respect to the education of students with disabilities. Sections of the manual include: (1) a glossary of terms and a chart that…

Many states are considering a form a school choice known as "tax-credit scholarships," which currently provide school choice to almost 60,000 students in Arizona, Florida and Pennsylvania, which and have just been enacted in Iowa. This guide shows how tax-credit scholarships work and introduces the scholarship granting organizations that…

This handbook is designed to help teacher education students as they learn about the teaching profession and their responsibilities as a student taking teacher preparation course work. It is hoped that the handbook helps them to avoid delays and roadblocks in the pursuit of their goal to become a certified teacher. Since there are several degree…

Intended for parents (or surrogate parents) of children with disabilities in Arizona, this handbook explains rights and procedural safeguards under federal and state laws. Section 1, an introduction to special education, is followed by a section on parent rights in relation to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, initial evaluation,…

Notes the author was a member of the Arizona Reading Achievement Task Force, established by state law to report on how to implement the "phonics law" passed the year before. Presents the minority report, which outlines some principles of achieving reading excellence and which was not included in the Task Force's report. Suggests keeping…

This guide to education for gifted students in Arizona begins with a rationale for providing special services for high potential students. It then discusses the gifted student, screening and identification, the teacher, programs and services, financial assistance, resources, and parent involvement. In each of these topic areas, the guide outlines…

State and federal laws mandate that local educational agencies equip students who have limited English proficiency with the English language skills necessary to succeed in all academic content areas. In efforts to comply with both state and federal law, the Arizona State Department of Education (ADE) has developed a mechanism to identify, assess,…

As sponsoring agents for Arizona charter schools, individual school boards in Arizona are committed to ensuring that all applicants have a fair and equal opportunity to submit a proper charter proposal. This handbook provides information and materials to help charter-school applicants in Arizona prepare a proposal for establishing a charter…

This guide is designed to answer questions about cooperation/collaboration between Head Start and local school districts. Relevant sections of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the regulations implementing it are cited, along with regulations of the Department of Health and Human Services concerning the Head Start program, and…

This guide is intended to help districts and schools think about how their programs for educationally deprived children are designed and how they can be improved. In view of new Chapter 1 legislation (P.L. 100-297), which places strong emphasis on program improvement to disadvantaged students, practitioners need to internalize elements of new…

The goal of the doctoral dissertation summarized here was to develop a set of recommended guidelines to be used in developing standards and procedures for elementary and secondary public school facility construction in Arizona. The study focuses on determining the essential elements of these guidelines and on determining which of these elements…