Leadership education must evolve to keep pace with the growing recognition that effective leadership happens in a complex environment and is as much a systemic variable as a personal one. As part of a program review process, a graduate leadership program at a private Midwestern university conducted a qualitative review of 18 online graduate…

Governors are increasingly aware that the emerging economy will provide few well-paying jobs for workers who have not earned a postsecondary degree or a relevant workforce certificate. Fifty years ago, nearly 80 percent of all jobs required only a high school diploma or less and most paid a good wage. Fast-forward to data from 2013 and that number…

Colleges and employers are growing increasingly concerned that high school students lack the knowledge and skills needed for success after graduation. To find out whether the expectations of the Central Region states match the expectations of colleges and the workplace, state standards for what students should know and be able to do in English…

This report presents the deliberations of the Central Regional Advisory Committee (RAC), one of 10 RACs established under the Educational Technical Assistance Act of 2002 (20 U.S.C. sections 9601 et. seq.) to assess the educational needs of the region. The committee's report outlines the educational needs across the states of Colorado, Kansas,…

This study provides an organized list of core mathematics standards and benchmarks that are recognized by most or all of the states in the central region which includes Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. State standards were reviewed against the reference set of standards and benchmarks to determine what…

Now that all 50 states and the District of Columbia are building statewide longitudinal data systems, the next step is to ensure that the information in these systems is used to improve student learning. The Data Quality Campaign (DQC) has identified 10 actions that states can take to ensure that the right data are available and accessible and…

This report discusses the 1997 amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act that require states to develop alternate assessments for students with disabilities who cannot participate in large-scale assessment programs. The report also profiles five state alternate assessment practices that have been developed or are emerging and…