As test-based educational accountability has moved to the forefront of national and state education policy, so has the desire for better measures of school performance. No Child Left Behind's (NCLB) status and safe harbor measures have been criticized for being unfair and unreliable, respectively. In response to such criticism, in 2005 the federal…

In 2008, the U.S. Department of Education (the Department) launched a differentiated accountability pilot to allow states to distinguish between those schools identified for improvement in need of substantial help and those closer to meeting achievement goals. In July 2008 and January 2009, the Department approved waivers to give nine states the…

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…

The Growth Model Pilot Project (GMPP) was initiated to allow states to experiment with adjustments to the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) status accountability system in order to improve the validity of AYP determinations by giving schools credit for students who are making significant growth. The pilot allowed states, districts, and schools to…

The Education Commission of the States reviewed all 36 Race to the Top (RttT) round II applications. Each of the 36 states that applied for round II funding referenced pay for performance under the heading of "Improving teacher and principal effectiveness based on performance." The majority of states outlined pay for performance…

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) initiated the Growth Model Pilot Project (GMPP) in November 2005 with the goal of approving up to ten states to incorporate growth models in school adequate yearly progress (AYP) determinations under the "Elementary and Secondary Education Act" ("ESEA"). After extensive reviews, nine states…

The purpose of this document is to describe the US ED growth model pilot program from its inception to the point at which the program was no longer a pilot and was opened up to all states. In addition, the paper is designed to help states in the process of planning to submit a growth model proposal. The information in this document is mostly…

Under federal regulations, school districts that have been identified for improvement or corrective action are not eligible to be supplemental educational service providers. However, the U.S. Department of Education granted waivers to five such districts, on a pilot basis, to allow those districts to provide supplemental educational services. Two…

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 requires states to monitor student and school performance based on "adequate yearly progress" (AYP), which essentially is a count of the number of students meeting a specified target. States, many of which have a growing number of schools and school districts entering NCLB's "needs…