Like many districts across the U.S., Miami-Dade County Public Schools is experiencing a large number of open staff positions due to higher-than-normal numbers of retirements and resignations in the face of COVID-19 coupled with enrollment declines in local universities' education departments. The district, in partnership with New Teacher Center,…

"Believing in Public Education: A Demographic and State-level Analysis of Public Charter School and District Public School Enrollment Trends" is a new data analysis that examines enrollment trends during the last four school years (2019-2023). Over the last four school years (2019-20 to 2022-23), charter schools have gained more than…

The Department of Education Charter Schools Program (CSP) provides grants to open or expand charter schools. Enrollment in charter schools that received CSP grants grew from 213,576 to 1,380,530 students from school years 2006-07 to 2020-21. This report examines (1) enrollment growth at new charter schools that received CSP grants compared to…

Minority underrepresentation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) perpetuates the income inequality that minorities experience and leads to a lack of diversity in STEM. The purpose of this quantitative nonexperimental study was to examine the effect of student demographics, STEM, science technology, engineering, art, and…

This summary is the first in a series of research briefs on student skills for the future. It provides highlights from the full research report, "Initial Findings Report: Student Skills for the Future, Spring 2022. A Landscape Analysis from the Jacksonville Public Education Fund" (ED620417). Given the rate of technological advancement,…

The Jacksonville Public Education Fund drew on previous research from various organizations including UNF and STEM2Hub in order to identify community stakeholders who could help us answer the question: What skills do students need to succeed in the 21st century workforce? JPEF conducted interviews and focus groups with educators and a variety of…

Improving student performance in America's chronically underperforming schools has been a challenge for many decades. Despite various school reforms, little to no progress has been shown. Schools have continued to fail, and achievement gaps have widened. The current state of schools has called for a drastic intervention. School turnaround has…

Background and Context: Statewide test-based accountability in the United States began with minimum competency assessments in public schools during the 1970s, starting in Florida and other Southern states. Controversies over IQ (intelligence quotient) testing contributed to the development of "criterion-referenced" exams that became the…

On January 7, 2020, the Florida Department of Education (FDOE) released high school graduation rates for the State of Florida and the School District of Palm Beach County (District). It should be noted that due to COVID-19, assessment requirements for graduation were waived for FY20 seniors who had yet to meet them. This fact should be kept in…

In FY19, School District of Palm Beach County (SDPBC) outperformed Florida and four other large urban school districts by maintaining a stable graduation rate from FY18 to FY19. District operated high schools exceeded the Board's Strategic Plan goal of 90% by posting a graduation rate of 91.6%. In this memorandum, table 1 reports the graduation…

In FY17, the School District of Palm Beach County (SDPBC) outperformed Florida and six other large urban school districts for the fourth consecutive year (FY14-FY17), and has consistently increased the graduation rate, including from FY16 to FY17. More importantly, the disparity between White students and their Black and Hispanic peers was reduced…

When schools closed their doors in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a scramble to adjust to remote learning. Over the summer and into the fall, the debate over reopening took center stage, as school leaders struggled to answer how and when it would be safe to return to the classroom. The Center for American Progress (CAP)…

U.S. schools are facing chronic shortages of qualified teachers, resulting in the hiring of unqualified teachers who are disproportionately assigned to disadvantaged students. Further, changing demographics are resulting in racial/ethnic and cultural mismatch between teachers and students they serve, causing additional educational problems. This…

Government officials are taking swift public health actions to slow the rapidly spreading COVID-19 pandemic. By the end of March, statewide school closures affected 55.1 million K-12 public school students across the country. While school closures affect all students, students from underserved communities feel this impact even greater. Data on…

In 2017, the U.S. Department of Labor reported a record-high 6.2 million job openings. Yet many employers report they cannot find the well-prepared candidates they need in the South and across the country. The problem is students' lack of preparation for college and career training. Also in 2017, the ACT college admissions test examined the…