Finding funds to build and renovate facilities is a major hurdle for public charter schools because most state laws do not provide charter schools with the full amount of state and local funding that other public schools receive. Although an increasing number of states are passing laws to address charter school facility funding gaps, inequities…

State early childhood administrators are planning to strategically invest the federal appropriations in the American Rescue Plan Act (ARP) to address disruptions in children's care and learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. State leaders must consider how this one-time funding can be used effectively while understanding the context around…

This issue of "Equity Dispatch" spotlights the 2017 Midwest & Plains Equity Assistance Center's State Equity Leaders Summit, centering the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The focus is on re-centering the spirit of Civil Rights legislation through leveraging ESSA to support equity-focused school transformation, highlighting the…

The purpose of this quantitative study is to explore the frequency of uncivil behaviors amongst teachers. The research seeks to determine leadership support and job satisfaction levels in order to relate their relationship to turnover. Fulfillment of teachers' basic psychological needs is essential for optimal performance and growth. The 2018…

Social distancing and school closures forced by the COVID-19 pandemic present extraordinary challenges for education. While the nation is just beginning to understand the impact of the last few months and what the months ahead will mean for students, families, and educators, the depth of students' connectedness to school and the quality of their…

Like other states across the country, the seven states in the Midwest Region (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin) have been striving to meet the performance targets established under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001, the latest reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. The…

As states are working to align their education systems with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in support of the goal of graduating all students ready for college, careers and life, academic and career and technical education (CTE) leaders at the state and local levels can and should maximize this opportunity to finally break down the silos…

The certainty of facing death and bereavement and the complex personal and societal issues involved argue for the importance of death education. The current study addresses a gap in knowledge by beginning to assess the extent of dying, death, and bereavement (DD&B) course offerings by U.S. psychology departments. This article reports on data…

This report describes how state education agencies in the Midwest Region monitor teacher supply, demand, and shortage; details why they monitor these data; and offers estimates of the monetary costs incurred in performing such studies. This study responds to a request from state education agencies in the Midwest Region (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa,…

This technical brief describes state-level policies and procedural requirements for guiding teacher evaluation practices at the district level in the seven states served by the Midwest Regional Educational Laboratory: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Building on the Issues & Answers report "Examining…

The major purpose of this descriptive report is to provide an overview of the structure, capacity, and roles of educational service agencies (ESAs) across five states--Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin--in the Great Lakes region, within the context of the broader statewide systems of support for educational improvement and progress.…

Site visits were conducted at six state departments of vocational education (Texas, Illinois, Utah, South Carolina, Michigan, and Indiana) to assess the level of articulation with related educational dissemination agencies. These states represented a variety of settings which illustrated the effects of geography, population size, levels of past…

Describes strategic planning efforts in eight states (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin) to implement guidelines in "Information Power" (1998, American Library Association) relating good school library media programs to student achievement success. Discusses Web pages; state conferences;…

This bulletin was prepared to indicate recent progress in rural life and education as disclosed by the educational exhibits at the Panama-Pacific Exposition of 1915. The discussion includes (1) the general phases of progress in rural education, and (2) advancement in its more specific agricultural phases. Little attempt has been made to present…