In 2009 the Obama administration announced a focused commitment to turn around 5,000 of the United States' chronically lowest-performing public schools as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). This commitment came with $3 billion in funding for the School Improvement Grant program, or SIG, along with new guidelines to ensure…

This article describes the design and implementation of external support to low-performing schools using data from Chicago and California. Using the literature on external support, instructional capacity, and policy strength, the study gathered data from interviews, observations, document review, and surveys. The findings suggest that the model of…

This report describes five state systems of support in low-performing schools. Discussion of each state system includes a description of the accountability system, the process for identifying low-performing schools, funding resources available, the technical assistance provided, the provider of that assistance, and the resources used to support…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires that each state participating in the federal early intervention program establish a state interagency coordinating council (SICC) to assist and advise the state lead agencies in achieving a coordinated service delivery system. Some states have also established local interagency…

To support states in improving the quality of their Perkins accountability data, the Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE), US Department of Education, invited State Directors of Career-Technical Education to submit requests for individualized technical assistance. In response to a request by the New Mexico Public Education Department…