Teachers are our most valuable resource in education, and teacher leaders can maximize their impact on student learning by extending their impact beyond their own classrooms. Effective teacher leaders share their expertise, support the growth of other teachers, and increase the quality of instruction. This policy snapshot summarizes the literature…

This report presents a multi-year study of how states are implementing their state college- and career-readiness standards. In this report, the Southern Regional Education Board's (SREB's) Benchmarking State Implementation of College- and Career-Readiness Standards project studied state efforts in 2014-15 and 2015-16 to foster effective…

Quality Rating Improvement Systems (QRISs) commonly offer on-site technical assistance (TA) and coaching to help early care and education settings achieve quality improvements and a higher QRIS rating. In surveys of administrators overseeing statewide QRISs, almost all states reported the use of on-site TA and coaching in both center-based and…

This report presents the deliberations of the Appalachia Regional Advisory Committee (Appalachia 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 four states of…

Throughout the end of the 1990s and the early years of the current decade, states experienced severe downturns in their economies. As has happened during other recessions, higher education, often viewed as discretionary spending compared to other budget demands, was hit particularly hard. During these years of severe fiscal constraints, however, a…

Since early 1998, AEL, Inc., has been assisting state departments of education in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia in the implementation of the federally funded Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration (CSRD) program. As part of this assistance, AEL established two types of electronic networks to link school staff at CSRD sites,…

It was the purpose of this study to examine and evaluate the feasibility of involving cable television systems in central Appalachia with efforts toward rural community development. A variety of research procedures were employed, including a questionnaire on community needs, a telephone survey of cable facilities, a mail survey of programming…

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) documents dimensions of quality in undergraduate education and provides information and assistance to colleges, universities, and other organizations to improve student learning. Its primary activity is annually surveying college students to assess the extent to which they engage in educational…

As part of its mission to promote the use of accessible education-based information technology in the Southeast Region, the Southeast Disability and Business Technical Assistance Center (DBTAC) is working with colleges, universities, community colleges and K-12 schools to improve access to information technology for students with disabilities in…

To generate information that would help rural schools take advantage of the Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration (CSRD) program, 47 principals of rural schools in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia were interviewed via telephone. The schools fell into two categories: schools that applied but were not funded through the CSRD…

A report is presented on an outreach project that assisted in the development and implementation of early intervention programs, special education, and related services for children with disabilities (ages birth to five). The Magnolia Circle Outreach Project disseminated and helped replicate a "best practices" model to improve the…