This Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) annual performance report for the year 2015 describes Kentucky's accomplishments, lessons learned, challenges, and strategies Kentucky will implement to address those challenges. Kentucky is pleased to report on progress in the implementation of the state's Race to the Top Early Learning…

Research by Achieve, ACT, and others suggests that for high school graduates to be prepared for success in a wide range of postsecondary settings, they need to take four years of challenging mathematics--covering Advanced Algebra; Geometry; and data, probability, and statistics content--and four years of rigorous English aligned with college- and…

Elementary science is chock-full of wonderful experiences for students. Do children see iPads as a tool for learning about science? Using Prensky (2010) as a guide, the researchers decided to see if "assessing students with their own" tools (p.178) using iPad apps would support learning discrete knowledge for electricity and light…

Kentucky has been a leader in the movement to more rigorous college and career ready standards to support their students' success in the 21st century. Kentucky was the first state to adopt new college and career ready standards (CCRS)--termed the Kentucky Core Academic Standards. Many of Kentucky's districts have moved proactively and…

This Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) annual performance report for the year 2014 describes Kentucky's accomplishments, lessons learned, challenges, and strategies Kentucky will implement to address those challenges. In December of 2013, Kentucky received notice that they would join 19 other States as a winner of the Race to…

The Early Learning Challenge (ELC) program awarded more than $1 billion in four-year grants to 20 States to implement comprehensive and cohesive high-quality early learning systems that support young children with high needs and their families. A key lever in making these improvements was the enhancement of States' Quality Rating and Improvement…

The need to adequately prepare all students for the next stage in their lives has led a number of states to adopt new educational standards that reflect the expectation that all high school students will be ready for college and career when they graduate. The report "Communicating College and Career Readiness through Proficiency…

The following profiles address how the state departments of education are supporting local educators in classroom implementation of the Common Core by providing and/or facilitating the development of instructional resources and materials aligned to the new standards. In order for instructional resources and materials to be aligned to the Common…

State lawmakers voted in 2009 to completely revamp Kentucky's education accountability system. That means new academic standards, new assessments, and a new baseline for student achievement--a tall order for a school that's already under enormous pressure to demonstrate gains. This article reports on how a Kentucky high school takes stock after…

The following profiles address how the state departments of education are helping educators prepare for and implement the Common Core and aligned assessments through professional learning. The major professional development efforts around the Common Core were examined in order to understand the overall efforts of each state. An exhaustive list of…

The Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) and the Mathematics Design Collaborative (MDC) are strategies designed to improve how teachers teach and students learn. The designs encourage teacher collaboration and creativity and offer flexible frameworks for building lessons in all disciplines. Their purpose is to engage students to read challenging…

This report identifies the states with current or pending state-level end-of-course assessment (EOC) programs, the subjects in which EOCs are administered in the states, and the EOCs (if any) students must pass to graduate from high school. Twenty-two states currently administer one or more EOCs to all students in an EOC course. This number will…

To date, 44 states and the District of Columbia have adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Achieve has prepared this planning document to help all states in the American Diploma Project Network (ADP) and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) consortium engage educators in the essential work of…

By 2012, all of the states in this study had started implementing new or revised teacher and leader evaluation systems. There are many and varying updates to these systems, and some of them have been made to meet conditions for a state's federal "Race to the Top" (RTT) grant. Other updates have been made to meet conditions for a state's…

All of the 15 states in this study have recently been involved in school accountability system reform. Since 2011, the states have taken advantage of a federal program to give them flexibility around certain accountability requirements of the "No Child Left Behind Act" of 2001 (NCLB), the most recent reauthorization of the Elementary and…