One year after the COVID-19 pandemic forced state and school leaders across the nation and around the world to immediately close school buildings, the lasting impact on students is increasingly evident: Months of online learning and limited in-person interaction with educators, coaches and mentors have led to gaps in learning, and unknown…

The authors present the results of a study of a three-way international collaboration project among one Hungarian class and two classes from Michigan and Washington, respectively. This multifaceted study focused on business planning, web design, and accessibility with the aim of investigating the effect of accessibility instruction on the…

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…

As community colleges across the country look for ways to promote student success, the need for scaling effective approaches is critical. This guide builds on a framework of four phases of scaling developed in Job For the Future's (JFF's) previous publication, "Thinking Big: A Framework for States on Scaling Up Community College…

This Guide is designed to support the work of institutional cross-functional teams charged with strengthening adjunct faculty professional learning and institutional engagement. Each section shares key learnings from ATD's work with six Leader Colleges, including accomplishments in the form of new programs, services, or policies that can serve as…

This study examines the efforts of higher education systems in six states to implement large-scale changes to improve student outcomes in mathematics in community colleges and four-year colleges and universities as part of the Mathematics Pathways to Completion (MPC) project. The three-year project was launched in 2015 to help Arkansas,…

This study synthesizes lessons learned about the promising role of "career navigators" at community colleges to aid students in the transitions through disjunctures in their careers. Career navigators are student support personnel who follow students from recruitment, through their studies or training programs, to job placement. Findings…

This brief reviews state plans submitted to the U.S. Department of Education as of October 1, 2017. It focuses on three key topics for early learning in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA): setting clear goals and policy priorities for early learning, integrating early learning into school improvement, and supporting early childhood educator…

This article highlights a set of principles and guidelines, developed by a diverse group of specialists in the field, for appropriately including English language learners (ELLs) with disabilities in large-scale assessments. ELLs with disabilities make up roughly 9% of the rapidly increasing ELL population nationwide. In spite of the small overall…

Rigorous courses and advanced learning in K-12 are vital to preparing students for college-level course work and success in the workforce. Yet not all students get the same opportunities to participate in high-level courses. As they weigh their options for a fifth indicator under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), many states are considering…

The purpose of this article is to describe lessons learned from studying the leadership in eight award-winning secondary schools and districts that were recognized for successfully leveraging technology as part of their efforts for school improvement. Data were collected through observations, interviews, and document analysis in schools and…

It is a truism of American social policy that our nation has great success generating innovative programs that improve outcomes for participants--but that we are far less effective at moving from small, "boutique" programs into broadly applied solutions that improve the prospects of large numbers of individuals. This is certainly true in…

Hundreds of U.S. schools will supplement fire drills and tornado training next fall with simulations of school shootings. In response to the December shootings by an intruder at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, several states have enacted or are considering laws that require more and new types of school safety drills, more…

This book demonstrates through case studies and expert analyses the impressive educational gains children can make when the best educational research, policy, and practice are aligned. This volume is a valuable resource to aspiring leaders, educational researchers, and current practitioners and a must-read for anyone who cares about the public…

The extent to which state agencies are implementing information systems and analytical methods for budget review are examined. Focus is on 17 states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. Trends in budget…