The Open Educational Resources (OER) movement is now more than twenty years beyond its inception when it was built on the concept that digital materials make learning content easy to reuse and share. This report discusses current legislative trends in OER and offers recommended OER practices for states.

This study examined why schools and districts transitioned from traditional education systems to competency-based, the challenges and benefits school experienced, and characteristics needed in a leader for the shift in education. The study used a quantitative approach informed by survey and correlational research. The participants in this study…

Non-compliance is a challenge for practitioners serving children with and without disabilities. Many interventions have been developed to increase compliance. High-probability request sequences (HPRS), an antecedent-based intervention that is based on behavioral momentum theory, is one way to increase compliant behavior. HPRS includes the…

For decades, school finance reform in many states has been driven by (or reacted to) litigation arguing that schools need additional funding. In the 1970s and 80s, school finance cases prompted reforms to increase equity, equalizing dollars per pupil across districts. In the 1990s, the focus began shifting to educational outcomes, with a…

Salaries are one of the most powerful policy levers states and school districts can use to attract qualified, effective, and diverse teachers. What role do states play in supporting strategic use of salaries? This report examines the state teacher compensation policies that influence districts' potential strategic use of teacher pay. It analyzes…

Charter schools began in the 1990s as an experimental alternative to public schools. Today they are a multi-billion dollar sector composed of both nonprofit and for-profit corporations that embrace the philosophy of the marketplace. Supporters of charters see school failure as a natural feature of the model. They argue that schools do not fail at…

Teacher morale declined over the course of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, highlighting the importance of the quality of the workplace conditions that teachers experience and how those conditions might influence well-being and retention. In response to widespread concerns about teacher shortages, many states are focusing on…

Teacher morale declined during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, and teachers reported worse wellbeing than other working adults. Interventions to restore teacher well-being could improve job performance, job satisfaction, engagement, and retention. Although it is known that working conditions are related to well-being among other teachers…

As teacher quality is judged and tenured teachers are rated ineffective, educators are challenging teacher evaluation systems in the courts as they adversely affect their employment. Teachers have lost jobs, pay, tenure, and career advancement. This article reports on these cases, providing an interpretation in light of court cases about teacher…

School leadership is a key component of successful school environments and academic performance strategies. Among school-related factors, school leadership is second to teaching in its impact on student learning. In addition, research shows that strong leaders contribute significantly to successful school turnaround. To ensure that school leaders…

Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos wants to privatize American education using charter schools, vouchers, tax credit scholarships, education savings accounts, and portable federal funds. Court and legislative decisions are facilitating these ends. Understanding the school choice agenda and its fiscal, academic, and legal aspects can help…

If a "curriculum" -- a set of instructional materials intended as a comprehensive course of study for a particular subject and grade level -- is well-aligned with state standards, it can help teachers deliver instruction that leads to students' mastery of those standards. However, most research suggests that curricula, in themselves, are…

With the 2015 passage of the "Every Student Succeeds Act" (ESSA), the oversight of language policy in U.S. schools shifted from federal to state governance. Although the education of students officially designated as English learners (ELs) has historically been grounded in federal law, we argue that ELs' educational experiences are also…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between state unionization policy and teacher job satisfaction in the K-12 public school environment in the states of Florida and New York (i.e., a right-to-work state and a non-right-to-work state). Data were collected via electronic survey to analyze personal demographics, human capital,…

This study finds that, breaking with decades of slow improvement, U.S. reading and math scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and other assessments have seen historic declines since most states implemented national Common Core English and math curriculum standards six years ago. This descriptive analysis is designed to…