This transcendental phenomenology study was designed to examine the phenomena of the paid internship portion of the North Carolina Principal Fellows Program (NCPFP) through specific graduates of the universities that offer the scholarship. The study aimed to answer the following research question: How does the paid internship experience from the…

This dissertation showcases collective sensemaking in action. The study was situated in a larger North Carolina project, in which educators took a systems approach to update the state's instructional guidance infrastructure during content standards reform. Specifically, I investigated how K-5 educators from multiple stakeholder groups--teachers,…

Teachers need comprehensive support to improve students' literacy. This Policy Update shares how state boards of education can provide this holistic support to improve through: (1) better teacher preparation standards in early literacy; (2) professional development guidance; (3) high-quality literacy coaches and other support professionals; and…

The discretion provided to states under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) offers new possibilities for policymakers to determine how best to allocate resources and support policies to provide students with a well-rounded education. As states begin to examine new strategies for improving student outcomes and developing the next generation of…

This report from JFF with a select group of community college practitioners, makes the case for policymakers, employers and practitioners to invest in and strengthen short-term credentialing programs to rapidly retrain unemployed workers for better career prospects, especially workers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. It includes key commitments…

This timely book will help policymakers and practitioners convert their visions of high-quality early education into on-the-ground reality by providing a much-needed, richly detailed look at how states can design, fund, and manage exemplary programs. The authors describe and analyze how four states--Michigan, West Virginia, Washington, and North…

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…

This Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) annual performance report for the year 2014 describes North Carolina's accomplishments, lessons learned, challenges, and strategies North Carolina will implement to address those challenges. North Carolina's Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge grant is an investment in high-quality…

This guidebook provides an introduction to Instructional Improvement Systems (IIS) for State education agency (SEA) managers and program leads. Functional components of a theoretical IIS model are discussed and used as a reference point for the introduction a seven-step planning and implementation cycle designed to guide SEAs in the development of…

When students first enroll in college, they are required to demonstrate readiness for college-level work. Course placement depends on standardized assessments, and students who do not attain a satisfactory score are typically assigned to developmental (e.g. remedial) education courses. The theory behind this approach has been that remedial…

This report examines how technology and automation are changing the job market -- and what states can do to prepare adults for the new workplace. It analyzes shifts from low- to middle-skills jobs, details current education levels, and offers recommendations for retooling adult education programs.

Implementation of college- and career-readiness standards is some of the most important work currently underway in states to improve public education and student achievement. This report provides a summary of findings from SREB's research into the efforts of 15 states--12 in the Southern Educational Research Board (SREB) region--to support…

Federal policy initiatives such as the flexibility waivers for accountability are requiring that states transition away from the use of an alternate assessment based on modified achievement standards (AA-MAS). It is expected that those students who had participated in that assessment will instead participate in the state's general assessment (or a…

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…

In Charlotte-Mecklenburg (N.C.) Schools, educators have leapt into the Common Core with both feet, creating an internal website for teachers to share performance tasks and implementing systemwide, school-based professional learning that has put the standards into practice and tested students on them in the 2012-13 school year. The district began…