"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) Senate Committee Passes Education Appropriations Bill; (2) Upside Down: New Alliance Brief Says Federal Education…

In 2011-2012, eight schools in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) adopted a PK-8 structure. The Office of Program Evaluation in the College of Education at the University of South Carolina is collaborating with the CMS Center for Research and Evaluation to better understand the PK-8 transition process as well as academic and behavioral…

In spring 2012, after a year of intensive data analysis and planning, the colleges participating in Completion by Design announced strategies for creating clear, structured routes through college for more students, often referred to as accelerated, structured pathways to completion. These strategies contain elements unique to each college, but all…

Annual giving is the number one indicator that someone will make a major or planned gift. Annual funds are the meat and potatoes of fundraising. But if the annual fund has recently taken a backseat to major and megagifts, the recession made a bad situation even worse. Today, most annual fund performance indicators have plummeted. Virtually all…

During the late 1990s, North Carolina's education finance mechanism--known as the Public School Fund (PSF)--was challenged in a series of litigation known as "Leandro v. State of North Carolina". Though the State Supreme Court's analyses left the state's finance mechanism unchanged, there remains to date no systematic evaluation of the…

In this analysis, the authors explore the relationship between the social context of high schools and school-to-school variation in tracking policies. The authors consider three explanations for the implementation of highly elaborated tracking systems: opportunity hoarding, status competition, and a technical-functional explanation. Building on…

This article features North Carolina's Research Triangle Park (RTP), which provides research and career opportunities for the region and creates a diverse work force. The convergence of higher education and research at the famed RTP has been all but idyllic for years. What happened there is a strong example of how regions can start their own…

Building a stronger teacher workforce requires the thoughtful orchestration of multiple processes working together in a human capital system. This white paper presents a framework that can be used to take stock of current efforts to enhance the teacher workforce in school districts or educational organizations, as well as their underlying theories…

The growth of distance education and the demand for instructors has developed over the past ten to fifteen years. There is a perception that the type and amount of instructor preparation is highly variable between institutions. Of the faculty members at two year institutions surveyed, nearly half did not attend training over the previous year.…

America's K-12 education system faces three significant challenges: (1) increased global demands for skilled workers, (2) significant financial shortfalls, and (3) a looming teacher shortage. Independently, these factors present significant challenges for U.S. schools. In combination, they create a national imperative for swift action to create a…

The nation's changing economy requires workers to attain increasingly higher job skills. Leaders in education, workforce development, and economic development recognize the need to help workers meet this challenge and to help employers find qualified employees. Barriers to educational and career opportunities will need to be removed so that…

The counterintuitive approach of the world's greatest value investor, Warren Buffett, may be the best hope for colleges and universities during this recession. Buffett's time-tested philosophy of seeking value and investing for the long term remains a sound approach, even if his short-term returns have declined along with those of the rest of the…

Raising academic standards and eliminating achievement gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged students are America's prime national educational goals. Current federal and state policies, however, largely ignore the fact that the childhood poverty rate in the United States is 21%, the highest in the industrialized world, and that poverty…

This article describes how learning communities can reach reluctant learners by providing multiple opportunities for recognizing the inner gifts each child possesses and tapping these strengths to foster personal mastery and independence. Using servant leadership and the Circle of Courage as a guiding vision, the staff at Grandfather Academy has…

Shows that teachers who are paid more stay longer in teaching, that teachers with high opportunity costs, as measured by scores on the National Teacher Examination and subject specialties, stay in teaching less long than other teachers do, and that salaries influence duration less for teachers with high test scores than for those with low scores.…