Nobody goes into teaching to get rich, but that's no excuse not to pay teachers as professionals. Compensation is one of the most important factors in determining who enters the teaching profession and how long they stay--yet 90 percent of all U.S. school districts pay teachers without any regard for their actual performance with students,…

In the United States, approximately 65 percent of all jobs in 2020 will require some level of postsecondary education, and the demand will reach 68 percent in Iowa. This report seeks to inform public discourse on higher education by providing key performance indicators relevant to the goal of improving educational attainment for a healthy economy…

Youth with disabilities receiving transition from services from State/Federal VR agencies accounted for more than one quarter of closed cases within in FY 2010 (RSA, 2010). This unique population of clients, however, has received little attention in empirical studies, scholarly journals, and as a focus within training programs. By investing in…

Reflecting the growing momentum in support of quality rating and improvement systems (QRISs) as a key strategy to improve early care and education quality, significant amounts of public dollars have been devoted to their development and implementation. In this brief, the authors report on their investigation of both quality rating and improvement…

Because of their commitment to the voluntary measurement and improvement of student learning outcomes, colleges and universities that are members of the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) have been at the forefront of the national shift from teacher-centered to student-centered learning. The institutions participating in the CIC Degree…

The Multi-State Study of Pre-kindergarten by the National Center for Early Development & Learning (NCEDL) offers a first glance at pre-K children, teachers, and classroom quality in six states. This Snapshot overviews three recent articles co-authored by FPG scientists that summarize findings of the study about children, pre-K teachers, and…

Online learning holds promise for providing new educational opportunities to a wide range of students across the country. The rapid expansion of K-12 online learning, however, threatens to outpace the development of appropriate state-level policies that serve to fulfill the promise. As the National Association of State Boards of Education warned…

On July 28, 2006, a panel of experts briefed members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on the putative benefits of racial and ethnic diversity in elementary and secondary education. Four experts presented written statements to the Commissioners that assessed the social science literature on this issue. They also addressed whether or not…

This booklet, which is part of a series demonstrating the scope of employer involvement in school-to-careers, highlights the efforts of six manufacturing employers and three "intermediary" organizations connecting workplace experiences to classroom learning for secondary education students. The introduction presents a series overview and…