In response to concerns regarding school quality, state policy-makers reformed their charter school authorization processes to impose greater regulatory barriers to chartering. These barriers to market entry could impose substantial burdens for Black and Latino would-be charter operators, as well as independent operators, who may lack access to…

Background/significance: Standards-based accountability systems have been a pillar of education reform in the United States for almost three decades. Although accountability systems have evolved in progressive reauthorizations of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the underlying theory of action has changed little. The basic…

We framed the activities found in professional development as a form of enactive experience hypothesized by social cognitive theory to influence efficacy beliefs. This enabled us to employ multiple regression to test the relationship between teachers' perceptions of professional development quality and their sense of efficacy for teaching. Data…

The expansion of private school choice programs has been accompanied by a growing call for regulation of those programs. Individual private schools decide whether to participate in voucher programs based on expected benefits and expected costs. An unintended consequence of attaching heavy government regulation to voucher programs is that it raises…

An innovative system-building initiative known as the STEM Learning Ecosystems Community of Practice (SLECoP) is transforming U.S. STEM education through cross-sector partnerships between schools, afterschool and summer programs, libraries, museums, and businesses, among others. Although logic models exist to describe how SLEs can make positive…

Much research has noted the misalignment between kindergarten through 12th grade (K-12) academic standards and curriculum materials used in classrooms. Many states and education organizations have been pushing for greater use of standards-aligned curriculum, especially during the past several years. In this report, the authors share results…

Background/Context: The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2004) requires that all students with disabilities (SWD) receive a free, appropriate public education designed to meet their unique needs to prepare them for post-school education and employment (American Psychological Association, 2018). In the past two decades, momentum…

Background/Context: The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2004) requires that all students with disabilities (SWD) receive a free, appropriate public education designed to meet their unique needs to prepare them for post-school education and employment (American Psychological Association, 2018). In the past two decades, momentum…

After a tumultuous reception, the Biden administration's regulations for the federal Charter Schools Program (CSP) were finalized in July. Although the Administration backpedaled partway on issues related to community demand and racial integration, its final rules cracked down on so-called "for-profit charters," in line with the…

Public education has been transformed by the widespread adoption of accountability systems that involve the dissemination of school district performance information. Using data from Ohio, we examine if elections serve as one channel through which these accountability systems might lead to improvements in educational quality. We find little…

New data and analysis from the National Council on Teacher Quality finds significant progress on the science of reading instruction in teacher preparation. For the first time since NCTQ began publishing program ratings in its 2013 Teacher Prep Review, the number of programs in the nation to embrace reading science has crossed the halfway mark,…

The purpose of this study was to measure the frequency of utilization of the Principles of Teaching and Learning (Newcomb, McCracken, Warmbrod, & Whittington, 2004) during college class sessions. Process-product research was implemented (Gage, 1972; Rosenshine & Furst, 1973) using the Principles of Teaching and Learning Assessment (PTLA)…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore whether or not increased accountability measures found in the Ohio Teacher Evaluation System (OTES) impacted teacher job satisfaction. Student growth measures required by the OTES increased teacher accountability. Today, teachers are largely evaluated based on the results of what they do in the…

This study examines the development and implementation of a distance education course review process at a mid-sized public university. Four primary goals were set for the process: to provide substantive feedback, to cultivate engagement between DE faculty and staff, to provide support to course developers and reviewers, and to establish an…

Nearly 2.3 million adults are incarcerated in our nation's prisons and jails. Incarcerated adults are, on average, less educated than the general population. Their lack of job skills and a steady employment history, combined with the stigma of their felony convictions, creates significant barriers to reentering the labor market when they are…