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…

Change swept throughout the country with the 2018 elections, bringing 20 new governors into office. Whether returning or starting their first term, governors are taking the opportunity in their State of the State addresses to highlight achievements and outline plans for the future. Every governor who has given an address has mentioned an…

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…

Guided pathways are emerging as a strategy to help students complete a credential in a timely manner by encouraging or requiring them to select a program, and develop a degree plan or map, on a specified timeline. At a minimum, institutions may ask students to identify a meta-major, which is a broad area of academic programs with related courses…

This article describes a learning partnership between district or county leaders and school leaders to create a system of principal professional learning that came to life in principal learning communities across a district or multiple-district region. For more than a decade, Learning Forward has engaged with district-level leaders as learning…

The person-centered individualized education program (IEP) transition planning has emerged as a primary indicator of quality services, and as a predictor for successful post-school outcomes for transition-age youth with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). However, these person-centered transition practices are not uniformly implemented across the…

This paper identifies approaches, challenges, and best practices related to planning and designing today's academic library learning spaces. As part of the Project Information Literacy (PIL) Practitioner Series, qualitative data is presented from 49 interviews conducted with a sample of academic librarians, architects, and library consultants.…

Postsecondary institutions are under increasing scrutiny to provide evidence of student learning. Despite efforts to increase the number and frequency of assessments of student learning, many colleges and universities need help to make good use of assessment results for the improvement of teaching and learning. To address this need, in February…

This report provides six mini-case studies of higher education policy reforms enacted in other states, exploring the important role that state policy leadership played in developing, promoting, and implementing these policies aimed at improving higher education outcomes, and discussing the relevance of each reform effort for California. This…

This paper interrogates the case for improved and broadened public sustainability reporting by universities, and explores whether and how global performance measures capture the institutional attitudes and activities pertinent to universities' contributions to sustainability. The analysis explores all stand-alone, English language reports produced…

Higher education is ripe for innovation. While emerging technological developments such as digital courseware and mobiles apps have made it easier than ever for people to engage with learning resources, significant issues of access and equity persist among students from low-income, minority, single-parent families, and other disadvantaged groups.…

College and career readiness has become a unifying principle for education reform leaders across the country. A majority of states have made it a top policy priority, with an increasing number of national foundations and education reform advocates supporting this work. To help state leaders build strategies for sustaining their education agendas…

Superintendents and principals can have a positive and decisive impact on student achievement and higher graduation rates. Their essential leadership can illuminate the path to excellence for faculty and students. In upgrading curriculum and instruction, school leaders need to keep abreast of practices proven effective in other districts and…

Technological innovation is driving fundamental changes in all aspects of our lives. This is especially true of digital content, as our use of e-books, downloadable music, streaming television and movies, and online social networks has exploded. However, the explosive growth in our use of digital content seems so far to have eluded many of the 50…

Traditionally, the high-performance computing (HPC) systems used to conduct research at universities have amounted to silos of technology scattered across the campus and falling under the purview of the researchers themselves. This article reports that a growing number of universities are now taking over the management of those systems and…