Since Congress has passed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) states are revamping their federally required systems to measure school quality and hold schools accountable for performance. However, most are doing so using outdated assumptions, holdovers from the Industrial Era, when cookie-cutter public schools followed orders from central…

This guide aims to help parents understand the flexibility provided to States and school districts in the "Every Student Succeeds Act" (ESSA), which amended the "Elementary and Secondary Education Act," a landmark Federal education law. Parents are the most important advocates for their children. Because States and school…

Every child is unique and learns in different ways. Some children are identified as needing special education services to support his or her learning at school. Parents can play a major role in shaping the services a child receives. This guidebook has been written for parents, guardians, and surrogate parents of a child (ages 3 to 21 or…

ED"Facts" is a U.S. Department of Education (ED) initiative to govern, acquire, validate, and use high-quality, kindergarten through grade 12 (K-12) performance data for education planning, policymaking, and management and budget decision making to improve outcomes for students. ED"Facts" centralizes data provided by state…

Effective evidence-based action requires getting the right data into the right hands at the right time to help make decisions. The Data Quality Campaign (2011) has provided suggestions to state education agencies for effectively using data within state longitudinal data systems. One suggestion is to identify "the variety of ways available…

Are America's schools broken? "Education Hell: Rhetoric vs. Reality" seeks to address misconceptions about America's schools by taking on the credo "what can be measured matters." To the contrary, Dr. Bracey makes a persuasive case that much of what matters cannot be assessed on a multiple choice test. The challenge for…

This Practical Guide is intended to help educators and others interested in education promote the value of public education to the nation. Research and polling suggests that Americans share deeply held beliefs and values about public schools. Americans believe that one of the strengths of public schools is that they provide concrete benefits for…

Recognizing the universal importance of education, the federal government assumed a larger role in financing public schools with the passage of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) in 1965. Through subsequent reauthorizations, ESEA has continued to assist the states. In 2001, the reauthorization included "No Child Left Behind," which…