Federal law defines English learner (EL) eligibility differently for Indigenous, compared to non-Indigenous, students, allowing for broader entry into the EL category, along with its accompanying resources and services. We interviewed EL leaders from 25 state departments of education to learn about their level of understanding of the…

Background: Over the past decade, courts increasingly have considered cases that involve clashes between public, secular private, and religious institutions in education. Such clashes appear to have intensified as recently as the 2019-2020 Supreme Court term, and the confirmation of Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Court in 2020 suggests…

In 2017 the National Association of System Heads launched its Taking Student Success to Scale: High Impact Practices Network. The goals of this initiative were to identify and scale promising High Impact Practices (HIPs) at both the campus and system level to prioritize equitable participation for low-income and first-generation students and…

English Language Learners (ELLs) represent the fastest growing segment of pre-K-12 students in the United States. Currently, Montana has the highest percentage of ELLs who are American Indian/Alaska Native. Although there is tremendous linguistic diversity among students, more than 80% of ELLs in the US speak Spanish as their first language. This…

As tuition levels rise, predictability is an increasingly important consideration of college financing. In this article, the authors explore contemporary policy tools intended to enhance tuition predictability. They specifically consider guaranteed tuition plans. The authors begin their discussion by considering the prevalence of guaranteed…

US curricular policies frequently bolster neoliberal power structures within both pre-K to 12 schools and universities by privileging settler-colonial narratives and excluding Indigenous knowledge. However, curricular policies can also serve to enhance social reconstructionist and social justice education. In this article, we describe two case…

Principals' decisions play an important part in determining whether or not teachers are offered contracts, and school principals face prominent challenges that predictably work against recommending contract non-renewal for teachers. Some of the commonly identified challenges include time, teacher unions, and laws protecting teachers (Nixon,…

Many educators have sung the praises of Indian Education for All, Montana's constitutional mandate, and heard the successes of Montana's Indigenous language revitalization efforts which reverberate around the globe. Teaching Indigenous languages is especially, challenging since there are limited numbers of fluent speakers and scarce resources…

Montana's constitutional commitment to the cultural heritages of American Indians exemplifies the practical application of multicultural education. In this article, the authors explore the goals and evolution of Indian Education for All within a multicultural education framework, and discuss how educators are best prepared to implement this…

With the heightened emphasis of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 on inclusion in the general curriculum and meeting the associated standards, assistive technology (AT) has become a necessary consideration to ensure a free appropriate public education and to promote education in the least restrictive environment…

Federal officials confirmed a week ago that no state is expected to meet the looming deadline for putting a "highly qualified" teacher in every core-subject classroom. Officials said that nine states, along with Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, face losing federal money because of foot-dragging. However, these jurisdictions…

It is hard to imagine how the majority of people made it through the day without cell phones just 5 to 10 years ago. These days, cell phones are everywhere, and everyone seems to own one--including many middle school students and even some students who are in elementary school. Both parents and students feel these phones are essential in order to…

Policy initiatives from Kentucky to California are espousing curriculum based on NCTM-backed core concepts that students understand through induction rather than memorization, teaching based on guided mastery rather than didactic instruction, and assessment that is open-ended rather than machine-scorable. This article highlights obstacles to…