Innovation in education is vital for responding to emerging challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and for building progress on longstanding challenges in schools. The infusion of substantial, highly flexible pots of federal relief dollars created an opportunity to pilot new programs and initiatives. Many states and districts opted to invest…

This brief is the first in a series focusing on Employment First implementation as it relates to one of the seven elements within the High-Performing States in Integrated Employment model. It examines the background of circumstances under which Employment First efforts began in seven states, and introduces each state's values, mission, and goals…

Teachers are our most valuable resource in education, and teacher leaders can maximize their impact on student learning by extending their impact beyond their own classrooms. Effective teacher leaders share their expertise, support the growth of other teachers, and increase the quality of instruction. This policy snapshot summarizes the literature…

"The SEA of the Future" is an education publication series examining how state education agencies can shift from a compliance to a performance-oriented organization through strategic planning and performance management tools to meet growing demands to support education reform while improving productivity. This volume, the fifth in the…

In a time of declining federal funding, partnerships that can leverage resources to accomplish complementary goals are vital to creating and maintaining successful communities. HUD's Office of University Partnerships (OUP) has fostered these partnerships by investing funds in institutions of higher education (IHEs), which use these grants to…

This report presents the deliberations of the Appalachia Regional Advisory Committee (Appalachia RAC), one of 10 RACs established under the Educational Technical Assistance Act of 2002 (20 U.S.C. sections 9601 et. seq.) to assess the educational needs of the region. The Committee's report outlines the educational needs across the four states of…

Quality Rating System (QRS) initiatives define levels of quality based on research and then support providers with funding and technical assistance to increase their quality. Each program is assessed and given a number of "stars" to indicate to parents what level of quality the program has reached. In this article, the author describes…

Operated as a pair of philanthropic funds, the Hyde Family Foundations works to improve the quality of life in Memphis. In order to counteract persistent socioeconomic and racial barriers and improve opportunities for underserved families in Memphis, the foundations have made improving the city's education system a priority of its grantmaking.…

Charter schools must abide by federal special education laws and regulations because they are part of the public education system. However, the way this gets carried out in practice differs widely due to many factors, the most important of which are a charter school's "legal identity" and its "linkage" to a traditional LEA for…

This paper presents a profile of Tennessee's Star-Quality Child Care Program prepared as part of the Child Care Quality Rating System (QRS) Assessment Study. The profile consists of several sections and their corresponding descriptions including: (1) Program Information; (2) Rating Details; (3) Quality Indicators for Center-Based Programs; (4)…

The future of Greece's well-being will depend on improving educational performance to boost productivity and improve social outcomes. In the current economic context, with the need to get best value for spending, Greece must and can address inefficiencies in its education system. The challenges are significant. For example, Greece lags behind many…

Describes Tennessee Technology Foundation, a government-sponsored linking agent designed to assist new high-technology businesses. Describes foundation projects offering new high-tech businesses entrepreneurial assistance, administrative support, funding assistance, job networking, and institutional coordination services. Tells foundation…

The federally funded Bilingual Education Multifunctional Resource Center (BEMRC) provides support services to programs and individuals serving students of limited English proficiency (LEP) in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Tennessee. LEP students in the mostly rural areas come from…

As part of its mission to promote the use of accessible education-based information technology in the Southeast Region, the Southeast Disability and Business Technical Assistance Center (DBTAC) is working with colleges, universities, community colleges and K-12 schools to improve access to information technology for students with disabilities in…

Describes how the University of Tennessee-Southeast Sex Desegregation Assistance Center (SSDAC) provided services to meet the desegregation needs (eliminating sex bias in textbooks, training an equity task force, responding to an Office for Civil Rights' investigation, self-evaluating Title IX compliance, establishing equity in vocational…