School communities have been shut out of many of the more critical decision-making processes impacting local public schools. Decisions are mostly made as top-down actions from federal mandates, general assemblies, state departments, districts, and school level administration teams, isolating the school communities they are tasked to serve. To…

Ms. Sampson, a White eighth-grade teacher in a predominately White suburban school district in the southern United States, decided to include several books in her lesson plan. Selected books were from the school's library and had been previously approved by stakeholders as instructional resources for the district. One parent, a school board…

The Center on Reinventing Public Education has long focused on making school choice work. Parents of children with disabilities face greater barriers to choosing schools for their children. This brief is the first installment in a series of reports examining how parents of children with disabilities experience the process of choosing schools. The…

With the passage of the 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), states were required to add a fifth indicator on "School Quality or Student Success" (SQSS) to their school accountability systems. An analysis of submitted ESSA state plans found that 13 states included measures of school climate as their SQSS indicator or incorporated…

The Illinois State Board of Education crafted their Strategic Plan as a roadmap to equity, defining the steps their agency will take to improve and increase opportunities and supports for Illinois students, especially those in the greatest need. They adopted the plan in November 2020, nine months into a global pandemic that continues to shape the…

This roadmap for Illinois public schools through school year 2022-23 defines the steps the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) will take to provide each and every student in the state with safe and engaging schools, excellent teachers, and equitable learning opportunities. This plan reflects both the realities and uncertainties are faced…

Just what is meant by a "Best Practice"? A best practice is a procedure, a process, or a system, adopted by best performing districts, which has a noticeable long-term positive impact on the strategic objectives of the Procurement organization. The concept of "best practices" is a fluid one. As technology, regulations and…

Educators employ different methods of teaching and learning to help their students succeed. One such method is personalized learning, which aims to tailor instruction to the needs, talents, and skills of each individual learner. Rapid advances in technology platforms and digital content over the last decade have enabled more widespread use of…

Public education today faces a troubling set of challenges, including declining enrollment, staffing shortages, and polarized communities, with school boards at the center of broader political debates. How did we arrive at this current state? This study--described here and, in more detail, in a related report--of seven California school districts…

"A Better Way to Budget" provides practical, innovative advice on how to overcome the political and social pushback that often prevents district and school leaders from shifting scarce resources to the most student-centered uses. Nathan Levenson shows how school leaders can uncover the sources of potential conflicts and create a…

As communities become increasingly diverse and criticism of traditional public schools intensifies, some states, such as North Carolina, have enacted legislation that encourages alternative forms of schooling. This condition has resulted in new challenges for principals to communicate broadly and often with stakeholders in an effort to build…

In almost every state, a state agency or organization is charged with playing a little known but important role in keeping schools safe. In some states, there are organizations whose entire responsibility is related to school safety. These are typically referred to as state school safety centers (SSSC). In other states, staff within state agencies…

Los Angeles has an educational ecosystem that is rich with partners committed to providing equitable access to learning opportunities for students. Throughout the 2014-2015 school year, the "Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University" (AISR) spent time meeting with a range of partners, including the Los Angeles Unified…

Collaborative Professional Development School (PDS) relationships require financing and other supports that may not be typically included in the budgets for partnering schools and colleges. In the current economic climate, budgets are especially tight in many educational institutions. In order to sustain PDS relationships in these times,…

In 2005, the Hildago (Texas) Independent School District, in partnership with the University of Texas-Pan American, the University of Texas System, the Communities Foundation of Texas/Texas High School Project, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, promised that all of its students would earn college credits before graduating from high…