During her term on the California State Board of Education, Naomi Porter realized that student and adult board members alike struggle to effectively engage their primary constituents--students. Student state board members face the added challenges of making an impact during relatively short terms of service and of identifying mentors who can help…

For the last decade or more, circulation numbers of physical materials have declined in academic libraries across the United States. In the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic drastically altered society and daily life, not to mention library functions. In particular, fears of contagion via physical surfaces and transmission by contact led many…

For any labor market to function properly, clear information is needed to guide decision making; its absence invariably leads to less than optimal decisions and inefficiencies. While the broader labor market is riddled with imperfect information, the teacher labor market is particularly vulnerable--largely for the lack of the most basic…

This paper outlines current trends, progress, and possibilities for fostering more authentic ways to assess students' competencies and mastery of skills needed for college, work, and civic life in the 21st century. It provides an introduction to performance assessments and their value. The authors highlight efforts to develop such assessments in…

Communities face powerful challenges--a high-school dropout epidemic, youth unemployment, teen pregnancy--that require powerful solutions. In a climate of increasingly constrained resources, those solutions must help communities to achieve more with less. A new kind of community collaborative--an approach that aspires to significant,…

An effective school requires an effective leader, but great principals rarely just happen. They are cultivated. This Wallace Perspective draws on a decade of foundation research and work in school leadership to show how urban school districts can play a major role in ensuring they have principals who can boost teaching and learning in troubled…

Legislation has directed schools to convene school councils that typically address issues related to curriculum, instruction, budget, and governance as one means to improve schooling. However, the expectation for improved schools through this involvement remains a challenge. The study examined issues connected to council operation in two large…

High-quality out-of-school-time (OST) programs have a positive effect on youth development, but many cities have found it difficult to address the challenges of expanding and improving the quality of programs offered to underserved and high-need students. In response, The Wallace Foundation sponsored an initiative to help five cities increase…

Earlier this year, the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence released a report highlighting practices in Kentucky's high-performing, high-poverty schools. Researchers collected information using the same audit tool that the Kentucky Department of Education uses to diagnose problems in schools identified for improvement, then compared those…

Site-based management tries to transform schools into communities where the appropriate people participate constructively in major decisions affecting them. Effective site councils have a well-designed community structure, enabling leadership, student and adult learning focus, and a schoolwide perspective. Districts should provide long-term…

This article analyzes how Kentucky and Maryland have addressed basic issues in developing alternate assessment for students with disabilities who cannot be included within regular state and local district education assessment and accountability measures. Issues include why they chose the formats, standards, and implementation systems they did and…

This paper describes a game-format instructional strategy for administrator development based on a modified case method, the Kentucky New Administrator Standards, and the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) standards. This instructional strategy is intended to help prepare school leaders to assess and be assessed using authentic…

Focuses on a model of school-based management (SBM) and on generalities that can be drawn from recent research on SBM in several southern states. A case study of SBM in Kentucky, where the Kentucky Education Reform Act mandated SBM, illustrates issues in its implementation. (SLD)

Interviews with 15 Kentucky professionals providing assistive technology (AT) services for young children with disabilities found contradictions, including frequent espousal of teaming as important in service delivery but less frequent implementation; family members not seen as important members of teams, but client goals rated as extremely…

Presents observations and lessons drawn from two years of Kentucky school reform. Implementing the Kentucky School Reform Act of 1990 teaches that reforming schools also requires addressing the ways in which communities raise their children. Community work, with parent and student participation, improves family conditions and political decision…