Research partnerships between school districts and universities can be extremely beneficial to both institutions, but these partnerships require many skills that academics and district leaders generally do not have, making these collaborations challenging to set up and difficult to maintain. Co-authored by a university professor and a school…

As our world has continued to become more dependent on digital communication and collaboration, online learning environments have become more sophisticated. Demand for online and/or hybrid learning materials has increased, not only in higher education arenas, but in elementary and secondary schools, as well. This study describes the development…

Between 2014 and 2016, California policymakers invested a half-billion dollars in the California Career Pathways Trust (CCPT). The initiative funded regional and local partnerships to establish career pathways designed to lead secondary school students to postsecondary degrees or certifications aligned with regional workforce needs. This brief…

As educational practitioners and policymakers expand the range of student outcomes they assess, student perception surveys--particularly those targeting social-emotional learning--have grown in popularity. Despite excitement around the potential for measuring a wider array of important student outcomes, concerns about the validity of the…

Many reports on rural education give little attention to digital learning. At most, they tend to note either infrastructure needs or the potential of remote course access, with little focus on instruction, outcomes, or exemplars. This report intends to begin correcting that imbalance by connecting the dots between rural regions, rural education,…

This article highlights the rationale for Namibia's participation in three studies which were conducted under the auspices of the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) during the period 1995-2007. The article provides some of the innovative ways in which the results of the first (SACMEQ I, 1995) and…

This is the eighth annual "Keeping Pace" report. When the authors look back on 2011 from some future year, it may be clear in retrospect that 2011 was the year that online and blended learning went digital, transcending their distance-learning or computer-based instruction origins and taking root in classrooms and schools across the…

"Keeping Pace" has several goals. First, it strives to add to the body of knowledge about online education policy and practice, and make recommendations for advances. Second, it serves as a reference source for information about programs and policies across the country, both for policymakers and practitioners who are new to online…

Evaluation results are reported for a gifted education consortium, involving seven rural school districts and Purdue University's Gifted Education Resource Institute. Positive change occurred in teachers and other school personnel in knowledge level and attitudes toward gifted education. High satisfaction with goal achievement was indicated by…

States have had to budget increasing amounts for mandated pupil-transportation services as their state transportation aid has been slashed dramatically. Among school districts, cooperation and coordination through shared services (consortia) have resulted in safer, more reliable, and more efficient transportation. Implementation advice is…

This handbook reports on the use of consortia-appointed curriculum directors for meeting small, rural school districts' curriculum renewal needs. It is based on interviews with individuals involved with consortia in five Western U.S. case-study sites. Limited resources in rural schools often hinder curriculum-renewal efforts. If several districts…

The Arlington (Virginia) Adult Learning System (AALS), a program designed to link resources and enhance services of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) providers, is described. The AALS is a consortium in which an adult education provider (the public school system) coordinates efforts of its own organization with a community-based organization, a…

Third-party evaluation of the Wisconsin Career Education Consortium (WCEC) was conducted over two years, utilizing a time series evaluation design established in 1975. On-site interviews, surveys, and tests were used to collect data from students, teachers, counselors, parents, and administrators. The WCEC was effective in disseminating career…

In accordance with a mandate included in the 1990 amendments to the Perkins Act, a national evaluation of Tech-Prep implementation was conducted. The evaluation had two main objectives: to determine how effectively Tech-Prep is being implemented and to identify useful implementation practices and challenges. Data were collected from the following…

The extent and quality of school-to-work (STW) programs in the state of Washington were evaluated through a survey of all school districts receiving state STW funds and case studies of programs in four school districts (Bethel, Methow, Sumner, and Wapato), one consortium (Columbia River School-to-Work Consortium in Clark County), and two…