This study used the historical research method to explore the Chinese government's role in building world-class universities. We traced the government's role in pushing policies for: (1) accelerating academic improvement; and (2) enhancing the involvement of provincial governments in achieving universities' world-class status. The findings…

This year marks the 20th year of National Access and Finance Survey (NAFS) studies of access and funding issues in public higher education. National Council of State Directors of Community Colleges (NCSDCC) members are surveyed because of their broad knowledge of access and finance issues across education sectors and state government as well. For…

The COVID-19 pandemic struck during a period of extreme polarization in American politics. Unsurprisingly, responses to it quickly became politicized despite increasingly clear findings from scientific and public health communities about the most effective approaches for limiting its spread. We ask how the politicization affected pandemic response…

When Congress reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Schools Act in 2015, it intended to send a strong signal: any further encroachment of federal authority on the nation's K-12 schools needed to end. Compared to its more prescriptive predecessor in 2000, known as No Child Left Behind, the new law, dubbed "ESSA" for the Every Student…

"Between the State and the Schoolhouse" examines the Common Core State Standards from the initiative's promising beginnings to its disappointing outcomes. Situating the standards in the long history of state and federal efforts to shape education, the book describes a series of critical lessons that highlight the political and structural…

The National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) and the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) compiled this report to provide a glimpse at the 10-year trends in student-to-counselor ratios from 2004-05 to 2014-15, the latest school years for which data is available. The data was downloaded from the National Center for…

The U.S. has many of poor- and under-performing colleges, where millions of students are paying and borrowing a lot. Unfortunately, most students do not know that schools are underperforming until it is too late. The higher education industry has coasted on the reputation of the nation's most prestigious schools. Nationally, only about 42 percent…

The coronavirus pandemic has led to the most difficult semester in generations on college campuses across the United States. With that semester now wrapping up, public colleges and universities are facing costs that already dwarf the $7.6 billion in federal stimulus funds that are on their way to these institutions. Absent dramatic new action from…

States have an essential guiding role in the collection and use of attendance data. State guidance ensures that attendance is taken daily in a consistent manner and is monitored to detect and address inequitable access to learning opportunities. The recent shift to distance and blended learning as a result of the coronavirus pandemic disrupted the…

In this report, the authors tally the cost of child care and the price of attending a public four-year college--including tuition and fees, housing, food, books, and transportation--to determine a student parent's actual annual cost of pursuing a degree. That number is used to calculate the "student parent affordability gap," that is,…

In this essay, Jack Schneider and Andrew Saultz offer a new perspective on state and federal power through their analysis of authority and control. Due to limitations inherent to centralized governance, state and federal offices of education exercised little control over schools across much of the twentieth century, even as they acquired…

With the majority of "good jobs" that pay a family-sustaining wage requiring at least some college education -- such as a technical certificate, associate degree, bachelor's degree or another credential of value -- ensuring the existence of high-quality postsecondary CTE [Career Technical Education] programs and programs of study is more…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was designed to remedy the wrongs of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Yet Andrew Saultz, Jack Schneider, and Karalyn McGovern explain that, so far, it has failed to fundamentally alter how the federal government interacts with schools. They discuss the need for federal authority over issues of equity in education…

This brief is part of a four-part series examining the past, present, and future of modern school accountability systems. With the dual forces of the COVID-19 pandemic and the national call to action on racial inequity, the question of how we should measure and hold schools accountable for the impact they have on students is more urgent than ever.…

States have an essential guiding role in the collection and use of attendance data. State guidance ensures that attendance is taken daily in a consistent manner and is monitored to detect and address inequitable access to learning opportunities. The recent shift to distance and blended learning as a result of the coronavirus pandemic disrupted the…