Milwaukee's system of K-12 public education is distinct from many other urban school systems in the degree of educational choices offered to students and their families. This range of options has fostered intense competition among Milwaukee's K-12 schools over the past decade. While enrollment in traditional Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) has…

Early childhood teachers are rightly concerned with implementing a system that was, at least in the initial stages, designed with a different set of teachers in mind--teachers of older students who have standardized achievement data. In most states, policy, practices, and guidance for early childhood teachers are just now being developed or…

The "Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965" ("ESEA") is the nation's key policy driver for elementary and secondary education, shaping federal, state and district efforts to promote effective school systems and improve educational outcomes, particularly for students in high-poverty schools. The most recent…

This report describes the use of Lead Turnaround Partners (LTPs) in the current School Improvement Grant (SIG) program and provides the results of document review, surveys, and interviews with eight State Education Agencies and seven Lead Turnaround Partner organizations. The study focuses on the implementation of the transformation and turnaround…

Several categories of problems affecting adult learning services in Colorado require state-level policy intervention for their solution. They include problems that limit adults' access to existing learning services, inadequacies in existing services, deficiencies in statewide planning and coordination of learning services, and financial…

This paper reports on a survey of 221 small-scale farmers conducted in 5 western states. Despite the current productive dominance of large farms, an argument can be made that small-scale farming is desirable both for social and ecological reasons. Discussion focuses on the tradition-oriented goals and values of small-scale farmers, special…

This survey examined the attitudes of people in four states where tax or spending limitations appeared on the ballot in November 1978. It found that people had positive attitudes toward schools in their communities, believed schools are doing an above-average job, and viewed schools as a public service that should not be reduced. Results suggest…

Jobs for the Future undertook a program designed to enhance the ability of four states--Colorado, Indiana, Mississippi, and Missouri--to manage economic change is described in this report. An analysis of what was happening in the state economies, especially the kinds of jobs that were being created, was carried out. The research portions of the…