Promoting the Readiness of Minors in Supplemental Security Income (PROMISE), a study of 13,444 randomly assigned youth and their families, includes six model demonstration projects and a technical assistance center funded through the U.S. Department of Education and a national evaluation of the model demonstration projects funded through the…

In 2014, Florida became the second state to enact education savings accounts (ESAs), a relatively new form of educational choice that empowers families to utilize state funding to customize K-12 schooling options beyond just private school tuition, which is all that's allowable under a more traditional voucher program. Now called the Gardiner…

Public education is different than it was 40 years ago when U.S. schools educated only one in five children with disabilities. Many states had laws excluding certain students from attending public schools, including children who were deaf, blind, or had emotional or intellectual disabilities. In 1974, Arizona students with certain disabilities…

This article highlights a set of principles and guidelines, developed by a diverse group of specialists in the field, for appropriately including English language learners (ELLs) with disabilities in large-scale assessments. ELLs with disabilities make up roughly 9% of the rapidly increasing ELL population nationwide. In spite of the small overall…

Voucher and education savings account (ESA) programs fund students' private school education expenses, such as tuition. In school year 2014-15, 22 such school choice programs were operating nationwide, all but one of which was state funded. Under two federal grant programs, one for students with disabilities and one for students from disadvantaged…

In 2011, the Arizona State Legislature adopted a law creating the first education savings account (ESA) in the United States. Following Arizona's lead, several other states, including Florida Tennessee,Mississippi and Nevada, have implemented ESA policies. Typical eligibility requirements include conditions such as a pupil's diagnosed disability,…

This report provides a framework for understanding the impacts of state government statutes regulating private schools, regulations distinct to a given school choice program, and any regulatory growth over a program's lifespan. Examining school choice programs in operation for at least a few years provides important context and comparisons for…

Public funding of private K-12 schooling through vouchers continues to be a contentious issue across the U.S., even though a solid majority of Americans continues to oppose them. The voucher plans run the risk of legal challenge for how they handle the rights of students with disabilities and whether they violate state constitutional provisions…

This nonexperimental quantitative correlation study examined relationships between select special education and standardized testing variables for a purposive homogeneous sample of Arizona secondary school districts with Native American populations, and the archival records for students with disabilities postsecondary outcomes between 2012 and…

A full year of progress in advancing education reform across America is documented in each of the Foundation for Excellence in Education's Annual Reports. The illustrated pages of the 2014 report, provide data-rich updates on Excellence in Education's work to advance student-centered policies in more than 40 states, all aimed at improving learning…

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,…

The present study describes teacher (K-12) opinions and practices related to grading and providing modified instruction, assignments, and assessments for students with low-incidence disabilities in inclusive settings. One hundred and thirty nine teachers working in K-12 inclusive schools in Arizona and California completed an on-line survey…

This technical brief examines the 2008/09 reading and math proficiency levels among subgroups of Arizona public school students defined by students' race/ethnicity (American Indian, Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White), English language learner status (English language learner students and non-English language learner students), disability status…

The document contains 32 profile sheets describing projects serving handicapped students under the auspices of the Arizona Department of Education. Information sheets include the program title, director's name, address, phone number, and a brief description of the program. Among the programs covered are the following: Arizona Child Find Project,…

This document presents eight detailed lesson plans for use with students with disabilities. The lesson plans address oral language skills, reading comprehension, math problem solving, written expression, reading acquisition, study skills, math computation, and social skills. Each lesson plan identifies relevant standards from the Council for…