As citizen boards who must be nonpartisan to be effective, state boards of education are uniquely placed to help eliminate the political divides that impede decisive action to end inequities in learning. Three state boards of education and education agency staff--in Nebraska, New York, and North Carolina--committed to joining a National…

America has a long history of small-school environments, such as one-room schoolhouses and homeschools. But in recent years, other models have developed, giving students more intimate settings for learning and enabling their families to play a larger role in their schooling. Microschools are a leading example of this growing sector that also…

Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to honor, position and reflect on key themes related to high school reform within the careerlong scholarship of Karen Seashore Louis. It is presented in relation to my own and others' key studies and book-length arguments regarding educational change, knowledge utilization, professional communities and…

The Coalition for Community Schools (Coalition), as an alliance of national, state and local partners that advocate for community schools, wanted to provide support and a space for community school leaders to share their challenges and successes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Beginning March 17, 2020 through the present, the Coalition conducted…

State policymakers are in a unique position to enable the innovations in education necessary to prepare students for a rapidly changing world. Working with 8,000 educators nationwide, the Aurora Institute identified the top 10 issues to address in state policy for transforming the K-12 education system: (1) Profile of a Graduate; (2) Innovation…

Although "entrepreneurship" has become a movement in arts career preparation programs, its application for school-based music educators remains unclear. This article suggests that "intrapreneuring"--entrepreneurial practice within large organizations--better encapsulates the balance of innovation and affiliation that teachers…

This resource, released in collaboration with the Center for the Analysis of Postsecondary Readiness, explains the importance of developmental education, its current challenges and how policymakers can contribute to improving outcomes.

In public education, procurement reform has been all but ignored in policy discussions and procurement policies have remained virtually untouched. But the high price of ignoring procurement is becoming clear to people trying to reform education on the ground. Often involving long, cumbersome processes and risk-averse central office cultures,…

Our urban school systems struggle because so many of their students live in poverty, but they also struggle because they were designed a hundred years ago, for an industrial society. In an increasing number of cities, they are being replaced by 21st century systems, in which the central administration does not operate all schools and employ all…

This document presents the testimony of MDRC's Lashawn Richburg-Hayes before the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee regarding evidence-based ways to improve the academic success of low-income college students. Richburg-Hayes makes four primary points based on existing research: (1) Comprehensive and integrated programs…

In this paper, the authors draw on empirical data from CCRC's Scaling Innovation project to examine trends in developmental education instructional reform and outline a framework for reform adoption and adaptation. The paper's findings are based on two qualitative data sources: a scan of developmental education reforms that involved changes to…

Like many colleges funded by the U.S. Department of Labor's TAACCCT program, the goal of the Northeast Resiliency Consortium (NRC) (a Round Three grantee) was to enhance the capacity of colleges to accelerate learning, ensure that students attain industry-recognized credentials, foster innovative employer partnerships, use new technologies, and…

It is a truism of American social policy that our nation has great success generating innovative programs that improve outcomes for participants--but that we are far less effective at moving from small, "boutique" programs into broadly applied solutions that improve the prospects of large numbers of individuals. This is certainly true in…

The shift in education reform to a goal of college and career readiness for all students is a change that has been embraced widely across the country. The challenge of designing new policies and programs that could accomplish the goal that all students should graduate from high school with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in college…

As the adoption and execution of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) have steadily increased, the debate community is presented with an opportunity to be more forward thinking and sustainable through the translation to curriculum planning and next-generation assessment as a movement towards Performance-Based Assessments. This paper focuses on…