For the past quarter century, federal law has required states to measure school performance, identify the lowest performing schools, and provide support to identified schools. Earlier accountability systems were criticized for overemphasizing student achievement in reading and mathematics, excluding nonacademic features of school performance, and…

Recent state legislative developments have brought accreditation to the forefront of public higher education conversations. Some accreditation critics state that accreditors have too much influence in higher education suggesting that their efforts may affect institutional autonomy and that they are allegedly structured as legalized monopolies…

Background/significance: Standards-based accountability systems have been a pillar of education reform in the United States for almost three decades. Although accountability systems have evolved in progressive reauthorizations of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the underlying theory of action has changed little. The basic…

The school turnaround initiative and school reform have been focal points of the national education conversation since the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 was enacted by Congress under the Johnson Administration. No Child Left Behind (NCLB, 2001) built upon the concept of equal access to a high-quality education for all…

Many states report school performance grades as a way to inform the public about school quality. However, past research has shown that when these grades drew largely on proficiency-based measures, they served to capture variation in school and community demographics rather than school quality. We extend this literature by examining whether a…

Excess hours laws are among credit-based accountability measures implemented by several state legislatures in the United States since 1993 to incentivize students to complete their baccalaureate degree programs with fewer excess credit hours. An analysis of the nature and scope of similar educational policies in the national context is provided in…

Decades of federal and state education legislation enacted to increase student academic achievement and enhance school quality have pronounced impacts on teachers and their instructional practice. That impact is captured in the term intensification. Intensification is multifaceted and manifests as additional tasks accomplished simultaneously, with…

Accusations pertaining to insufficient accountability for private schools that provide alternative educational options for special education students have led to opposition to those same schools. The opposition results in part from the schools' acceptance of state funded vouchers and scholarships. In Florida, state vouchers provide funds which…

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was enacted as an education intervention to close the achievement gap by increasing student attendance, graduation, and standard testing rates. NCLB held teachers and administrators accountable for successfully meeting adequate yearly progress gains. However, the emerging NCLB research uncovered a culture of…

There were a number of historic public charter school policy wins across the country in 2017. Kentucky became the 44th state (along with the District of Columbia) to enact a charter school law. Colorado and Florida provided charter school students with unprecedented access to locally raised dollars for facilities. Tennessee and Texas created new…

This report provides an overview of key provisions in Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), discusses how Florida's ESSA plan addresses accountability for Latino students and English Learners (ELs), and provides recommendations to Florida's accountability system to better ensure that Latino and EL students in Florida are receiving a high-quality…

The author is disappointed to hear about the feedback that several states have received from the United States Department of Education (USED) regarding the proposed additional indicator of school quality and student success for grades 3-8. The "equity indicator" has been used in Wyoming and Utah for several years and there is substantial…

States use their accountability systems to identify low-performing schools, which can receive added support and are expected to improve. Alternative schools serve students whose needs are not met in a regular school. They often serve at-risk students who are struggling academically or behaviorally. Given this unique population, the Government…

As additional states embark on the process of implementing four-year degrees at community colleges, they can learn from others' experience for help navigating the legislative, regulatory, and program approval processes. This brief uses examples from states currently offering bachelor's degrees at their community colleges to provide guidance for…

In the 2018-19 school year, 5,664 U.S. schools were identified as Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI), meaning that thousands of students attended schools that performed in the bottom 5% of their state's accountability framework and/or had a graduation rate below 67%. Across the nation, states, parents, educators, principals and…