The May 2012 State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) report, "The Broadband Imperative: Recommendations to Address K-12 Education Infrastructure Needs," pushed educators and policy makers nationwide to increase high-speed broadband access in schools, with specific recommendations regarding access, funding, and policies…

This paper provides a vision and set of policy recommendations to help federal, state, and local leaders develop the workforce necessary to support teaching and learning in a competency-based K-12 education system. Part One, Pre-service and Credentialing for K-12 Competency-Based Learning Environments, provides policymakers with a framework and…

Technological innovation is driving fundamental changes in all aspects of our lives. This is especially true of digital content, as our use of e-books, downloadable music, streaming television and movies, and online social networks has exploded. However, the explosive growth in our use of digital content seems so far to have eluded many of the 50…

This exploration into competency-based innovation at the school, district, and state levels suggests that competency-based pathways are a re-engineering of this nation's education system around learning--a re-engineering designed for success in which failure is no longer viable. This discussion draws on interviews and site visits with innovators…

Response to intervention (RTI) can be both a system for providing early interventions to struggling students and a special education diagnostic tool for evaluating and identifying students with specific learning disabilities. Contributing to the very limited literature on state-level approaches, this report describes how nine states define and…

Concerned with the impact of Title I, as national education policy on four mountain west states (Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana), this study concludes that Title I has not been internalized, integrated, or institutionalized in this region of the country or in any of the four individual states. The rejection of Title I policy rests on two basic…

The "State Teacher Policy Yearbook" examines what is arguably the single most powerful authority over the teaching profession: state government. This Utah edition of the National Council on Teacher Quality's (NCTQ's) "State Teacher Policy Yearbook" is the first of what will be an annual look at the status of state policies…

This monograph and its companion, "Legislative Education Leadership in the States," portray the contemporary role of state legislators and map the structure of education leadership in terms of both the characteristics of influential legislators and staff and the nature of influence structures in state legislatures. This volume reports…

Clarifications to recommendations made in the Utah Education Reform Committee report, "A Call to Action," are presented in this addendum. Earlier recommendations relating to teachers are revised and clarified and new ones relating to class size, teachers' duties, instructional materials, and the student-parent-school relationship are…

Recommendations of the Utah Education Reform Steering Committee are presented in this report. First, the recommendations are briefly summarized and challenges facing the State's provision of education are outlined. Next, specific recommendations are made in the following areas: elementary and secondary education; higher education; and facilities,…

The legislative authority for Navajo education is examined in this two-part report, designed to help the Navajo people attain meaningful control of the education of their youth, with the continued appropriate involvement of the federal and state governments. Part 1 summarizes the key provisions of the relevant sources of legal authority which…