Data estimates 11.2% of college students experience sexual assault at some point during their postsecondary education. The prevalence of this issue and the resulting impact on students' lives and educational outcomes highlights the importance of examining the role of federal, state and institutional action in preventing and addressing issues of…

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…

A wide variety of legislation impacts the jobs of special education teachers in the United States. In 2002, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was signed into law, mandating that states develop standards and report outcomes for all students in the key areas of math and reading. In 2004, the reauthorized Individuals with Disabilities Education…

Two distinct forces recently converged in Utah that led to the Board of Education office creating a training and mentoring program for new special education administrators and teachers: simultaneous steady growth of charter schools and nagging concerns about the quality of special education programs in these new schools and Results Driven…

The First Amendment Schools project holds rich lessons in how to change school cultures into "laboratories of democracy"--as well as in how to increase the odds of success for any school reform effort. School reform programs of any sort need to make sure to build in sustainability, to provide ways to spread their lessons beyond the…

In this article, we argue that ESSA provides a unique policy window for district-level leaders to advance an equity agenda by working closely with local community advocates. Drawing from a larger qualitative, multiple case study on the role of school boards in three U.S. Mountain West school districts, we focus on community advocacy committed to…

This is the second of two articles reporting the results of a study by the author regarding the status of elementary music education in the state of Utah. This article focuses on the qualifications of Utah's elementary music teachers (music certified, elementary classroom certified, artists-in-residence, volunteers, and paraprofessionals) and the…

Career and technical education (CTE) is increasingly seen as a major potential contributor to the recovery of the U.S. economy. However, the effectiveness and impact of the current Carl D. Perkins Act (otherwise known as Perkins IV) that governs CTE are unclear. Is the federal investment in CTE paying off? To answer this, we need to establish the…

The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) is working to respond to increased interest in the use of growth models for school accountability. Growth models are based on tracking change in individual student achievement scores over multiple years. While growth models have been used for decades in academic research and program evaluation, a…

Locally controlled public schools are one of the cornerstones of our nation's democracy, yet many schools are not preparing students for success. Far too many students are not graduating, and many of those who do graduate are woefully unprepared for college or a meaningful career. Successfully initiating and sustaining meaningful improvements in…

In today's economy, employers increasingly demand that workers have a high school diploma, yet America's graduation rates are unacceptably low, particularly among poor and minority students. Nationally, only about 70 percent of students graduate from high school on time with a regular diploma; for African American and Hispanic students, this…

Graduation rates are a fundamental indicator of whether or not the nation's public school system is doing what it is intended to do: enroll, engage, and educate youth to be productive members of society. Since almost 90 percent of the fastest-growing and highest-paying jobs require some postsecondary education, having a high school diploma and the…

This paper profiles the student subgroup achievement and gap trends in Utah for 2010. Utah implemented new standards and cut scores in math so trend data that include 2009 are not available. In grade 8 (the only grade in which subgroup trends were analyzed by achievement level), Utah showed across-the-board gains in reading at the basic,…

This workbook, submitted by the State of Utah to the U.S. Department of Education, is for State Grants under Title IX, Part C, Section 9302 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (Public Law 107-110). By January 31, 2003, States must complete and submit to the Department this Consolidated State Application Accountability Workbook. The…

Utah state Representative Margaret Dayton adored President Bush. Her conservative politics lined up with his. One of her favorite memories was being at an intimate gathering and hearing the president echo her top priorities, God, family, and country. However, Dayton had drove one of Bush's biggest education-relation headaches. Dayton led a…