One of the biggest challenges that states and local intermediaries face in setting up and scaling high-quality youth apprenticeships is gathering relevant, accurate and actionable data. High-quality data is an essential ingredient for a strong youth apprenticeship program because it equips state and local leaders to evaluate impact, monitor…

Educational accountability policy rests heavily on the assessments used to influence teaching, learning, and school improvement. A long-debated aspect of assessment use, consequential validity, plays an important role in public interpretation of assessment use whether for individual students or for state policy. The purpose of this survey study…

On April 10, 2015 in Nashville, Tennessee, the Reform Support Network brought together leaders from State education agencies planning to make educator compensation a key component of their equitable access plans. The convening featured presentations by the Tennessee Department of Education and district leaders who explained how the State has…

This document contains guidelines, procedures, and administrative requirements based on the regulations, assurances, and certifications in the South Carolina Three-Year State Plan for Vocational-Technical Education as adopted by the State Board of Education. The guide contains an introduction (section I) and seven main sections. Section II…

To give states the information they need to sustain hard-fought education reform effectively, Achieve conducted research on state education reforms that have been sustained successfully for over a decade or more. Funded by the GE Foundation, Achieve hopes this work will help other state leaders, wherever they may be on their road to reform,…

Involuntary commitment laws, once seen as reform, now questioned as roadblocks to needed treatment, are discussed. The ineffectiveness of state's commitment laws, lack of community resources for treating the mentally ill, and homelessness among the mentally ill are discussed in the introduction. The history of the right of a state to commit…

In the course of developing and passing the South Carolina Education Improvement Act of 1984, those behind the legislative effort observed that several factors affect successful educational reform. First, reform must be comprehensive. The 1984 act has provisions relating to academic standards, basic skills, instructional improvement,…

Enactment of South Carolina's Education Improvement Act of 1984 taught several lessons about successful education reform. The law provides for raising student performance by increasing academic standards; strengthening the teaching and testing of basic skills; elevating the teaching profession; improving leadership, management, and fiscal…

School finance reform has reflected, over the last 10 years, the changing relationship between education and state government. Emerging from the case histories presented here is the conclusion that, gradually, the barriers separating education policymakers from general government have been lowered. At the same time, the fragmentation among…

Reviews precedents, at the state level, to the movement for education reform. Reports, by year and state, on first reactions to reform. Outlines topics touched by state reform efforts, summarizes unifying themes, and predicts the future of reform. Includes a table of states requiring testing for initial certification of teachers. (IW)