Improving student achievement is a continual focus of educational and political leaders. The strategies used to impact student achievement are varied as are the results. The United States Department of Education provides grant funding to states and local educational agencies with the goal of impacting student achievement through the use of…

Student parents face significant challenges that can limit their ability to enter, persist in, and graduate from college. Innovative partnerships between Head Start and the higher education system is a promising strategy to bring together essential supports to meet the needs of student parents and set them up for long-term success. This briefing…

As of June 2020, it is still too early to know how state early childhood systems will be permanently changed by the COVID-19 crisis. But the need for early childhood data is not new to the pandemic and recovery. States can benefit from data to better understand the landscape of local early childhood services--and about resources needed to help…

The funding of public elementary and secondary schools in the United States involves a combination of local, state, and federal government revenues. State and local governments generally provide over 90% of the revenue available for public elementary and secondary education on an annual basis, with the federal government providing the remainder.…

The federal government pays for a wide range of goods and services that are expected to contribute to the economy for some years in the future. Those purchases, called investment, fall into three categories: physical capital, research and development (R&D), and education and training. There are several economic rationales for federal…

Charter schools today serve more than 3 million students. Nationally, these students account for approximately 6 percent of all K-12 enrollment, though the percentage is much higher in many communities. Research shows that charter schools on average have a positive impact on student outcomes, and survey data suggest that there are an additional…

The Social Spending Innovation Research (SSIR) proposal seeks to replicate, in social spending, the great success of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program in technology development. The SBIR program funds technology development by entrepreneurial small companies. The program has spawned breakthrough technologies in diverse areas…

How can local education agencies (LEAs), elementary schools, and teachers make sure the kindergarten year deepens and builds on children's previous learning? What are the best ways to keep children and families connected to school and engaged in learning? And how can LEAs, schools, and classroom teachers provide the smoothest transition possible…

When President Obama took office in 2009, his administration quickly seized on teacher evaluations as an important public-policy problem. Today, much of his legacy on K-12 education rests on efforts to revamp evaluations in the hopes of improving teaching across the country, which his administration pursued via a series of incentives for states.…

The first two years of the Obama administration brought nothing but good news for student financial aid programs. These included increases to grants, tax benefits, and funding for community colleges and minority-serving schools. But in early 2011, President Obama and Congress released the new budget with a request that would achieve large savings…

Passage of the "Every Student Succeeds Act" (ESSA) provides opportunities to improve how schools address barriers to learning and teaching and re-engage disconnected students and families. Of particular relevance to these concerns, ESSA replaces what has been described as a maze of programs with a "Student Support and Academic…

Head Start is a valuable federal program that improves the lives of our nation's most vulnerable children and their families. Research shows that Head Start programs improve children's learning at school entry and have a positive impact on long-term life outcomes. Research also suggests that Head Start could have a stronger impact on children's…

The COVID-19 pandemic has upended life for students, teachers and everyone connected to public schools. The crisis has also exposed the fragilities of the economy in meeting the basic needs of all and highlighted the importance of the public sector, of community, and of care work. Schools are key public spaces of community and care. They must be…

The landscape of K-12 education funding in the United States is exceptionally complex. When it comes to funding an equitable, high-quality education for English Learners (ELs), discussions often focus on federal funds under Title III of the "Every Student Succeeds Act" (ESSA)--an important source of funding for many aspects of ELs'…

There is growing unease about suspension and expulsion of children at the preschool level. Preschoolers are expelled at three times the rate of K-12 students (Gilliam, 2005). Boys--particularly African-American boys--comprise a disproportionate number of these cases, a fact that has caused concern among parents, policymakers, and advocates alike.…