State policymakers are in a unique position to enable the innovations in education necessary to prepare students for a rapidly changing world. Working with 8,000 educators nationwide, the Aurora Institute identified the top 10 issues to address in state policy for transforming the K-12 education system: (1) Profile of a Graduate; (2) Innovation…

Public institutions in the United States face a policy challenge to adapt to accountability expectations among a variety of stakeholders (Bogue & Hall, 2012; Thelin, 2004; Richardson & Martinez, 2009). Among the major stakeholders are state legislators who hold fiscal and policy influence over public institutions, but these leaders have…

The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) and its 16 member states and territories (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawai'i, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, U.S. Pacific Territories & Freely Associated States, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming) work collaboratively to expand…

The education system of the United States is not adequately preparing a large proportion of its students for college, career-training, and, ultimately, jobs that provide enough income to support a middle class standard of living. Because the education system has failed to attain hoped-for outcomes, some states are investigating new systems,…

Evidence of the emergence of accountability expectations for higher education in the United States and throughout the world is abundant; it is in national reports, conference themes, mandated assessments, accreditation guidelines, and government statues and regulations. Yet some research establishes that business, political, and academic…

The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) and its 16 member states and territories work collaboratively to expand educational access and excellence for their citizens. By promoting innovation, cooperation, resource sharing, and sound public policy, WICHE strengthens higher education's contributions to social, economic, and…

As educational attainment grows increasingly more essential to individual and societal prosperity and simultaneously more expensive, policymakers' appetite for evidence of the return on the investment in a college education has swelled and they increasingly want to equip prospective college students and their families with concrete information…

Some institutions create a gift fee to pay for a campaign or to cover basic fundraising costs, and especially today, many are doing it in order to increase revenues in the wake of the recession's effect on endowments. In the best circumstances, gift fees are emblematic of a transparent, accountable development process, where donors understand that…

The primary purpose of "National CrossTalk" is to stimulate informed discussion and debate of higher education issues. This issue contains the following articles: (1) Florida's Unnatural Disaster: The State's Economic Bubble Has Burst, Leaving Higher Education in a Double Bind (Jon Marcus); (2) Saudi King's Modern University:…

If there's one quality that WICHE's home region, the West, is famous for, it's endurance in the face of crisis. And if there's another, it's the ability to find--and make--opportunities even in tough times. Over the last fiscal year, WICHE has done just that. The organization has been highly successful in terms of developing new projects and…

Elementary education faculty at this university embedded a Teacher Work Sample (TWS) performance-based assessment into the student teaching experience to assess candidates' ability to impact student learning as required by recent accreditation reforms. The authors conducted an internal evaluation of the TWS for the purposes of strengthening not…

The primary purpose of "National CrossTalk" is to stimulate informed discussion and debate of higher education issues. This issue contains the following articles: (1) The Celtic Tiger: Ireland Invests Heavily in Higher Education, and Benefits Mightily (Jon Marcus); (2) Western Classic: Nevada's James Rogers Is a Non-Traditional…

An increasing number of state leaders have begun to grapple with one of the significant challenges of K-12 reform: how to substantially increase the percentage of young people graduating from high school while also continuing to bring academic standards into alignment with the skills and knowledge required for success in higher education and…

America's current systems of K-12 and higher education are based on the traditional view that only an elite group of students attends college. Today, the majority of students attend some form of postsecondary education after high school. These students encounter numerous challenges: many do not complete their programs of study, almost half the…

The achiever is published monthly during the school year for parents and community leaders. Each issue contains news and information about school improvement in the United States. The following articles are contained in this issue: (1) Spellings Focuses on English Language Learners; (2) Around the Country--Maryland and Oregon; (3) Calendar; (4)…