This collection of reflections serves as a companion to the California Collaborative's report, "Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing: Lessons About Effective School Board Governance From Napa Valley and San José Unified School Districts." The report describes the experiences, practices, and learnings from two school boards in California…

COVID-19 shed light on persistent disparities among K-12 school districts, particularly regarding technology access, its use, and educational outcomes. Although resources exist to inform the design and delivery of distance education at the course level, there is a lack of resources to inform program-level decisions about equitable distance…

Have you ever encountered a leader who just had the "it" factor? They always knew the right thing to do, and it almost felt like they could read the minds of others and anticipate their needs? What if I told you that these are also things that can be learned and strengthened within oneself based on the emotional intelligence framework?…

Open enrollment in public schools is a form of school choice that allows students to attend schools other than the one assigned to them by their school district. Though often less visible than policies such as charter schools, vouchers, and education savings accounts, K-12 open enrollment is rising in popularity across the nation, and 73 percent…

In April 2024, the School Finance Indicators Database released new estimates of school district funding gaps, which refer to the difference between how much per-pupil funding each district "receives" and how much per-pupil funding each district "needs." Linking these estimates to Texas Education Agency (TEA) student achievement…

Wisconsin voters approved a record number of referenda in 2024 to increase property taxes to fund their local schools, and nearly set a record for the most referenda to fund municipalities or counties. However, the approval rate for school ballot questions continued a downward trend. These trends raise questions about both the adequacy of current…

This qualitative case study focused on one public school district that has successfully sustained innovative educational initiatives over several years. The purpose of the study was to explore the factors that contribute to sustaining innovative initiatives in a public school district through the perspectives and experiences of administrators,…

R. Goldring and Taie (2018) found that there was a national turnover rate of 18% among principals during the 2015-16 academic year. Previous research has also revealed that as many as 50% of new principals do not stay in their positions beyond their third year (Fuller & Young, 2009; School Leaders Network, 2014). This high turnover highlights…

In the United States, sexual violence in K-12 public schools saw a 55% increase in incidents from the 2015-2016 school year to the 2017-2018 school year. These incidents included sexual violence by school employees against students and peers against other peers. The current study estimated the overall weighted average number of sexual…

This dissertation contributes to the discussion of what contributes to school district rankings in the state of Ohio. It uses Latent Profile Analysis to explore different variables at the contextual and district level as they correspond to Ohio's Performance Index academic measure and Value-Added academic measure. Results show that contextual…

This policy analysis examined the intersection of a statistical model and locus of control to recommend an accountability model that best upholds the criteria of equity, efficacy, and impact on student learning for Missouri schools. Using Eugene Bardach's eightfold path and informed by the quality education in schools framework, this analysis…

School accountability is a powerful force in education. Today, schools are within the early years of the "Every Student Succeeds Act" ("ESSA") which has introduced a new accountability model to states and districts, in a post-pandemic era in which schools' roles and responsibilities within the larger society have continued to…

Congress passed three coronavirus relief acts to prevent, prepare for, and respond to the coronavirus, including $189.5 billion for Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds intended to provide vital support to States, local educational agencies, and schools. This review was performed to determine whether the Yukon-Koyukuk…

Congress passed three coronavirus relief acts to prevent, prepare for, and respond to the coronavirus, including $189.5 billion for Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds intended to provide vital support to States, local educational agencies, and schools. This review was performed to determine whether Lower Kuskokwim…

The American School District Panel (ASDP) is the newest addition to RAND's American Educator Panels (AEP) and was designed to survey district leaders two times each school year. RAND recruits ASDP members using probabilistic sampling methods, which allow researchers to weight survey results to generalize to the national population of school…