State early childhood administrators are planning to strategically invest the federal appropriations in the American Rescue Plan Act (ARP) to address disruptions in children's care and learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. State leaders must consider how this one-time funding can be used effectively while understanding the context around…

The "Forum Guide to Data Governance" highlights how data governance programs benefit education agencies and provide timely and useful best practices, examples, and resources for agencies implementing or updating their data governance programs. This resource is intended to address the needs of federal, state, and local agencies related…

The Forum Guide to Reporting Civil Rights Data presents a variety of effective methods through which local education agencies (LEAs) report civil rights data to the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights. In addition, the guide provides examples of how state education agencies can voluntarily help their LEAs with Civil Rights Data…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), passed in 2015, signaled a major shift in the roles of states and districts in supporting school improvement. Under ESSA, state education agencies (SEAs) and local education agencies (LEAs) have more responsibility and flexibility in developing and implementing plans, informed by local context, to support the…

The ultimate goal of teacher evaluation systems is to improve the quality of instruction by clarifying expectations for effective teaching and helping teachers meet those expectations through high-quality feedback and support. Classroom observations -- which make up the majority of a teacher's summative rating in most States and districts -- give…

The Delaware Enhanced Assessment Grant (DE EAG) project was funded by the U.S. Department of Education in 2006 as an initiative to assist 10 state departments of education (SDE) teams, and local school district and high school teams, in implementing a comprehensive and balanced learning and assessment system (CBAS) with a strong emphasis on a…

This "Informed Educator" provides a snapshot of the current state of virtual education at the elementary and secondary levels. A number of critical factors are addressed, including: (1) the types of online courses and schools now available; (2) virtual program providers-- institutional, school, district, state, consortia and private…

Developed to share information presented at a Southwest Educational Development Laboratory Regional Exchange (SEDL/RX) conference, this document includes reports and related materials on educational computing applications in southwestern school districts and states. Basic computer terminology is defined, and software evaluation instruments are…

Local inservice coordinators and advisors worked with Louisiana State Department of Education personnel to develop and implement this plan for compliance with teacher inservice education mandates of Act 10. Through the guidelines of Act 10, resulting inservice teacher education programs will be successful in improving teacher effectiveness. This…

This paper documents the multistep procedure used by the Louisiana Department of Education, Bureau of School Accountability to correct and verify the data that drive the state's statewide school performance indicator program, the "Progress Profiles." The paper also reports the findings of a nationwide survey in which state departments of…

Among the six components of Louisiana's Shared Accountability Law, passed in 1977 in response to public demands for accountability in education, is the requirement that all certified and other professional educational personnel in the state be assessed and evaluated at least once every 3 years. Each of the state's 66 local education agencies was…

Outlined here is the organizational structure of the Louisiana public school system, including the relationship between the governor and the legislature and between boards of education and the State superintendent of education. Various sources of funding and other financial assistance are noted. The qualifications, duties, and rewards of members…

In response to the report of the President's Commission on Foreign Language and International Studies and by appointment of the legislature, a commission studied the status of French language instruction in Louisiana. They found both significant deficiencies in foreign language competencies and substantial opportunities to build on existing French…

This report focuses on the areas of difficulty encountered by states in developing their three-year Adult Education State Plan required by the Adult Education legislation of 1978. It highlights those areas when technical assistance from the United States Office of Education is warranted. Findings and recommendations are based on the Division of…