The Region 8 Comprehensive Center collaborated with the Indiana Department of Education to evaluate the obstacles many districts face in the teacher hiring process. The brief further discusses the importance of hiring timelines, benefits and barriers of early hiring, and recommendations and strategies for revising hiring timelines.

School transportation may increase student outcomes by providing a reliable and safe means of getting to and from school. Little evidence of the effects of such policies exists. In this paper, I provide some of the first causal evidence of transportation impacts on student attendance and achievement using a rich panel of student-level enrollment…

We use administrative panel data from seven states covering nearly 3 million students to document and explore variation in "academic mobility," a term we use to describe the extent to which students' ranks in the distribution of academic performance change during their public schooling careers. On average, we show that student ranks are…

In March 2020, COVID-19 spread quickly throughout the nation leading to one of the largest health crises in the U.S. since the 2009 influenza A (H1N1) pandemic (Trinidad, 2021). With Michigan being among the states hardest hit by the COVID-19 health crisis during the beginning months of the pandemic, Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed executive…

This study examined why schools and districts transitioned from traditional education systems to competency-based, the challenges and benefits school experienced, and characteristics needed in a leader for the shift in education. The study used a quantitative approach informed by survey and correlational research. The participants in this study…

The Dissertation in Practice was conducted as a collaborative group as required by the Doctorate in Educational Leadership program. Although researchers have established the benefits of principals of color, there is a stark shortage in the pipeline, much of which is because of the oppressive experiences they have in K-12 education as leaders. In…

The vast majority of funds for pre-K through grade 12 public schools in the United States -- nearly $800 billion or over 90% -- come from state and local funding sources. States, not school districts, are obligated to ensure that all students have access to the resources they need to succeed. States can take steps to reduce disparities between…

Purpose: As school districts evolve in their ability to actively support schools and educators, they must simultaneously contend with external policies that create additional demands on time and resources. This includes accountability policies aimed at increasing district and school capacity. This study uses Malen and Rice's (2004) dual dimensions…

School district boundaries define more than just the area where a certain group of children attends a given set of schools. They also determine the taxing jurisdiction that supports those schools with local property taxes. Big differences in property value can lead to large funding gaps, even between neighboring districts. These disparities in…

In March 2021, the Legislature enacted HB 4048, which amended the State School Aid Act to appropriate supplemental funding for public education, including approximately $1.5 billion in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER II) funds awarded to the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) by Congress under the Federal Coronavirus…

The recent Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires states to identify and turn around their lowest performing schools, but it breaks somewhat from prior policies by granting states significant autonomy over how they identify and turn around these schools. This mixed-methods study, which draws on administrative, qualitative, and survey data,…

This dissertation aimed to understand the level of staff engagement with the school improvement process before and after the implementation of a new continuous improvement model. To conduct this study, three questions were asked 1) How is the continuous improvement model working? 2) What is the change in staff engagement in the continuous…

In its four years of life, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) has blazed new pathways for policy and funding in K-12 arts education. Many states acted early to take advantage of these federal opportunities to expand students' access to the arts. Through its definitional language, suggested actions, and funding mechanisms, ESSA provides states…

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised even greater concerns about a growing teacher shortage. In this study, we use administrative data on more than 140,000 Michigan traditional public and charter school teachers in an interrupted time series framework to understand how teacher attrition and supply may have shifted after the onset of the COVID-19…

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised even greater concerns about a growing teacher shortage. In this study, administrative data on more than 140,000 Michigan traditional public and charter school teachers in an interrupted time series (ITS) framework is used to understand how teacher attrition and supply may have shifted after the onset of the…