As open enrollment public charter school districts have continued to grow in Texas, researchers and policymakers have continued to question how these public charter school districts spend public taxpayer dollars. Although extensive research has addressed how public charter school districts spend money to recruit teachers, complete capital…

The "Forum Guide to Exit Codes" provides an updated taxonomy for exit codes, information on best practices related to exit coding, and case studies that highlight different education agencies' approaches to and experiences with exit coding. In 2006, the Forum addressed the need for a voluntary, common format for tracking data about when…

This three-article dissertation examined how policy choices in three key policy areas -- initial enrollment, service provision, and reclassification -- impact English learner (EL)-classified students. The first article examined the national landscape of state statutes, regulations, and state education agencies' (SEA) guidance that support…

In 2010, the Massachusetts Legislature lifted the cap on the number of charter schools that the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) can authorize in low-performing school districts. The "smart cap" requires the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to rank district performance (based on student outcomes)…

Regional Educational Laboratory Southwest partnered with the Arkansas Department of Education to examine Arkansas's middle school and high school indicators of postsecondary readiness and success, building on an earlier study of these indicators (Hester et al., 2021). Academic indicators include attaining proficiency on state academic…

Regional Educational Laboratory Southwest partnered with the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) to examine Arkansas's middle and high school indicators of postsecondary readiness and success, building on an earlier study of these indicators (Hester et al., 2021). Academic indicators include attaining proficiency on state achievement tests,…

The COVID-19 pandemic forced America's public schools to close in the latter half of the 2019-20 school year. Schools' reopening plans vary for 2020-21. We reviewed the reopening plans for all 50 states, as well as the largest 120 school districts in the United States with a particular focus on reopening modalities, mask-wearing guidance, the…

Nearly half of students who drop out do so as a result of adverse conditions in the school, while 37% of dropouts are pulled out of school by challenges like financial worries, family needs, or employment. Only 14% of dropouts did so for reasons that can be described as failing out of school due to a lack of interest or academic progress (Doll,…

This report presents the results of a thorough study conducted by American Institutes for Research (AIR) to investigate the cost of providing an "adequate" education to California students attending public elementary, middle, and high schools. The study addresses the following question: "What is the cost of providing all California…

This report describes career academies in 12 Florida school districts in the 2006/07 school year. It examines their structure and career clusters, the high schools offering them, and the students enrolled. This study is one of the first to investigate both career academy structure and clusters using multiple data sources. It provides state…

This report presents findings on the numbers of public school students and staff in the United States and other jurisdictions for school year 2010-11, using data from the State Nonfiscal Survey of Public Elementary/Secondary Education of the Common Core of Data (CCD) survey system. The CCD is an annual collection of data that are reported by state…

This document contains the following nine appendixes of the main report, "What Does It Cost to Educate California's Students? A Professional Judgment Approach. Technical Report. Getting Down to Facts II": (1) Professional Judgement Panel General Instructions; (2) Professional Judgement Panel. Task Instructions; (3) School Resource…

This report presents data from the School District Finance Survey (F-33) of the Common Core of Data (CCD) survey system for school year (SY) 2009-10, fiscal year 2010 (FY 10). The F-33 is a district-level financial survey that consists of data submitted annually to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and the Governments Division of…

The National High School Center has created a college and career development organizer to synthesize and organize an increasingly complicated and crowded field of college and career readiness initiatives. The organizer, composed of three strands, can be used to map the efforts of state education agencies (SEAs) and local education agencies (LEAs)…

This report describes career academies in 12 Florida school districts in the 2006/07 school year. It examines their structure and career clusters, the high schools offering them, and the students enrolled. This study is driven by three research questions: (1) How many career academies were there, and of what types? (2) What were the…