In recent years, a scientific approach to reading education has gained traction due to the joint efforts of educators, parents, and state leaders. This movement for better reading instruction has helped to fuel a wave of legislation to address widespread and persistent reading deficits of American students. While reading difficulties cut across…

In the 2023 report "Colorado's Longitudinal Data Landscape. Report to the Education Committees of the Colorado House of Representatives and the Colorado Senate. Statute: 23-1-141," the Colorado Department of Higher Education (CDHE) provided a detailed overview of Colorado's long history of efforts to support more connected, longitudinal…

Career and Technical Education (CTE) course equivalencies provide students with the opportunity to meet the learning standards for a specific core subject while simultaneously earning credit for the aligned CTE course within a single CTE class. Each year, according to Revised Code of Washington (RCW) 28A.300.236, the Office of Superintendent of…

Education has long stood at the epicenter of the battle for civil rights. Inequitable educational opportunity and achievement gaps persist in the United States in no small part because the nation provides limited protection for education as a civil right at the federal level and uneven protection at the state level. Leaders across the political…

Recent years have seen a range of new state policies to reduce and prevent the use of suspension and expulsion in early childhood education (ECE) settings. Policymakers in some states have worked to limit disciplinary removals in public ECE programs by restricting suspension and expulsion in early grade levels and requiring or encouraging…

The Washington State Board of Education (SBE) issues an annual report to the Governor, the Legislature, and the public, in accordance with the Charter School Act, RCW 28A.710.250. The statute requires the annual charter school report to include the following: (1) The performance of the state's charter schools during the prior school year,…

The Newark Opportunity Youth Network (NOYN) contracted with the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the youth workforce development system within the state. The study documents how the youth workforce system developed in New Jersey since the federal…

The federal McKinney-Vento Act broadly defines homelessness in an effort to provide protections and supports for students living in a variety of unstable housing situations. This ensures school stability and continued enrollment at a time when a student's nighttime residence may be constantly changing. In Washington, the number of children and…

The 2021 Legislature tasked the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) with convening a workgroup to develop recommendations to support recruiting and retaining a multicultural and multilingual educator workforce with state salary allocations that are competitive and reflective of current economic conditions. The K-12 Basic…

This toolkit that can empower state leaders to transform their vocational-technical schools for the better. It builds on "Hands-On Achievement," a book detailing the Massachusetts model that Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research published earlier in 2022. The toolkit describes three keys to success, provides a brief history of…

During the 2023 Legislative Session, the Legislature considered House Bill (HB) 1479, a measure which would have prohibited isolation and further restricted restraint in public schools. While the bill did not pass, the Legislature provided the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) with designated state funds to begin actualizing…

In accordance with RCW 28A.655.075, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) must report annually to the Legislature on the number of school districts that use the Educational Technology Assessments each school year. The assessments can be used to determine if students are meeting academic learning requirements and grade-level…

This report is provided to the Education Interim Committee to report on the Educational Improvement Opportunities Outside of the Regular School Day Grant Program specified in Utah Code 53F-5-210. This program is also called the Program Quality Enhancement (PQE) grant program, as it seeks to improve the quality of existing programs operating…

State policymakers and the public at large have a vested interest in the successful governance of their higher education institutions. The citizens who are appointed or elected to serve as board members of a state's colleges and universities oversee valuable public assets that they hold in trust for the state and for current and future…

The High School Graduation Plan (HSBP) is a graduation requirement and a critical component of supporting students' career development throughout their secondary education experience. The Washington Legislature has revised and strengthened HSBP requirements to include the implementation of a universal online HSBP platform that can be readily…