For most of U.S. history, local communities were the primary arbiters of school quality. Beginning in the mid-twentieth century, states began assuming more and more control over school standards and outcomes. The question we seek to answer is whether and the extent to which a particular kind of local voice--the voice of education practitioners--is…

The following profiles address how the state departments of education are supporting local educators in classroom implementation of the states' new college- and career-readiness standards by providing (or facilitating the development of) aligned instructional resources and materials. These resources and materials are supplementary supports that…

The following profiles address how the state departments of education are helping educators prepare for and implement the Common Core and aligned assessments through professional learning. The major professional development efforts around the Common Core were examined in order to understand the overall efforts of each state. An exhaustive list of…

The following profiles address how the state departments of education are helping educators prepare for and implement their states' new college- and career-readiness standards and aligned assessments, through professional learning. SREB researchers examined each state's major professional development efforts around its new standards in order to…

The following profiles address decisions and actions that state education policy-makers--in the state departments of education, unless otherwise noted--are taking to foster successful statewide implementation of their states' new college- and career-readiness standards and aligned assessments. These profiles provide a descriptive overview of each…

Today, state education agencies (SEAs) and their leaders face unprecedented demands. What was once a low-profile job of managing federal aid, providing curricular guidance, and ensuring compliance with various legal obligations is now a far more visible and politically fraught task. The new roles required of state education agencies due to the No…

This report describes Maryland's latest approaches to dealing with restructuring schools and other schools in NCLB improvement. Information for this report was obtained between September 2008 and January 2009 from interviews with Maryland State Department of Education officials and with administrators in three Maryland districts: Anne Arundel…

The Central Region states (Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming) lag behind the nation in the rate of participation in supplemental educational services that schools failing to make adequate progress for three consecutive years must offer to eligible students under the No Child Left Behind Act. This study…

In response to the specifications of a United States Office of Education grant "Common Core of Data for the Seventies" (CCD-70), the Michigan Department of Education developed a procedure for identifying user's requirements relative to a State Education Information System. The project sought to identify users, to locate and prioritize…

A 1973-75 federally sponsored study, undertaken by the State of Connecticut and the University of Connecticut, was conducted to determine the employment opportunities for vocational agriculture graduates as well as available community resources for vocational agriculture programs in the State. Objectives of phase 1 of the project were to: (1)…

A centralized evaluation unit within the California State Department of Education is responsible for evaluating programs administered by the state. Focusing on these educational program evaluations, the principal objectives of this study were to: (1) Describe the major components of the current program evaluation system; (2) Examine the planning…

This case study uses six interviews with administrators and three speeches to trace the definition of the term "at risk" in Arizona educational policy, where the definition process was used as an opportunity to enhance the prestige and power of the State Department of Education. (SLD)

Findings from 20 interviews conducted with individuals involved in the California New Teacher Project, which is administered by the California Department of Education and the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, are reported to assess the policy environment for new teacher support and assessment programs. The study was conducted by the Southwest…

The evaluation data for this report on the Elementary Secondary Education Act Title IV Programs in New Jersey include published material, "fugitive" documents from the files of New Jersey Department of Education staff, statistical information compiled especially for this study, numerous interviews with members of the Department and…

This collection of case studies of eight states--California, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, Virginia, Wyoming--documents a 1981-82 investigation of federal and state administrative interactions across a select sample of federal education programs. To represent a wide spectrum of political, economic, and institutional…