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This study explores the underrepresentation of Black and Latinx students in California's community college Dual Enrollment (DE) programs. The study investigates how DE staff describe an understanding and commitment towards equity for Black and Latinx students in DE programs and how staff engage in equitably aimed praxis to serve Black and Latinx students through practices and collaborations between feeder high schools. Using a Critical Policy Analysis lens, the research highlights how Black and Latinx students are prioritized through equitable practices focused in advising and outreach. However, not all DE staff prioritize Black and Latinx through practices. Despite this, scant instances reveal that collaborative efforts between DE programs, high schools, and districts improve DE services and outcomes, though majority of K-12 partners are absent from collaborative efforts led by DE programs. The study emphasizes the need for increased collaboration between K-12 partners and integrating equitable approaches to DE outreach and advising to engage and recruit Black and Latinx students. This research advances the conversation of equity in DE programs and offers insights for addressing participation gaps among Black and Latinx students.

In 1993, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts dramatically overhauled its K-12 education system and created a new school finance formula, building an educational accountability structure to ensure every child has access to a high-quality education. The Massachusetts Education Reform Act (MERA) established academic standards in core subjects, mandated assessments to measure student outcomes on those standards, and established a system for holding schools accountable when students failed to meet basic expectations. This system has helped Massachusetts' public schools become the highest performing in the country. Student outcomes in all tested subjects and across demographic groups have improved steadily over time, but disparities in achievement and attainment exist between the Commonwealth's most privileged students and their less privileged counterparts, many of whom are black or Hispanic. Without the MERA and its requirement to assess every student and publish aggregate academic outcomes, policymakers may not understand the extent of disparity or how to address it as student outcomes data are integral to understanding where Massachusetts' public schools have been, where they are going, and how they can get there. This paper illustrates the importance of the Massachusetts Education Reform Act and how it has positively impacted students over time. It explains why the current accountability system evolved as it did and why preserving the most important aspects of that system is critical if the state is going to fulfill its constitutional obligation to educate all children to a high common standard.

Measures of student disadvantage--or risk--are critical components of equity-focused education policies. However, the risk measures used in contemporary policies have significant limitations, and despite continued advances in data infrastructure and analytic capacity, there has been little innovation in these measures for decades. We develop a new measure of student risk for use in education policies, which we call Predicted Academic Performance (PAP). PAP is a flexible, data-rich indicator that identifies students at risk of poor academic outcomes. It blends concepts from emerging "early warning" systems with principles of incentive design to balance the competing priorities of accurate risk measurement and suitability for policy use. PAP is more effective than common alternatives at identifying students who are at risk of poor academic outcomes and can be used to target resources toward these students--and students who belong to several other associated risk categories--more efficiently.

We develop a new framework for identifying at-risk students in public schools. Our framework has two fundamental advantages over "status quo" systems: (1) it is based on a clear definition of what it means for a student to be at risk and (2) it leverages states' rich administrative data systems to produce more informative risk measures. Our framework is more effective than common alternatives at identifying students who are at risk of low academic performance and we use policy simulations to show that it can be used to target resources toward these students more efficiently. It also offers several other benefits relative to "status quo" systems. We provide an alternative approach to risk measurement that states can use to inform funding, accountability, and other policies, rather than continuing to rely on broad categories tied to the nebulous concept of "disadvantage."

This paper focuses on the increase in families who have chosen to homeschool their children in grades K-12 since the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic. This update includes interviews with families who opted to homeschool their children in the conventional approach, rather than continue with the hasty remote learning that educators tried to transfer from the classroom in March of 2020 and then the blended approach of online learning/classrooms-with-masks format that many districts used during the 2020-2021 school year. This report follows a study authored in June of 2017, "Homeschooling: The Ultimate School Choice," also published by the Pioneer Institute. It covered the history of homeschooling, demographics on homeschoolers, the economics around homeschooling and legislation affecting homeschooling. The authors of this report include several recommendations on how policy makers and education administrators can accommodate the growth in homeschooling and assist families who chose this manner of education for their children. The authors also urge policy makers and education officials to do more to acknowledge homeschooling as a viable educational choice. Districts and states can do more to provide direction and information for parents who are considering non-traditional options. [Foreword written by Kerry McDonald. For "Homeschooling: The Ultimate School Choice," see ED588847.]

The aim of this essay is to advance understandings of current efforts to democratize disciplined approaches to educational innovation and improvement in the US and other countries, with a specific focus on the macro-level policy contexts of improvement research in education. In the US, earlier analyses examined these policy contexts from a contemporary perspective, with an emergent improvement movement in tension with an institutionalized evidence movement. By contrast, this essay provides an historical perspective through a "geological analysis" of US education reform. This analysis has the improvement movement atop macro-level policy contexts that are layers-deep, and as potentially integral to a public education enterprise that has been evolving for centuries: at the policy level, from "resource-forward" to "practice-forward" innovation and improvement; at the local level, from "school systems" to "education systems" to "learning systems." This analytic approach and framework suggest the need for a new discourse about efforts to democratize disciplined approaches to educational innovation and improvement in the US, as well as possibilities for comparative and international research examining parallel developments in other countries. This essay was prepared as a contribution to "The Foundational Handbook on Improvement Research in Education."

Do Americans hold a consistent set of opinions about their public schools and how to improve them? From 2013 to 2018, over 5,000 unique respondents participated in more than one consecutive iteration of the annual, nationally representative "Education Next" poll, offering an opportunity to examine individual-level attitude stability on education policy issues over a six-year period. The proportion of participants who provide the same response to the same question over multiple consecutive years greatly exceeds the amount expected to occur by chance alone. We also find that teachers offer more consistent responses than their non-teaching peers. By contrast, we do not observe similar differences in attitude stability between parents of school-age children and their counterparts without children.

The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) is a policy change to the federally-administered National School Lunch Program that allows schools serving low-income populations to classify all students as eligible for free meals, regardless of individual circumstances. This has implications for the use of free and reduced-price meal (FRM) data to proxy for student disadvantage in education research and policy applications, which is a common practice. We document empirically how the CEP has affected the value of FRM eligibility as a proxy for student disadvantage. At the individual student level, we show that there is essentially no effect of the CEP. However, the CEP does meaningfully change the information conveyed by the share of FRM-eligible students in a school. It is this latter measure that is most relevant for policy uses of FRM data. [Portions of this paper were previously circulated under the title "Using Free Meal and Direct Certification Data to Proxy for Student Disadvantage in the Era of the Community Eligibility Provision" (ED595218). The authors have since split the original paper into two parts. This is the first part.]

This paper estimates private and social returns to investment in education in Azerbaijan, using the 2015 Azerbaijan Monitoring Survey for Social Welfare. The private rate of return to education is 6 percent; this is the first estimate of returns to schooling in Azerbaijan since 1995. The returns to schooling are 6 percent for men and 8 percent for women, even controlling for selection. In addition, the paper estimates the returns for higher education; for this level, the rate of return is 9 percent. Finally, using the full discount method, the private rate of return to tertiary education is 9 percent, and the social rate of return is 8 percent. One policy implication is to re-examine the funding of higher education and for its expansion. [This paper is a product of the Education Global Practice.]

This paper analyzes the history, current practice, and dangers associated with Social-Emotional Learning (SEL). With roots in American progressive education and particularly in the movements for Outcome-Based Education and Self-Esteem, SEL is now pushed onto state and local education systems by the federal government and even international governmental entities. Other progressive-education forces, including the purveyors of widely used preschool standards, are equally enthusiastic. SEL is interwoven into education movements such as the Common Core State Standards and Competency-Based Education. SEL proponents present their product uncritically as the transformational tool that will propel students into greater academic achievement and personal fulfillment. But as this paper shows, and as admitted by numerous experts in SEL and related fields, the evidence for these claims is thin--and the risks to students' privacy, health, and even their very futures are significant. The paper analyzes the scientific research support for SEL claims and finds it much less persuasive than advertised. The paper further addresses the numerous problems in assessing SEL--problems that are acknowledged even by the experts and most dedicated proponents of the movement. It turns out there is no reliable, objective way to measure a student's personality, values, and mindsets. These experts cannot even agree on a uniform definition of SEL. The paper then explores the use of technology as a means of overcoming these problems. With the backing of the federal government, the education-technology industry is creating sophisticated software that supposedly can determine the most sensitive personality traits of students via their interaction with digital platforms. But this software--and especially software for video gaming--can go beyond assessing traits and in fact reshape the child to fit the desired mold. Finally, the paper discusses the fundamental philosophical and ethical objections to having the government, through the public schools, delve into this realm at all. [Foreword written by Kevin Ryan.]

In spite of advances in recognising that girls and boys, and women and men, do not have to be bounded by traditional roles, gender stereotypes persist in education and beyond. Children and youth are affected by gender stereotypes from the early ages, with parental, school, teacher and peer factors influencing the way students internalise their gender identities. As such, not only is intervening in pre-primary education necessary, but also measures at the primary and secondary levels are key to eradicate gender stereotypes and promote gender equality. Based on the analytical framework developed by the OECD Strength through Diversity project, this paper provides an overview of gender stereotyping in education, with some illustrations of policies and practices in place across OECD countries, with a focus on curriculum arrangements, capacity-building strategies and school-level interventions in primary and secondary education.

Sixty-seven school finance reforms (SFRs) in 26 states have taken place since 1990; however, there is little empirical evidence on the heterogeneity of SFR effects. We provide a comprehensive description of how individual reforms affected resource allocation to low- and high-income districts within states, including both financial and non-financial outcomes. After summarizing the heterogeneity of individual SFR impacts, we then examine its correlates, identifying both policy and legislative/political factors. Taken together, this research aims to provide a rich description of variation in states' responses to SFRs, as well as explanation of this heterogeneity as it relates to contextual factors.

Social and emotional learning (SEL) strengthens students' abilities to regulate their emotions, thoughts, and behaviours and to interact successfully with others. There are an array of important social and emotional skills (SES): goal-setting, working to one's potential, resilience, creativity, perseverance, problem solving, and caring about the welfare of others, among them. All students need SEL, but newcomer and refugee students may have particular challenges requiring SES. The beginning of this paper examines the current situation of refugee and newcomer students in OECD countries, SEL, its frameworks and skills and how they apply to newcomer and refugee students. The paper concludes with an examination of SEL policies and practices for newcomer and refugee students in OECD countries.

The OECD Future of Education and Skills 2030 (E2030) project's overall goal is that of looking to the future in terms of how school curricula should evolve given the technological advances and other changes that societies are now facing. Towards that end, the E2030 project centres on the idea that education needs to equip students with the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values they need to become active, responsible and engaged citizens. Mathematics is considered a highly relevant subject for achieving the above stated goals, as such it requires further and more detailed analysis. As a result, it has been chosen as one of the E2030 project's subject-specific analyses. The project has been named the Mathematics Curriculum Document Analysis (MCDA) study as per the request of participating countries. This working paper presents the findings of the MCDA study, which involves participants from 19 countries and jurisdictions.

The aim of this research was to assess how the COVID-19 global pandemic impacted overseas school partnerships in 2020, through to January 2021. It was undertaken with teachers involved in the British Council Connecting Classrooms through Global Learning (CCGL) programme to provide insight into how and why partnerships have been impacted. It also looks at what these teachers perceive to be the challenges that make it difficult for schools to maintain partnerships in a time of global crisis and provides examples of how schools have overcome these challenges. Online questionnaires were used to collect both qualitative and quantitative data and were distributed to teachers in UK using a network of British Council Local Advisors. 52 questionnaire responses were collected and analysed to explore the impact of the global pandemic on overseas school partnerships.

Classrooms have become increasingly diverse places where students from various backgrounds share their learning experiences. To promote inclusive school settings for all, building teacher capacity for inclusive teaching represents a key policy area. Education systems need to ensure that teachers are adequately prepared for inclusive teaching and supported throughout their career. Mechanisms to attract and retain a more diverse teaching body as well as to monitor and evaluate teacher preparation and work with respect to diversity and inclusion should also be developed. While teacher policies have increasingly addressed some of these areas, most education systems lack comprehensive capacity-building frameworks for inclusive teaching. This paper maps policies and practices to build teacher capacity for inclusive teaching across OECD countries. It then presents core elements and competences to design and implement inclusive teaching strategies. Finally, the paper reviews some of the evidence available on teacher diversity and interventions for inclusive teaching.

In many countries, schools and classrooms are becoming increasingly diverse along a variety of dimensions, including migration; ethnic groups, national minorities and Indigenous peoples; gender; gender identity and sexual orientation; special education needs; and giftedness. To navigate this diversity, adopting a multidimensional and intersectional lens could help education systems promote equity and inclusion in education and foster the well-being and learning of all students. Such an approach could also support education systems in preparing all individuals so that they can engage with others in increasingly complex and diverse societies. To build equitable and inclusive education systems, analysing policy issues regarding governance arrangements, resourcing schemes, capacity building, school-level interventions, and monitoring and evaluation is key. The "Strength through Diversity: Education for Inclusive Societies" project seeks to help governments and education systems address diversity to achieve more equitable and inclusive education systems. This paper presents the project's theoretical and analytical framework.

This paper explores and reflects on the issues state policy needs to address in the long-term to support a transformation of K-12 education systems. Personalized learning and competency-based education systems, designed to ensure equity, hold promise to prepare all students for success in college, career and civic life. This report shares strategies for policy to support systems change over the long haul toward competency-based systems that ensure mastery and success for all students. This publication intends to spark conversation around core concepts that policy needs to address to achieve sustainable systems transformation toward personalized, competency-based education systems. It introduces four 'threshold concepts' to help us think differently about what is possible in an equitable future education system where all students succeed, and how to address deep-seated systems design flaws across K-12 education.

Despite the popularity of teacher leadership since the 1980s, little research examines its effects on student achievement. In this paper, I assess the influence of the New York City Department of Education's Teacher Career Pathways program, a teacher leadership initiative, on student achievement in grades three through eight. Using difference-in-difference approaches, including new event study estimators, I find that where school leaders staffed teacher leaders into formal roles with defined responsibilities, positional authority, and commensurate salary increases, student achievement in ELA and math improves. Moreover, the improvement in scores compounds over time, with schools exhibiting increasing gains in each year following the initial introduction of teacher leaders. Schools that do not staff teacher leaders do not observe similar outcomes. I consider these results in the context of democratic policymaking and teacher empowerment, suggesting that teachers must be formally empowered in schools to lead meaningful changes that ultimately improve student achievement.

Although many may be surprised at the growth of homeschooling during the past few decades, the real surprise is probably how that growth happened and that it continues. Home school advocates and practitioners have succeeded despite a lack of funding, recruiting efforts, publicity, and grant money from philanthropic billionaires. They have faced opposition from the National Education Association (NEA), obstacles imposed by individual school districts and various state restrictions, regulations, and requirements. There is also little if any professional development for parent-instructors and virtually no future career path (or pensions) for those parents. Systemically, there is a lack of institutional knowledge with which to keep the homeschooling movement going forward. This paper attempts to elucidate some of these issues by reviewing a brief history of homeschooling, the challenges associated with defining and counting homeschoolers, the predominant reasons for homeschooling, and the critical role parental choice plays in the decision to homeschool. By becoming more knowledgeable about the practices and benefits of homeschooling, traditional educators can begin to offer parents information, support, and encouragement, treating them as educational colleagues who care deeply about children's learning.

TransformEd [Transforming Education] conducted a nationally representative survey of teachers, principals, and district leaders to ascertain the amount of time spent in classrooms on social-emotional learning (SEL), the amount of money spent on products and resources related to SEL, and the motivations of various stakeholders for investing in students' social-emotional skills. We found that, as a nation, schools are devoting a total of approximately $21-47 billion per year to SEL in terms of: (1) expenditure on SEL-related products and programs and (2) teacher time focused on SEL.

The UK's overall school budget has been protected in real terms but does not provide for funding per pupil to increase in line with inflation. Because pupil numbers are increasing, large falls in expenditure per pupil are expected over the next few years unless more funding is allocated. The situation facing post-16 education is a lot worse. A more widespread adoption of grammar schools is very likely to increase socio-economic segregation by school type and is unlikely to lead to any increase in average educational attainment in the country. Although increasing intermediate skills among young people and adults is needed, many concerns have been raised about the how apprenticeship policy is being implemented. This includes an emphasis on quantity over quality and differences in the provision of training opportunities for large employers compared with small and medium-sized enterprises.

States that received federal waivers to the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act were required to implement reforms in designated "Focus Schools" that contribute to achievement gaps. In this study, we examine the performance effects of such "differentiated accountability" reforms in the state of Louisiana. The Focus School reforms in Louisiana emphasized school-needs assessments and aligned technical assistance. These state reforms may have also been uniquely high-powered because they were linked to a new letter-based school-rating system. We examine the impact of these reforms in a sharp regression discontinuity (RD) design based on the assignment of schools to Focus status. We find that, over each of three years, Louisiana's Focus School reforms had no measurable impact on school performance. We discuss evidence that these findings may reflect policy uncertainty and implementation fidelity at the state and local level.

This working paper identifies OECD countries' interests in digital innovation in education by analysing their policy papers on digital education. Many OECD countries have adopted a specific strategy on digital education, or integrated the topic in a generic strategy on digital innovation as such. The ideas that are expressed in the strategies differ greatly; some are work in progress, others contain bold envisions of the future. There is a high awareness among OECD countries of the benefits of digitalisation, and the role of government to support digital innovation in education. This paper covers and documents countries' policy focus before the 2020 coronavirus crisis.

This document summarizes a review of research, evaluation, resources, and stakeholder knowledge related to the topic of interventions for struggling adolescent readers. Databases used for conducting this review included Google Scholar and ERIC. Literature from peer-reviewed, scholarly journals was reviewed, along with national reading and literacy organizations' websites and white papers from state departments of education and national education organizations. The search primarily was limited to studies and sources published from 2000-2020. Search terms used include but are not limited to: "struggling adolescent readers", "struggling" AND "intervention" AND "adolescent readers", "struggling" AND "adolescent" AND "intervention" AND "policy", etc.

In this white paper, the author addresses the current issues faced by policy makers for improving the K-12 education system in the United States. Reliance had been on: (1) incentives; and (2) accountability standards. These two policy levers promised a quick, easily understood response for a relatively small investment. While the logic of these policies was promising, they have produced disappointing results time and again. An organizational structure of Innovation and Induction Corridors, comprised of a cluster of schools located inside a group of major school districts, is proposed. The corridors in each district would span pre-K or kindergarten through grade 12, and the schools would be officially designated as research and development sites. Except for new teachers who are being inducted into the profession, any student, teacher, or administrator could choose not to be in these schools, removing from the mix those who have reservations about engagement in research and development. The job descriptions of the teachers and administrators in the corridor would include routine participation in education R&D for which they would be paid a premium. Classrooms would be open for observation at all times, and data collection, video recording, and shared work would be standard protocol. Political risks for district personnel would be reduced because the disgruntled would have the option of moving to any school outside the corridor. Consent to use data for research purposes subject to standard confidentiality protections would be a condition for enrollment or employment in corridor schools. Is the proposal realistic? The primary obstacle foreseen is funding--that is the policy decision to allocate, or reallocate, funds to make it happen. Creating organizational structures that enable the best researchers and the most skillful practitioners to work together to build and improve professional practice and the knowledge base that supports it will address the capacity challenge that has undermined one policy initiative after another. It is an investment strategy that will not only work for today, but one that will evolve to meet the challenges of tomorrow.

Despite the international commitment to Roma social inclusion from 2005 onwards, the overall situation has not significantly changed. In education, important achievements have been reached, mainly in terms of access to primary. Yet, Roma students still lag behind. This paper maps policy initiatives for Roma inclusion in European education systems, analyses remaining challenges and explores policy perspectives. It first describes European countries' conceptualisation and categorisation of ethnic groups. In doing so, it differentiates colour-blind countries that prohibit diversity data and prioritise integrated approaches in policymaking, and countries that collect such data and use targeted approaches. This work then identifies initiatives aimed at improving Roma students' inclusion and recurrent challenges, such as segregation in education and anti-Gypsyism. The few evaluations available indicate that best practices are those that (1) combine mainstream and targeted approaches; (2) are community-based, with a genuine participation of Roma; (3) are conscious of cultural disparities; and (4) adopt an intercultural approach.

After more than a decade of dedicated investment, state funding to assist local California school districts in the construction, modernization, and maintenance of their school facilities has come to a halt. As the Governor, the legislature, and other stakeholders debate the future of the state's K-12 school facility funding role, a big unknown exists: "Can all California school districts adequately and equitably maintain and modernize their school facilities without dedicated state funding?" The answer to this question should guide policy decisions about the state's school facility funding role. Analysis of facilities spending trends by California school districts shows that, compared to industry standards, there is an ongoing, structural pattern of inadequate and inequitable facility spending in many California public K-12 schools. This trend signals costly long-term consequences, as accumulated facility needs risk becoming a health and safety crisis. Findings in this study include: (1) The majority of school districts underspend on facilities; (2) Wealthy districts spend more on facilities, especially on the capital side; and (3) Districts serving low-income students disproportionately spend more per student on Maintenance and Operations (M&O) from their operating budgets to fund facilities. To reverse the pattern of inadequate and inequitable investment in K-12 public school facilities, four strategic policy reforms should be cornerstones to the approach: (1) Establish stable, dedicated state funds for K-12 school facilities; (2) Distribute K-12 school facility funds equitably, adjusting for local wealth; (3) Improve standards for school facility planning and budgeting; and (4) Establish a California School Facility Database to guide spending. Contains an appendix: Data, Methods and Analytic Approach. [For "Going It Alone: Can California's K-12 School Districts Adequately and Equitably Fund School Facilities? Policy Research Brief," see ED573786.]

The capacity of the nation's public schools to recruit and retain highly skilled teachers is a perennial concern of policy makers and school leaders. Over the past two decades, major policy strategies including the federal No Child Left Behind Act and alternative pathways to teaching, as well as changes in the broader labor market, have altered the context in which academically skilled college graduates choose whether to enter teaching, and, if so, where to teach. Using data from 1993 to 2008, we find that schools nationwide are recruiting a greater share of highly skilled college graduates into teaching, and that increases in teachers' academic skills are especially large in urban school districts that serve predominantly non-white students. On the other hand, the increase in the share of academically skilled teachers coincides with the lower likelihood of non-white teachers being hired. Once hired, non-white teachers report substantially lower job satisfaction than other teachers. The issue of how to recruit and support highly skilled and diverse teacher workforce remains pressing.

The education system of the United States is not adequately preparing a large proportion of its students for college, career-training, and, ultimately, jobs that provide enough income to support a middle class standard of living. Because the education system has failed to attain hoped-for outcomes, some states are investigating new systems, including competency-based education (CBE). A model based on CBE starts by assessing what a student knows and then allows that student to advance at a pace that reflects his or her knowledge and skills. In the process, CBE encourages student success by providing targeted learning support, thereby creating a more personalized educational experience. Once in higher education or job training, CBE allows older students (traditional-age college students or adult learners) to learn on their own time at their own pace. As competency-based pilot projects are developed in kindergarten to high school classrooms and schools (K-12) and higher education institutions, policymakers at the federal, state, and local levels are discussing options about how to support and expand CBE in both K-12 and higher education, as well as strengthen the bridge between the two systems. CBE has the potential to improve the education system of the United States by allowing more students to receive the support they need when they need it to learn effectively and master the desired content and skills, and governors are in a position to bring these efforts together and explore the transition from an education system that holds time constant and varies what students learn to a CBE system that varies time but holds content mastery constant. The promise of such a system is that it can adjust the methods of instruction and assistance to provide deeper, more personalized learning and help ensure that all students meet or exceed the high expectations of rigorous and relevant standards.

The English education system has undergone a large restructuring programme through the introduction of academy schools. The most salient feature of these schools is that, despite remaining part of the state sector, they operate with more autonomy than the predecessor schools they replace. Two distinct time periods of academy school introduction have taken place, under the auspices of different governments. The first batch was initiated in the 2002/03 school year by the Labour government of the time and was directly aimed at turning around badly performing schools. The second batch involved a mass academisation process following the change of government in May 2010 and the Academies Act of that year and resulted in increased heterogeneity of new academies. This paper compares the two batches of introduction with the aim of getting a better understanding of their similarities and differences. To do so, we study what types of schools were more likely to change to academy status in the two programmes, and the impact of this change on the quality of new pupil enrolments into the new types of school. Whilst we do point out some similarities, these are the exception rather than the norm. For the most part, our analysis reveals a number of marked dissimilarities between the two programmes in terms of both the characteristics of schools that become academies and the subsequent changes in intakes. Additional tables are appended. [This paper was produced as part of the Centre for Economic Performance's Education and Skills Programme.]

Educators raise concerns about what happens to students when they are exposed to new teachers or teachers who are new to a school. These teachers face the challenge of preparing a year's worth of new material, perhaps in an unfamiliar work environment. However, even when teachers remain in the same school they can switch jobs--teaching either a different grade or a different subject than they have taught before. There is an extensive literature that explores the various aspects of the challenges confronting new teachers (see, for example, Feiman-Nemser, 2003; Johnson, 2007). While there exists some quasi-experimental literature on the effects for student achievement of being new to the profession (e.g., Rockoff, 2004) or to a school (Hanushek & Rivkin, 2010), to date there is little evidence about how much within-school churn typically happens and how it affects students. In this paper, we use longitudinal panel data from New York City from 1974 to 2010 to document the phenomenon, and we tie assignment-switching behaviors to student achievement in the period since 1999, when student-level data is available. We find that students are far more likely to have a teacher who has undergone a within-school switch than one who is new to the school or new to teaching. We therefore use a variety of fixed effects approaches to estimate the link between student achievement and these three forms of being to new one's job assignment--new to teaching, new to school, or new to position within the same school--with a particular focus on the latter given that so many teachers experience within-school reassignments and we know so little about how students are affected by it.

Governments are increasingly publishing information about the performance of the services they provide, in part to help citizens hold their elected representatives accountable for government service outcomes. Yet there is little evidence concerning the influence of information about government service performance on voter behavior. This paper examines the degree to which school performance information affects incumbent support in school board elections. A regression discontinuity analysis indicates that voters reward incumbents when local schools achieve the highest available measure of school performance. Voters do not respond to information differentiating between schools in the middle of the performance distribution, however, or to information from a source that lacks credibility. The following are appended: (1) Regression Discontinuity Specification; (2) Cross-Validation Procedure to Select Bandwidths; (3) Tables and Figures. [This research has been supported by a Harvard University grant from the Multidisciplinary Program in Inequality and Social Policy.]

K-12 public school facilities need regular investment to ensure student health and safety and support educational programming. Yet, the future of K-12 school facility funding in California is uncertain. A strong state-local partnership has existed that funded new construction, modernization, and other investments in public school facilities across the state since 1998, under the School Facility Program (SFP). The Governor, members of the legislature and other key stakeholders have identified concerns about the state's approach, but they have not yet formulated a consensus going forward on the state role and responsibilities for school district facilities. To inform the school facilities funding policy debate among the Governor, the state legislature and the public, this brief provides an analysis of data on facilities spending by California school districts. It proposes the following principles and descriptions to guide policy decisions about the State of California's facility funding role and provides data-driven indicators that can be used to evaluate the application of the principles: (1) Equity; (2) Local District Effort and Accountability; (3) Fiscal Stability and Predictability; (4) Facilities Adequacy; and (5) Program Simplicity. Finally it offers approaches to a state and local partnership for K-12 facilities that would advance the principles of "equity," "local district accountability," "fiscal stability and predictability," "facility adequacy," and "program simplicity." The following are appended: (1) Data and Methods; and (2) Brief History of the State of California's Funding for K-12 School Facilities. [For the accompanying policy brief, "Guided by Principles: Shaping the State of California's Role in K-12 Public School Facility Funding. Policy Research Working Paper," see ED573774.]

This report provides the historical background and interpretive analysis needed to understand controversies surrounding Common Core and its associated tests. In this report, Williamson M. Evers presents a revised and expanded version of his expert report for "Jindal v. United States Department of Education et al.," No. 14-CV- 534 (M.D. La), that includes the following four points: (1) That longstanding federal statutes contain prohibitions on the federal government in general--and the U.S Department of Education in particular--from directing or controlling curriculum; (2) That Common Core in combination with its associated tests are components of curriculum and put the country on the path to a national curriculum; (3) That, notwithstanding the role of the state officials and others in the creation of Common Core and its tests, the federal government and its Department of Education got the states to adhere to the Common Core and its associate tests and are enforcing against the states policies aimed at keeping in place these national standards and national tests (or their federally-approved equivalents); and (4) That, although the Common Core and its tests are defended as needed for school-improvement purposes, there is an alternative approach to school improvement that is consistent with the Constitution and federal statutes.

The purpose of this annual survey developed and reported by the Friedman Foundation and our partner, Braun Research, Inc., is to measure public opinion on, and in some cases awareness or knowledge of, a range of K-12 education topics and reforms. We report response levels, differences ("margins"), and intensities for the country and a range of demographic groups. We also track response changes over time when possible.

England's performance in international tests of student achievement continues to be disappointing. Further improvement is essential not only for students' themselves but also for economic growth. This briefing considers the impact of Academies, school spending and teacher quality. Research evidence suggests that it is right to protect school budgets but too early to judge the Coalition's Academies policy. Although there was a large improvement in the first 200 schools (about 4 years after conversion), those schools were disadvantaged and underperforming (unlike the more recent academies) and the current programme is much larger scale. There is broad agreement that high quality teaching matters hugely for student achievement, but there is no magic national formula to bring this about.

Employers, postsecondary institutions, and civic leaders are urging greater focus on 21st century skills essential for college, career, and civic success: problem solving, interpersonal skills, and collaboration, among others. In response to these demands, states across the country are working to realign policies--on learning standards, assessments, and human capital strategies--to set a new course for their state education systems. Many states are reconsidering their assessment strategies and asking whether existing assessments are designed to be the barometer, resource, and engine for learning necessary to support the new demands on students. To address gaps in existing assessments, many states are considering the role of performance assessments--assessments that require students to craft solutions to problems by constructing an answer, producing a product, or performing an activity rather than selecting from a list of multiple-choice answers--within their statewide assessment strategies. By requiring students to complete multifaceted tasks, these assessments can better support 21st century learning. This report is intended to familiarize state boards of education with performance assessments and help state board members and other policymakers address some of the thorniest issues around these assessments: purpose, sustainability, reliability, accountability, policy alignment, equity, professional practice, and implementation. The report ends with a set of discussion questions so that each state can begin to analyze barriers and opportunities toward effective implementation of these assessments.

When lotteries are infeasible, researchers must rely on observational methods to estimate charter effectiveness at raising student test scores. Considerable attention has been paid to observational studies by the Stanford Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO), which have analyzed charter performance in 27 states. However, the sensitivity of CREDO's findings to its methodology has not been subject to a thorough, independent evaluation. Our analysis of the CREDO estimates of charter effectiveness in Florida between 2001 and 2009 reveals four main findings that increase confidence in its results: (1) Its use of multiple observations when matching students does not materially affect results; (2) Student participation in programs such as special education and free/reduced price lunch is inconsistently measured across sectors, but matching on these variables only modestly affects CREDO's estimates; (3) Exogenous instrumental variable estimates of charter effectiveness produce qualitatively similar results to CREDO's observational estimates; and (4) Impact estimates differ for oversubscribed and undersubscribed charters, which helps explain why lottery-based studies tend to find larger charter impacts than CREDO does. The following are appended: (1) Other Potential Concerns with CREDO's Methodology; (2) Differential Program Participation; (3) Analysis of Transfer Students Only; and (4) Summary Statistics for Over and Undersubscribed Charter Schools.

As the City of Detroit emerges from municipal bankruptcy, the imperative for school improvement takes on an urgency rarely witnessed in a U.S. city. If the city is to experience the redevelopment boom that many now anticipate, its public schools must improve. While a variety of different reform strategies are possible, the establishment of a portfolio district in Detroit currently appears to have the greatest political salience. This report is primarily devoted to a detailed analysis of Michigan's Education Achievement Authority (EAA) which was established in 2011 to turn around the state's lowest-performing schools, starting in Detroit. An understanding of the EAA is essential for informed discussion of a Detroit portfolio district for two key reasons. First, portions of Excellent Schools Detroit's plan for a portfolio district were included in the EAA's original design, but they were not effectively implemented. Second, like the EAA, a new administrative authority for a Detroit portfolio district would face basic administrative challenges related to its financial and human resources, oversight of teaching and learning, and public accountability for its operations. It would be unfortunate if policy makers and designers failed to take full measure of the lessons learned from the EAA's experience. The EAA failed to reach its objectives because the policy was hastily and poorly designed. In this report we seek to shift the debate about the EAA from the ideologically polarized question of whether the system is "good" or "bad" to the more fruitful question of how to align policy design with worthy policy goals. This report was written first and foremost for the citizens of Detroit to explain features of state policy so that they may participate effectively in efforts to shape their local public schools. It was also written, however, for citizens of good will throughout Michigan who understand that their own public schools are now powerfully shaped by policy decisions in Lansing, who regret the divisions that have isolated Detroiters for too long, and who will support policies for the children of Detroit that they themselves would want for their own children. This is not simply an ethical issue because, with well-designed policies, the children and grandchildren of residents across Michigan may someday have a choice to live in racially and socially diverse Detroit neighborhoods anchored by excellent public schools. The following are appended: (1) Purpose of the EAA; (2) Powers of the EAA; (3) Implementing the EAS in Detroit; (4) Planned Expansion of the EAA; and (5) Appointment of New EAA Chancellor.

Good teaching matters. There is persuasive evidence that students benefit from high quality instruction and that these benefits are cumulative for students who have good teachers for several years. Teacher effectiveness matters so much that low-income students lucky enough to have three very good teachers in a row in elementary school earn test scores that, on average, are similar to middle-class children. Conversely, almost all children, regardless of their socio-economic status, will be harmed academically by poor teaching three years running. Nearly 3.8 million teachers work in schools, but there are simply not enough good ones to go around, especially in the schools and districts serving high-poverty, large-minority student populations. And although one focal point of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2002 was to address this problem, the policies states developed in response to NCLB's call have not achieved this goal. The quality of teaching is not simply determined by an individual's knowledge or ability, but also by the contexts in which teachers work. Improving teacher quality thus entails policies concerning recruitment, early preparation, retention (including attention to working conditions), as well as professional development. This paper provides recommendations that address each of these domains. (Contains 32 notes.)

Preparing the next generation of Americans to engage in their communities civically and politically is a shared responsibility. Although civic education takes place every day in homes and community centers, our nation's K-12 schools are in a unique position to nurture and reinforce the civic development of all young people. States influence their K-12 schools by enacting and implementing policies that include standards, tests, credit and course requirements, teacher certification rules, and funding streams. This paper describes case studies of three states that have recently examined their civic education policies. The goal of this document is to inform other states' policymakers and advocates as they consider K-12 civic education policies. These three state examples (Florida, Tennessee, and Hawaii) were chosen because they represent strikingly different approaches to state policy: a high-stakes standardized exam, a project-based assessment, and an interactive course without any state assessment at all. The focus of this paper is on the efforts to influence policy: who was involved, how they worked, and what made the difference in the policy being passed or rejected. The paper also describes apparent keys to successful advocacy across the three states. Florida, Tennessee, and Hawaii exemplify three distinct strategies for improving civic education. No firm evidence exists yet about which approach will benefit students the most, but all have promise. This paper has suggested strategies for passing ambitious state policies, whether they involve tests or course mandates. The details vary in important ways, but all three states attribute success to a coalition of educators. In conjunction with the paper, a fact sheet has also been released that summarizes the main elements of each policy. [For the fact sheet, "Recent Civic Education Policy Changes. CIRCLE Fact Sheet,",see ED574358.]

Prepared for a CERI (Centre for Educational Research and Innovation) Strategic Education Governance Learning Seminar, this working paper analyses an ongoing reform in Austria to change the traditional sector-specific "supervision" of different school types to a system of quality management of all schools in the region and to introduce a new external school evaluation body. The paper identifies four pertinent areas for lasting success of the reform: a new focus on quality management and monitoring; a restructuring of existing sectorspecific school supervision bodies; creating a shared vision of quality and educational goals; and ensuring reliable and useful knowledge. Employing a complexity perspective to governance, the paper highlights that long-term sustainability of the reform requires a compelling narrative clarifying how school supervision supports education improvement and how supervision fits into wider education policy. The analysis further underlines the principle of co-creation in developing quality frameworks and establishing the methodology for the new external school evaluation body; and also for school leaders and school supervisors to drive the development of their new professional identities. Finally, to provide useful knowledge for schools and the system, the new external evaluation body should focus on the improvement of teaching and learning.