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Advanced information, communication, computation and collaboration technologies, known as "cyberinfrastructure," have become essential elements for research, education, and innovation in the 21st century. A major challenge confronting the United States today is how to ensure that all colleges and universities, including those that have not traditionally benefited from leading-edge research infrastructure, can participate seamlessly in national and multinational cyberinfrastructure-enabled efforts. The minority-serving-institution community has unique expertise, knowledge, and resources to share. Western leaders from the fields of science, education and cyberinfrastructure recognize an urgent need for action. Participants in the 2006 "Lariat Summit on Minority Institutions and Cyberinfrastructure in the West" gathered in Bozeman, Montana to develop strategies and recommendations for connecting minority-serving institutions in the West to national advanced cyberinfrastructure. This document is a first step towards developing both the will and the resources to ensure that minority-serving institutions are among the "connected" institutions in the Western states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, and Washington. (Contains 2 figures and 11 endnotes.) [Financial support for this white paper was provided by the University of Washington, Internet2, and the Pacific Northwest Gigapop.]

Building a stronger teacher workforce requires the thoughtful orchestration of multiple processes working together in a human capital system. This white paper presents a framework that can be used to take stock of current efforts to enhance the teacher workforce in school districts or educational organizations, as well as their underlying theories of how the teacher workforce improves over time. The paper refines and provides evidentiary support for a human capital system framework composed of four subsystems that ideally work together to build a stronger teacher workforce: (1) getting the right teachers in the right positions on time (Acquire); (2) supporting professional growth in school-based learning communities (Develop); (3) nurturing, rewarding, and challenging high-performing teachers (Sustain); and (4) informing evidence-based personnel decisions (Evaluate). Attention to this framework will engender a corps of teachers with the capacity and expertise to collectively facilitate enhanced educational outcomes.

Data systems are becoming powerful tools to address students' diverse and changing needs, but without comprehensive data privacy policies, the risks of unintentional or malicious disclosures of students' private information is increasing. Given the mounting challenges to protect data privacy, Education Commission of the States assembled data privacy experts and practitioners to consider strategies for protecting students' privacy without compromising the power of education data. This Policy Guide highlights participants' suggestions and offers actional approaches to maximize the use of education data while minimizing risk to students' privacy, including state examples and key considerations for state leaders.

After decades of disinterest, evaluation of the performance of elementary and secondary teachers in the United States has become an important educational policy issue. As U.S. states and districts have tried to upgrade their evaluation processes, one of the models that has been increasingly used is the Framework for Teaching. This paper summarizes validity evidence pertaining to several different implementations of the Framework. It is based primarily on reviewing the published and unpublished studies that have looked at the relationship between teacher evaluation ratings made using systems based on the Framework and value-added measures of teacher effectiveness. The research results summarized suggest that teacher ratings made using evaluation systems based on or related to the Framework have a correlation with value-added estimates of teacher effectiveness, in the 0.2 to 0.3 range. Measurement error in both the value-added estimates and evaluation ratings likely bias these correlations downward. Though fragmentary, the evidence reviewed suggests that Framework-based evaluation ratings can show substantial inter-rater agreement and, if multiple observers and multiple occasions of observation are used, the ratings can be reliable. However, a score based on a single observation by one observer is likely to have low reliability. The paper also discusses ways to extend and improve validity research on teacher evaluation systems. "Inter-rater Agreement Details for Cincinnati" is appended to this document. The contributions to this research of current and former colleagues Steven Kimball, Herbert Heneman, Allan Odden, H. Alix Gallagher and Bradford White, are gratefully acknowledged. (Contains 6 tables, 2 figures, and 6 footnotes.)

The National Center on Time & Learning (NCTL), an organization dedicated to redesigning and expanding school time to improve opportunities and outcomes for high poverty students, and the Education Commission of the States (ECS), with a mission to foster both the exchange of ideas on education issues among the states and long range strategic thinking, have joined forces to produce this review. Their goal is to help education leaders to better understand the complexities of time related policy and its far reaching educational implications. In exploring how policymakers and educators have dealt with the matter of school time at the federal, state, and local levels, NCTL and ECS hope to accelerate the national conversation on how they can best leverage the power of time to realize the vision of a high quality education for all. This paper offers a number of recommendations highlighting fresh ways that policy and research can best support efforts to expand learning time in schools. State policies on instructional time are appended. (Contains 82 notes and 51 footnotes.) [This paper was supported by The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation.]

Research suggests that low-income high school students may opt out of preparing for college, because they believe a postsecondary education is more than they or their parents can afford. At the same time, federal agencies and some state agencies have indicated that every year available student aid goes unused. In response to these misconceptions and the shifts in types of aid available, a variety of programs such as the privately funded "I Have A Dream" project and Indiana's "Twenty-First Century Scholars" program represent efforts to provide what has come to be known as "early commitment aid." The goal of this paper is to understand the divide between available aid, the impact of "early commitment aid" programs, and how students fare in accessing the funds available from various aid programs. Using California, Nevada, and Kansas--three states with varying types of student aid programs--as case examples, two main findings recur: (1) Large disconnects exist for students who need financial aid for college-going and their understanding of what they need to do to access aid; and (2) More money could be brought to each state's financial aid table when more students are successful in maintaining eligibility and completing the financial aid application process. Implications for practice are based on a cultural approach for promoting access to student aid. Suggestions include: (1) The need to understand lives of students and families as they seek student aid; (2) Attention to the inter-relationship of school, home, and other influences; and (3) The creation of a systematic and longitudinal framework for information about financial aid. [This paper was prepared by The Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis, University of Southern California.]

This brief is based on the 61-page report of the same name. This paper, commissioned by the Brookings Institution, studies the emergence of the mixed delivery model, in which pre-kindergarten is delivered in community-based settings and schools. It describes findings of a state survey CLASP conducted to understand the policy choices, opportunities, and challenges of including community-based child care providers in pre-kindergarten programs. At the conclusion of the study period for this paper (November 2004), at least 29 states that are currently operating at least one pre-kindergarten program using a mixed delivery approach were found. Those states are: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. Other states, for example Florida, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, are considering or expanding pre-kindergarten policies but were not yet established enough to be included in our study. This policy brief describes principal approaches to state implementation of the mixed delivery model but does not provide examples of state policies. (Contains 1 figure.)

Research demonstrates that student-centered teaching strategies (tutoring, small-group learning, mastery-based learning, and individualized instruction) can help students excel. Many schools have turned to blended learning--integrating online learning into brick-and-mortar schools--to help implement these strategies sustainably and effectively. This paper examines how eight pioneering district, charter, and private schools and school networks with notable student success adopted blended learning and new staffing arrangements to better enable personalized instruction. Blended learning gave teachers more real-time student learning data so that schools could frequently regroup students, quickly respond to struggling students, and help teachers improve by pinpointing instructional planning and professional development issues. At the same time, innovative staffing arrangements helped the schools personalize learning by providing more students with great teaching. Key elements of these innovative staffing models included: (1) New roles for educators, often as part of a career path allowing development and support; (2) Intensive collaboration on small teaching teams; (3) Cultures of intensive coaching; and (4) Paid fellowships and residencies that enabled schools to train their own teachers.

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires state accountability systems to include indicators of "school quality and student success" along with indicators of academic outcomes. The new law provides an important opportunity for states to broaden the definition of student success to include measures of students' social-emotional, as well as academic, development. Schools can support students' social-emotional development by fostering a supportive school climate, as well as through explicit instruction. When classrooms are safe and engaging, and learning is both supported and rewarding, students feel connected and efficacious--which allows them to develop the social and emotional, as well as academic, skills, habits, and mindsets needed to succeed in life. This paper provides a framework for considering how measures of social and emotional learning (SEL) and school climate may be incorporated in an accountability and continuous improvement system. We conceptualize such a system as multitiered, and designed to provide useful information about school status and progress at the state, district, and school levels. This report offers guidance on how states and districts might determine which measures of social and emotional learning, development, and supports they can use in different parts of their accountability and continuous improvement systems, and how they might use the resulting data. The authors consider (a) measures of students' social and emotional skills, habits, and mindsets; (b) measures of school climate and supports for SEL; and (c) measures of student outcomes, such as chronic absenteeism and suspension rates, that are related to school climate and supports for SEL. [For "Encouraging Social and Emotional Learning: Next Steps for States. Policy Brief," see ED606439. For the brief, see ED606775.]

This paper presents an overview of a 3-year, federally funded comparative study of 11 public school districts and 40 schools in metropolitan areas of California, Arizona, and Nevada. The purpose was to identify school districts that are successfully meeting the challenge of educating relatively high numbers of newcomer students (ethnic and language minorities and immigrants), to compare these districts systematically with less successful districts, and to search for models of success that might be shared. The communities were heavily affected by ethnic and language minority students in the 1980s, and differed markedly in their achievement-gain scores. Examination of their histories and local cultures led the research team to conclude that score differences were not the result of chance. There were three communities with proactive, responsive, adaptive, and innovative public instruction, and eight in more or less severe states of confusion and inefficiency. Superintendents who succeeded regarded cultural diversity as a strength of their schools. The evidence suggests that schools and districts can help to lift or to depress student-learning outcomes. The study supports current research literature in suggesting that very large districts have a difficult time succeeding if they contain large numbers of very disadvantaged students. (Contains 2 references.) (SLD)

With increasingly widespread calls to raise educational attainment levels without substantially growing public investment in higher education, policymakers and others have devoted growing attention to the role of financial aid programs in providing access to, promoting affordability for, and incentivizing success in college. Given relative levels of investment, most of that focus has been on federal financial aid programs. But for students enrolled in higher education, the vast majority of whom attend public institutions, the impact of federal aid policies is filtered through finance policies enacted at the state level. The wide differences in financing strategies among states mean that states ultimately determine to a great extent how college opportunities are distributed, costs are affordable, and students are successful. This concept paper takes a closer look at state financial aid programs and how they are uniquely well-positioned to address many of the financial challenges in college access, success, and affordability that stand in the way of achieving educational attainment goals. It advances a framework for the distribution of aid that is efficient with scarce public funds, encourages students to make progress and succeed, promotes institutional behaviors that are aligned with public needs and expectations, and integrates state policies with federal and institutional policies and practices. Informed by a set of guiding principles, the paper makes the following policy proposals: (1) States can adopt a Shared Responsibility Model (SRM) as the framework for determining the eligibility for a state grant, as well as the amount of the grant; (2) States can encourage well-designed, state-supported programs to assist students in meeting their student contribution; (3) States can embed demand-side incentives that promote student success; (4) States can embed supply-side incentives that ensure that institutions share in both the risk and rewards of student success; (5) States can leverage grant aid programs to encourage institutional aid expenditures that are aligned with state goals for student success, affordability, transparency, and predictability; (6) The federal government can recommit to its historic partnership with states in promoting well designed grant programs through a contemporary LEAP program; (7) States can ensure that their grant programs include an expectation that standards of academic quality are maintained; and (8) States can require that their financial aid programs are systematically evaluated.

Online charter schools are one key subset of the K-12 online education landscape, which also includes state virtual schools, district-level online programs, private providers of both individual courses and entire schools, and others. As of late 2010, online and blended charter schools existed in more than 20 states, serving more than 100,000 students. Growth has been rapid, in the range of 15 percent to 25 percent annually, as parents and students seek new educational options. Despite the presence and growth of online charter schools, little research has been done regarding the practices of online charter school authorizers. Policymakers recognize that online charter schools present unique challenges for authorizers, but few best practices for authorizing online charter schools have emerged. Many online charter schools have been operating for five years or less, and some states are just beginning to open their first few online charter schools. In many cases, authorizing processes have not kept up with the rate at which online charter schools have opened, as most states are still in the early stages of developing authorizing procedures for online schools. To address this gap, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) has begun a multi-phase project to review online-school authorizing practices and make recommendations to authorizers. The purpose of this initial stage of research was to conduct a preliminary environmental scan in order to identify key issues that authorizers of online charter schools experience. NACSA engaged with the Evergreen Education Group and Donnell-Kay Foundation to accomplish the first stage of work, which included in-depth interviews with seven key authorizers from across the country to identify similar key issues they are working to address. The key findings generated from the interviews are outlined and explained in greater detail throughout this paper. They are: (1) Charter school authorizing is still in its early stages of development; (2) Online charter schools present opportunities and challenges for oversight; (3) Accountability for student achievement in online environments can be unique; (4) Governing board expertise may be lacking; (5) Online special education can be a serious challenge; (6) Building process and capacity in authorizing offices is critical; and (7) Appropriate funding levels are still under debate. Online and blended learning have created new opportunities for hundreds of thousands of students across the United States. Online learning, however, is still new enough that practices are outpacing policies and, in many cases, oversight. The sustainable, long-term growth of online and blended schools requires that policy frameworks keep pace with educational practice. "Research Methods" are appended. (Contains 1 figure and 3 notes.)

In December 2010, the California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC) staff surveyed public universities in other states to learn how they have dealt with cuts in state funding. All of the institutions CPEC surveyed have increased tuition and or fees at least once in the last two fiscal years, and many project additional increases. All have made cost-saving measures or efficiencies over the budget year. Many have reduced general administrative spending, cut academic programs and class offerings, and reduced faculty and staff with voluntary or involuntary retirement or termination. While none of these institutions have managed to completely protect academics, a few have managed to increase need-based financial aid. This paper presents their findings.

This paper reports on how technology is currently used in nine schools that educators view as "promising" exemplars of technology use. Four elementary, three middle and two high schools from Arizona, California and Nevada (three schools from each state) were examined. Extensive document review and telephone interviews were conducted in preparation for two-person 1- to 2-day site visits. The schools implemented three types of technology: voice (internal/external telephone system with voice mail and electronic access to engage other technologies), video (within and between classes) and data (computers with electronic mail). The video category includes video cameras and computers for editing video productions, as well as television monitors, video cassette recorders (VCRs), and cable; the data category includes computers with Compact Disk-Read Only Memory (CD-ROM) and laser disc capability, scanners and Internet access. Access to computer equipment was an issue at all schools. All but one school had at least one computer in every classroom; special education classrooms typically had computers for each student. Staff training and support depended on technology types, schools' equipment and availability of training personnel, the purposes and manner for which technology was going to be used, and the breadth and level of technology skills already held by the teachers. In terms of program development, four issues were encountered by the sites: community support, finances, facilities, and educational philosophies. Each issue was encountered during different steps of program development: planning, implementation, maintenance and expansion. All of the schools are striving to keep up with technology. Unfortunately, needs and demands for technology are outpacing the funding potential. Contains seven references. (AEF)

This paper examines how technology was used to enhance instruction in schools that are viewed as "promising" in their technology use by individuals in state education agencies. Four elementary, three middle and two high schools from Arizona, California and Nevada were examined. Extensive document review and telephone interviews were conducted in preparation for two-person 1- to 2-day site visits. Four schools reported that teachers actively used technology in instructional delivery; minimal equipment included a computer, Video Cassette Recorder (VCR) and large video monitor in each classroom for multimedia presentations. A few teachers incorporated online telecommunications into their curriculum and instruction. Students used computers for learning keyboarding or practicing word processing and graphics; students at schools with Internet capacity used it for doing research for class projects. Five schools offered video production opportunities for students. In terms of technology integration, three trends were consistent: (1) using technology in project-based curriculum, (2) concerns with articulation issues between grade levels, and (3) an increased legitimation of "technology as curriculum" at upper-grade levels. Staff training and support depended on technology types, schools' equipment and availability of training personnel, the purposes and manner for which technology was going to be used, and the breadth and level of technology skills already held by the teachers. Schools used two additional strategies to provide support for technology use: access to a variety of technologies and use of technology beyond the school. Contains ten references. (AEF)

This is an interpretive summary of information from a multiple case study of 11 school districts in California, Arizona, and Nevada conducted in the spring and fall of 1992 as part of a larger set of strategies to work on solutions to the challenges facing schools in metropolitan areas of the Pacific Southwest. Rather than presenting a set of empirical findings, this paper constructs a hypothetical district as a composite ideal, the "high-performance district." The high-performance district has a distinctive pattern of organization attributed to: (1) the school board, the superintendent and other administration, (2) the structure of authority and incentives, and (3) school programs and support facilities. Its programs are the logical outcomes of its history, and characteristically include innovation, a multicultural focus, high standards, and flexible organizational designs. The teachers are regraded as competent, treated as professionals, and provided with inservice educational programs. Community relations are characterized by respect for the cultural integrity of diverse households and opportunities for parent and family involvement. Four tables and three figures present information from the case studies. (Contains 12 references.) (SLD)

Over 35 percent of all Western Region students (in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah) entering the ninth grade in 1980 failed to complete high school. This paper provides education policy makers with an overall understanding of the Western Region dropout problem, reviews available research, analyzes alternative change strategies, and briefly describes three categories of specific policy options. Students' decisions to leave school are shaped by numerous interrelated factors, including personal reasons, family characteristics, and disappointments in the school. Schools contribute to school leaving by creating dull and uninspiring programs, allowing staff insensitivity to student needs, and failing to develop effective management systems to identify, track, and serve the needs of at-risk students. Promising approaches to reducing early exit behavior must deal with student "disconnectedness" and address three policy levels--the community, the school, and the individual staff member. Coordinated change at all levels is required for maximum effectiveness. Six strategies for reducing school leaving can be identified: risk management, environmental management, incentive management, program management, staff management, and culture management. Three policy options are available: (1) strengthening school cultures and programs; (2) retaining at-risk youth; and (3) enhancing career and vocational programs. (134 references) (MLH)