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We use longitudinal data on all high school students in Washington State, including postsecondary education and workforce outcomes, to investigate predictors of intermediate and postsecondary outcomes for students with disabilities. We pay particular attention to career and technical education (CTE) enrollment and the extent of inclusion in general education classrooms, as prior research suggests these factors may be particularly important in influencing the outcomes of students with disabilities. We estimate models that compare students with other students within the same school district, who are receiving special education services for the same disability, and have similar baseline measures of academic performance and other demographic information. We find generally weak relationships between CTE enrollment in any particular grade and intermediate and postsecondary outcomes for students with disabilities, though we replicate earlier findings that students with disabilities who are enrolled in a "concentration" of CTE courses have higher rates of employment after graduation than students with disabilities who are similar in other observable ways but are enrolled in fewer CTE courses. We also find consistently strong evidence that students with disabilities who spend more time in general education classrooms experience better outcomes--fewer absences, higher academic performance, higher rates of grade progression and on-time graduation, and higher rates of college attendance and employment--than students with disabilities who are similar in other observable ways but spend less time in general education classrooms.

The 2020 EUA Learning & Teaching Thematic Peer Group on "Approaches in learning and teaching to promoting equity and inclusion" explored how universities can best support inclusion and equity and accommodate the different backgrounds, needs and aspirations of students through various approaches, initiatives and methods. This paper outlines the main challenges identified in addressing equity and inclusivity and provides recommendations for mitigating these challenges for higher education institutions in Europe and elsewhere.

OECD countries have developed various practices and policy approaches to promote inclusive education systems for students with special education needs (SEN), which include learning disabilities, physical impairments and mental disorders. Among the latter, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a particularly relevant: being often comorbid with other learning disabilities, it causes significant difficulties in academic and social outcomes to affected students. Compared to other disorders that can cause difficulties to students, ADHD is less consistently accepted as an impairing condition. Mapping and analysing the key elements of diverse practices across OECD countries is fundamental to correctly define the situation of students with ADHD in education systems and the future direction of policy-making. Through a holistic approach, the paper adopts the analytical framework developed by the "OECD's Strength through Diversity project: Education for Inclusive Societies" to analyse policies and practices to include students with ADHD in education systems and promote their well-being.

This white paper outlines factors in the general education setting that contribute to equitable success for all students. The paper addresses elements of equity, inclusion, and opportunity that can minimize or eliminate success gaps that exist among groups of students. Success gaps are those differences in a variety of educational factors and outcomes that affect the likelihood of success for some groups of students compared to their peers. Some key areas of success gaps include test scores, disciplinary actions, placement in special programs, graduation, and post-school outcomes. When a school or district shows success gaps, it means that it may not be serving all groups of students equally well. The white paper provides the research-based background that supported development of a complementary rubric that school or district teams can use to systematically examine the root causes of success gaps that may exist among groups of their students. The white paper has been updated and now includes include considerations for children as young as preschool. [This is a republication of the document originally published by the Disproportionality Priority Team (DPT) of the Regional Resource Centers Program (RRCP), in collaboration with the Data Accountability Center at Westat and the National RTI Center at AIR.]

The Schoolwide Integrated Framework for Transformation (SWIFT) employs six technical assistance (TA) practices that support an initial transformation process while simultaneously building system capacity to sustain and scale up equity-based inclusion in additional schools and districts over time. This paper explains these individual practices and how SWIFT weave them together for improved student outcomes. The practices are referred to as: (1) Visioning; (2) Data Snapshots; (3) Priority and Practice Planning; (4) Resource Mapping and Matching; (5) Transformation Teaming; and (6) Coaching and Facilitation.

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.

In recent years many charter public schools in Massachusetts have increased the number of English language learners (ELLs) that they enroll. A 2010 amendment to the charter school law has made it easier for charter schools to recruit English language learners. The success that many charter schools have had with this subset of students defies critics who claim that charter schools "cream" students, attracting and retaining only those who are "easiest to teach." Case studies of high-achieving charter schools with large and sometimes culturally and linguistically diverse populations of English language learners reveal common best practices. These practices include but are not limited to: individually tailored curricula that emphasize inclusive teaching practices; intentional and continuous use of high-quality formative assessments; language-enriched learning environments; recruitment and retention of teachers with knowledge of the communities that the school serves; and efforts to engage parents and community that are attuned to relevant cultural and linguistic contexts. The following report highlights three high-performing charter schools, detailing the common best practices that they continue to use and refine and highlighting the subtle but important ways each school caters to its specific student population. The case studies make clear that the autonomies that these schools enjoy because of their charter status allow them to be nimble in serving a changing student population. The same autonomies also enable these schools to design and refine approaches to serving English language learners that enhance student learning and achievement.

Across OECD countries, there are various and diverse policy approaches in place to promote inclusive education systems for students with special education needs (SEN), understood as learning disabilities, physical impairments and disorders related to mental health. Analysing current policies in place across OECD countries and investigating advantages and disadvantages of diverse policy approaches for students with SEN is important when acknowledging non-negligible disparities in terms of enrolment, graduation, and employment outcomes for students with SEN across OECD countries. Overall, educational approaches to address students with SEN have historically shifted from placing students in special school settings to more mainstream education environments. However, differences still exist in the extent to which students are mainstreamed in schools with the rest of the students. Furthermore, education systems differ in the way they design and implement governance arrangements, resourcing systems, capacity-building, school-level interventions, and monitoring and evaluation of their policies in place to support students with SEN. Through a holistic approach, the following desk-based research adopts the analytical framework developed by the OECD's "Strength through Diversity" project, "Education for Inclusive Societies," to map policy approaches to include students with SEN in education systems and promote their well-being. The review also investigates how special education needs intersect with other forms of induced diversity in education systems and other emerging trends across countries to provide a more comprehensive analysis of the issues at stake.

Decolonisation is rapidly becoming a familiar term in higher education institutions. Students and activist groups have helped decolonisation move onto the national agenda, backed by recent worldwide events surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement. Despite its newfound popularity, there is still substantial disagreement and misunderstanding about what 'decolonisation' actually entails. Using testimony from 16 interview respondents across academia, activism and policy, this report addresses the common misconceptions about decolonisation and recommends a series of practical steps towards its implementation. The recommendations include: (1) Get educated about decolonisation and end its conflation with equality, diversity and inclusion initiatives; (2) Reprioritise: decolonisation is both pedagogically necessary and academically rigorous; (3) Fund Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic (BAME) research; (4) Tackle discrimination, hostility and unconscious bias; and (5) Institutionalise decolonisation: create departmental roles and engage students. The findings of "Miseducation" demonstrate that decolonisation is both a vital and a beneficial next step for our universities. [Foreword written by Iyiola Solanke.]

Student assessment is integral to curriculum design and to the learning journey of all students. Assessment is about process and outcomes. It enables a learner to determine their progress through the medium of ongoing feedback, and it also determines whether a student has met the intended learning outcomes. The focus on assessment in higher education is increasing, being closely linked to the enhancement of learning and teaching strategies and the emphasis on student-centred learning. There is political and institutional high-level commitment to promoting an assessment design which is holistic and based on co-creation between students and academic staff. Core practices in student assessment often remain problematic, and teachers and institutions face diverse challenges in using research to improve assessment and feedback practices. Crucial challenges include approaches which take into consideration increasingly diverse student cohorts, ensuring the integrity of assessment, and being mindful of the workload for both teachers and students. The EUA Thematic Peer Group "Student assessment", composed of academics, institutional management and students, was invited to examine how student learning can be assessed in a way that takes into account both qualitative indicators and pedagogical progress, including peer and self-assessment, and caters for students' individual needs. This report is the product of the discussions and conclusions of the group. The report aims to encourage further reflections and conversations around student assessment, and to provide tools to support development of assessment feedback at the institutional level.

National and state educational mandates require students achieve proficiency in not only science content, but also "science inquiry", or those process skills associated with science (National Research Council, 2011; Next Generation Science Standards, 2013). Science inquiry instruction has been shown to improve student achievement and process skills (e.g., Llewellyn, 2002; Schroeder, Scott, Olson, Huang, & Lee, 2007; Minner, Levy, & Century, 2010). Guided scientific inquiry is a student-centered, teacher-facilitated approach to science instruction where students are guided toward, but not directly presented, scientific concepts. Students are led by the teacher to develop the concept (Trowbridge, Bybee, & Powell, 2004). Guided science inquiry has been found effective in promoting student achievement (e.g., Wilson, Taylor, Kowalski, & Carlson, 2010). However, research has not yet specifically examined the value of guided scientific inquiry among students drawn from the special education population. This study sought to answer two research questions. First, how did teachers involved in a study examining implementation of guided science inquiry qualitatively describe their experience implementing guided science inquiry among their students from special education populations? Second, did teachers find guided science inquiry effective to use with students from special education populations? This study sought to answer two research questions. First, how did teachers involved in a study examining implementation of guided science inquiry qualitatively describe their experience implementing guided science inquiry among their students from special education populations? Second, did teachers find guided science inquiry effective to use with students from special education populations? The results suggest that guided science inquiry instruction can be effectively implemented with students from the special education population. The majority of teacher responses suggested that a guided science inquiry approach provides these students with greater understanding, inclusion, and engagement with their science lessons than do traditional instructional methods. Guided science inquiry's flexibility allows for differentiated instruction. Limited concerns with the approach reported for these students included a need to adapt instruction in order to meet their needs and difficulties among students grasping its occasionally abstract structure.

The recent refugee crisis has put many Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries under considerable pressure to accommodate and integrate large numbers of refugees. Refugee students are a particularly vulnerable group due to their forced displacement, but their needs are not always met by education systems, which can hinder the integration potential of these students. This poses considerable challenges as the integration of refugee students in education systems is important for their academic outcomes as well as their social and emotional well-being. The success (or lack of) integration in schools can also affect the future labour market and social integration potential of these children and youth. While there is a growing body of research on the integration of immigrants, policy-relevant research on refugee children and youth from an educational perspective is rather limited, fragmented and case specific. Detailed surveys and research projects focusing on the current wave of refugees that allow for cross-country comparisons are not yet available. Drawing on research from previous refugee waves, the paper examines key needs of refugee students and factors that promote their integration. It proposes a holistic model of integration in education that responds to the learning, social and emotional needs of refugee students. Furthermore, the paper examines what type of policies and practices are in place in OECD countries that support the integration of refugee students. Nonetheless, evaluations of practices and policies are often missing, which makes it difficult to assess whether they are successful. The paper finishes with some policy pointers on how to promote the integration of refugee students.

Within OECD countries, Sweden has historically welcomed large numbers of migrants, in particular migrants seeking humanitarian protection. Since 2015, this large influx of new arrivals with multiple disadvantages has put a well-developed integration system under great pressure and highlighted a number of challenges for education policy given current institutional frameworks. PISA 2015 shows that immigrant students fare considerably worse than native students in terms of academic and well-being outcomes also after accounting for differences in social-economic background. The OECD has identified four priority areas for Sweden for closing the gap between immigrant and native students: (1) Facilitating the access of immigrants to school choice, (2) Building teaching capacity, (3) Providing language training and (4) Strengthening the management of diversity. The findings in this Spotlight Report are based on existing OECD work in the area of immigrant integration in education, OECD and national data, a questionnaire on the range of policies and practices in Sweden and good practice examples for the integration in the education system in peer-learner countries and regions [Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and North America (Canada and the United States)], which were identified of particular relevance for Sweden. The report also includes policy pointers on what policies and practices Sweden could adopt to respond to the current integration challenges in the four priority areas.

For a long time, leaders have asked the question, where will the next generation of leaders come from? And for a long time the same formula has been applied: Identify those high potentials in high school, college or in the workforce and provide that select group leadership development opportunities. One focus of the Leadership Beyond Boundaries initiative is early leadership development. But what do we mean by "early"? One answer the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) has been hearing for years comes from senior leaders, as they leave CCL programs wishing they had been able to benefit from a leadership development experience much earlier in their lives. Couple this statement with comments from youth, leadership development practitioners (Van Velsor, 2011), principals, and educators in schools and universities and a fairly consistent theme begins to emerge--that leadership development could occur much earlier and be provided to a broader audience. Prompted by this theme of earlier and broader leadership development initiatives the authors began to ask several questions. When should leadership development start? What are the most important competencies to focus on in developing young leaders? Do current leaders see young people as having what is needed for success? Have young people been able to develop the competencies organizations need in their entry-level workforce or that they will need to lead organizations and society forward? What impact would a broad investment in younger audiences have? Would it help them learn more about themselves and others, and propel them on an increased path of purpose and impact? A subset of these important questions was the focus of a 2012 CCL Leadership Insights survey, the results of which are summarized in this paper. This online survey of business, government, nonprofit, and education leaders focused on: 1) the age a young person should commence his or her leadership journey, 2) whether leadership development should be part of the regular educational curriculum, 3) how widely it should be offered, 4) leadership qualities that managers want to see in young people entering the workforce, and 5) what excites managers and what concerns them about the young people they employ today. (Contains 2 resources.

Almost one in four (3.9 million) students who are enrolled in postsecondary education programs in the United States are also raising a dependent child (Miller, Gault, and Thorman, 2011). These parents are preparing themselves to compete in an American economy in which high skill levels are required to earn a wage sufficient to support a family (Rakesh, 2012). It is important that college campuses are prepared to recognize and support student parents on their path to educational success. Many postsecondary leaders are looking for promising strategies that match the needs and resources of their institutions and students. This brief is a product of the Student Parent Success Initiative (SPSI) at the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) which provides a framework for thinking about the range of supports student parents typically need and example programs. The brief draws from information and lessons learned that have been collected by IWPR from initiatives supporting student parents at two- and four-year colleges and universities across the country. SPSI resources may be used to inform the decisions of leaders on campuses, in communities, and among policymakers to promote better success rates and stronger families for student parents in postsecondary education. The following are appended: (1) Analysis of Student Parent Program Survey; and (2) Information on the Examples Included in the Toolkit.

The transition to primary school is one of the greatest challenges of early childhood. Handled well, it can set children into virtuous cycle of learning. But how can transitions be made more effective? Based on a background paper for UNESCO's Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2007, this paper assesses the literature and draws lessons about ways of forging links between primary schools, children's home environments and early childhood programmes. Starting from Bronfenrenner's systems theory, the authors identify different models for looking at transitions and present an overview of research, covering such topics as inclusion and resilience. They go on to consider the perspectives of the key actors in transitions--children, educators and parents--and present examples of successful initiatives from twenty countries and regions around the world. The authors then identify lessons learned from their analysis of successful initiatives, including the importance of children's social competencies, their capacity to make transitions with existing friends and to make new friendships, planning transition activities, and communication between schools, pre-schools and parents in advance of children's transitions. The paper concludes by identifying implications for policy planning and implementation, including suggestions for schools.

Although access to formal education has improved internationally for children with disabilities, concerns remain about education quality for this student population. Using data on 121 173 teachers from 38 countries in the 2013 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), this study examined the qualifications and professional development (PD) needs of teachers who work with children with special needs. The results indicate that teachers responsible for students with special needs had, on average, lower qualifications, worked in itinerant positions more frequently and expressed greater professional development need than colleagues who did not teach students with special needs. The need for professional development among teachers who taught special needs students was lowest in schools with greater instructional leadership. Additionally, only a small percentage of teachers reported that their professional development had a positive impact on their instruction. The paper discusses policy implications for teacher recruitment and designing professional development. [Support provided by the Thomas J. Alexander Fellowship at the OECD.]

Teacher preparation to deliver inclusive services to students with disabilities is increasingly important because of changes in law and policy emphasizing student access to, and achievement in, the general education curriculum. Inclusion of students with disabilities in general education environments has a long history in special education law; however, recent developments have markedly enhanced the implementation of inclusive services as a means to improve the educational achievement and other outcomes of students with disabilities. This Issue Paper presents a brief review of the legal and policy foundations and best professional practices for inclusive services. It also provides a discussion of key components of inclusive services that should be incorporated in teacher preparation at the preservice and inservice levels. In addition, it offers an Inclusive Services Innovation Configuration, which can be used to evaluate general and special education teacher preparation and professional development programs. Appendix includes: Inclusive Services Innovation Configuration.

Assessment, with a capital "A", has become in the academy a politically loaded buzzword that closes many more doors than it opens. Assessment, with a small "a", however, is a necessary part of any attempt to find the best path forward in environments that change. At meetings this spring, Members of NERCHE's Departments Chairs Think Tank and Associate Academic Deans Think Tank discussed this controversial issue, focusing on ways to foster climates in which faculty and administrators are collaborative partners in assessment with the intention of strengthening teaching and learning.

We use longitudinal data on all high school students in Washington State, including postsecondary education and workforce outcomes, to investigate predictors of intermediate and postsecondary outcomes for students with disabilities. We pay particular attention to career and technical education (CTE) enrollment and the extent of inclusion in general education classrooms, as prior research suggests these factors may be particularly important in influencing the outcomes of students with disabilities. We estimate models that compare students with other students within the same school district, who are receiving special education services for the same disability, and have similar baseline measures of academic performance and other demographic information. We find generally weak relationships between CTE enrollment in any particular grade and intermediate and postsecondary outcomes for students with disabilities, though we replicate earlier findings that students with disabilities who are enrolled in a "concentration" of CTE courses have higher rates of employment after graduation than students with disabilities who are similar in other observable ways but are enrolled in fewer CTE courses. We also find consistently strong evidence that students with disabilities who spend more time in general education classrooms experience better outcomes--fewer absences, higher academic performance, higher rates of grade progression and on-time graduation, and higher rates of college attendance and employment--than students with disabilities who are similar in other observable ways but spend less time in general education classrooms.