Search

We use student-level data on elementary special education identification from Washington state to explore student identification rates in the months immediately after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and over 2 subsequent years. Special education identification rates dropped dramatically in March 2020 through the end of the 2019-20 school year and remained below historical norms through 2020-21 before returning to pre-pandemic levels early in 2021-22. The magnitude of these effects implies that over 8,000 fewer elementary students were identified for special education services during the pandemic in Washington than would have been expected based on prior trends.

The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) was the largest onetime federal investment in K-12 schools in history, funneling almost $200 billion to states and school districts. We use novel data from Washington State to investigate the extent to which ESSER funding causally influenced spending on school personnel. We argue one cannot infer this directly from ESSER claims data because of the fungibility of school budgets. Thus, we rely on a more direct signal of district hiring decisions: public education job postings scraped from district hiring websites. To address endogeneity concerns, our preferred approach employs an instrumental variables strategy that exploits a formula mechanism used to determine Title I funding for 2020-21 (and thus ESSER allocations in 2022) based on the number of Title I formula-eligible children. We find strong, arguably causal, evidence that public school hiring increased in response to the availability of ESSER funding. Specifically, we estimate that each $1,000 in ESSER allocations caused districts to seek to hire $206 in additional staff, disproportionately teachers. These estimates suggest that roughly 12,000 new staff (including 5,100 teachers) were hired in Washington because of ESSER. In the absence of new funding, school staffing budgets will likely need to contract substantially following the sunset of ESSER.

Many college students experience basic needs insecurity, which includes a lack of--or fear of the lack of--access to healthy food, stable housing, reliable transportation, affordable child care, physical and mental health care services, the internet and technology, and other necessities students need to survive and thrive in a postsecondary academic setting. This evaluation report focuses on measuring the extent to which students used basic needs services at select institutions supported by Basic Needs Initiative (BNI) grantees in the 2020-21 and 2021-22 academic years and the impact of using services on students' short-term academic outcomes, including enrollment intensity (credits attempted), credits earned, grade point average, and fall to winter/spring retention. Education Northwest partnered with four BNI grantees on this report--Arkansas Community Colleges, Auburn University's Hunger Solutions Institute, John Burton Advocates for Youth, and United Way of King County--to access student-level data on the use of basic needs services, student demographics, and academic outcomes from 20 postsecondary institutions in Arkansas, Alabama, California, and Washington. This report has three key findings with implications for practice: (1) Collecting data on students' use of basic needs services and linking it to student demographic and outcome data was a new activity for many of the institutions included in this report, and the basic needs services data had several limitations; (2) Very few students in our sample used basic needs services, suggesting a large gap between students' reported needs and their access to services; and (3) Access to basic needs services had a positive impact on the number of credits students attempted and earned was positively related with retention.

The guided pathways model, comprising 14 different practices, is a framework for comprehensive, whole-college reform undertaken by community colleges to help all students choose, enter, progress through, and complete a program of study that enables them to secure sustaining-wage employment or transfer with junior standing in a major. Since its introduction in 2015, it has been adopted by hundreds of community colleges across the United States. This paper asks whether guided pathways practices implemented at 62 community and technical colleges in three states--Tennessee, Ohio, and Washington--are associated with improvements in student outcomes during the first year of college. Specifically, using institutional survey and rich administrative data, we construct measures of adoption of guided pathways reforms to examine the association between guided pathways practices and fall-to-fall persistence, college credits earned, college math credits earned, and STEM credits earned. Our study reveals substantial variation in the adoption of guided pathways reforms across the states and across community colleges within the states over time. While we cannot establish a causal relationship between guided pathways adoption and student outcomes, we find significant positive associations between the statewide adoption of guided pathways reforms and early student outcomes in Tennessee. The observed improvements in that state are likely the result of concurrent reforms--guided pathways and others--implemented simultaneously, rather than of guided pathways reforms alone. We do not find evidence of improved student outcomes in either Ohio or Washington following the launch of statewide guided pathways initiatives. Our findings suggest that complementarities among adopted practices within and across areas of practice--rather than the adoption of individual practices or the intensity of adoption--seem to drive larger improvements in early academic success across the three states. Our study is the first of its kind to explore the potential of guided pathways reforms in contributing to improved early academic success, representing a significant descriptive contribution given that whole-college reforms in higher education are understudied.

CCRC recently conducted two major studies to shed light on the feasibility of implementing guided pathways reforms at scale and on the association between implementation and improvements in student outcomes. The first is an evaluation of the AACC Pathways Project, which involved 30 colleges from around the country that were committed to making guided pathways reforms, and the second is an evaluation of guided pathways implementation in three states--Ohio, Tennessee, and Washington State--that launched initiatives to assist colleges across their systems--70 institutions in total--to adopt reforms. This brief summarizes the results of these studies. One of the main findings is that whole-college reform is feasible but takes time--at least five years--to carry out. The authors also find that there is a positive relationship between the scaled implementation of complementary sets of guided pathways practices and some measures of early student momentum in AACC Pathways colleges that made the most progress in implementing guided pathways reforms and in one state (Tennessee) that got an early start on reforms and made good progress; in places that made less progress, the association is weak or not evident. A third major finding is that while students from all backgrounds may benefit from guided pathways reforms, these reforms are not sufficient to close equity gaps between racial and ethnic groups. The authors conclude with five recommendations for community colleges undertaking guided pathways reforms: (1) Offer ongoing case-managed advising by field, predictable schedules, and other supports to help students complete their plans; (2) Remove the obstacle to student success created by prerequisite remediation, particularly in math, and integrate support for students to master college-level courses in their field of study; (3) Take steps to strengthen teaching and learning in program gateway courses, not just math and English composition; (4) Extend tailored guided pathways supports for students from underserved groups; and (5) Build on-ramps to career-path college degree programs for underserved K-12 students after high school.

Elementary and secondary district leaders seeking to recruit teachers and diversify their teaching workforce will find useful, research-based strategies in this brief from the Region 4 Comprehensive Center. The brief focuses on ways to develop work-based learning programs in secondary schools that engage students in considering teacher careers. Drawing on insights from 14 programs, this brief summarizes five useful strategies of teacher-focused work-based learning programs, including targeted courses, cohort model and peer supports, strategic counseling, dual enrollment, and field experiences. It also provides helpful background into the historic challenges around recruiting and retaining teachers of color.

High-quality career and technical education (CTE) and work-based learning opportunities can support students along a pathway to credential attainment, employment and upward economic mobility through intentional skill development and experiential learning. CTE concentration in high school can increase graduation rates while helping students build employability skills that can support positive outcomes in the workforce. When CTE concentration is paired with opportunities for postsecondary credit or a quality work-based learning experience, students are more likely to attain postsecondary and workforce credentials, successfully enter the workforce and earn higher wages. The Education Commission of the States staff members interviewed state leaders and policymakers, including state education agency staff, state workforce development agency staff, higher education agency staff and district leaders in Delaware, Iowa, Maryland, North Dakota, South Carolina and Washington to better understand how they align CTE and work-based learning policies and programs with workforce needs. This Policy Brief highlights key findings from the interviews, including insight into obstacles and promising practices in increasing student access, program quality and stakeholder engagement.

This report examines state portraits of a graduate and how state strategies for development and implementation can support future readiness. It also provides recommendations for state education agencies to consider to lift up the importance and visibility of these portraits. Several states have begun the process of developing a "portrait" or "profile of a graduate," which is a holistic look at the skills and competencies students need to master to thrive in work, postsecondary educational opportunities, community, and their personal lives. To better understand how states are utilizing the portrait of a graduate to prepare students for career and college, we conducted a scan of all 50 states to see which states had developed state-wide portraits of a graduate or visions of a high school graduate. The results inform the findings and recommendations of this report, including the skills states are highlighting as essential for students' future success and how states are making this vision actionable in service of cultivating future-ready graduates. As this review indicates, states are keenly aware that today's students will be called on to meet the growing challenges of the 21st century, as among the top skills are critical thinking and problem- solving, social awareness skills, and being an active citizen. Moreover, states deeply understand it is necessary to develop students' social and emotional skills and competencies. This report delves deeper into how states are implementing their portrait of a graduate to help students meet these expectations.

School district boundaries define more than just the area where a certain group of children attends a given set of schools. They also determine the taxing jurisdiction that supports those schools with local property taxes. Big differences in property value can lead to large funding gaps, even between neighboring districts. These disparities in property values are the legacy of discriminatory housing policies explicitly intended to segregate neighborhoods by race and class. The school district lines drawn onto this divided landscape then replicate segregation and inequity in schools. But our current district borders need not be permanent. They can be redrawn to produce better outcomes for students and their schools. In a new research report, New America's Education Funding Equity Initiative analyzes nearly 25,000 pairs of adjacent school districts to measure how district borders create deep economic and racial divisions, producing radically different educational resources and experiences for students in different districts--even districts that are right next door to each other. It also features stories about these disparities told by local educators and families. An accompanying multimedia story shows what these divides mean for American school districts and communities, and an interactive national map and data tool allows users to explore American school districts and the borders that surround them.

The STEM Transfer Partnership (STP) initiative seeks to create systemic change within STEM degree pathways in Washington through collaboration between teams of faculty and staff from nine pairs of two-year and four-year institutions across the state. These teams are supported by Community College Research Initiatives (CCRI) to work together to improve STEM transfer processes by serving as institutional context experts and determining the focus of their efforts (see Cate et al., 2022 for more details). STP teams have worked within institutional pairs for eighteen months to understand and dismantle obstacles to low-income STEM transfer students' bachelor's degree completion. This brief examines into the factors propelling their change and also highlights the tangible strides made by STP teams in their pursuit of fostering positive transformations.

Correctional education is a prevalent form of rehabilitation programming for prisoners in the United States. There is limited evidence, however, about the labor market returns to credentials received while incarcerated. Using incarceration, educational, and labor market data in Washington State, we study the labor market returns to GEDs and short-term vocational certificates earned in prison. We identify the returns to credentials by a difference-indifferences design that compares changes in earnings and employment for incarcerated persons who earn a credential to those who enroll in a program but fail to complete a GED or certificate. We estimate that GEDs increase post-incarceration earnings by about $450 per quarter and that vocational certificates increase earnings by about $250 per quarter. Degree completers have higher hourly wages, are more likely to be employed, and work more hours following release. For vocational programs, earnings increases are driven by certificates in construction and manufacturing. [The research presented presented in this report uses confidential data from the Education Research and Data Center (ERDC) located within the Washington Office of Financial Management (OFM).]

Retirement plans can create strong financial incentives that have important labor market implications, and many states have adopted alternative plan designs that significantly change these incentives. The authors use longitudinal data to investigate the impact of Washington State's 1996 introduction of a hybrid retirement plan on late-career attrition. The unique setup of Washington's plans allows them to provide empirical evidence on the influence of financial incentives created by statutory retirement eligibility thresholds. Findings show that despite facing very different financial incentives, teachers enrolled in the hybrid and traditional plans respond similarly to reaching a key retirement eligibility threshold. The authors hypothesize that teachers are anchoring to the eligibility thresholds, muting the influence of the financial incentives. They also provide evidence that, in the presence of bright-line eligibility thresholds that can anchor workers' separation behavior, commonly used structural models may overpredict workers' responsiveness to the financial incentives embedded in retirement plans. [This paper will be published in "ILR Review."]

The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) is required by RCW 28A.250.040 to report annually on online learning. This report uses data extracted from the Comprehensive Education Data and Research System (CEDARS). Key findings from the 2022-2023 school year include: (1) More students accessed online courses and more schools and districts used online courses; (2) There was a small reduction in the overall number of online courses; (3) Students who are Asian or multilingual/English learners participate in online learning at the lowest rates, and students who identify as Gender X are the most likely to enroll in online learning by a large margin; and (4) Course performance continues to be, on average, lower than course performance in non-online settings with the exception to students who identify as Gender X, who seemed to be as successful in online learning as non-online courses.

State law (Revised Code of Washington [RCW] 28A.320.130) requires the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to annually report to the Legislature the number of incidents in violation of RCW 9.41.280, which involves the possession of weapons on school premises, transportation systems, or in areas of facilities while being used exclusively by public or private schools. This update reports on the 2,275 incidents involving the possession of a weapon and the resulting interventions that were reported by Washington's public and private schools for the 2022-2023 school year.

The Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) annually submits a report outlining the method used in determining the coefficients for each site characteristic used to establish the transportation allocation for the following year. The Student Transportation Allocation Reporting System (STARS) will determine the 2024-25 school year allocation. The 2024-25 regression analysis will use data elements from spring 2024, fall 2024, and winter 2025 reporting periods.

Multilingual learners (MLs) are students whose primary language is not English and are eligible for English language development services through the Transitional Bilingual Instruction Program (TBIP). Eligible MLs receive TBIP services until they become proficient in English. During the 2022-23 school year, 149,357 students were identified as multilingual learners.

The federal McKinney-Vento Act broadly defines homelessness in an effort to provide protections and supports for students living in a variety of unstable housing situations. This ensures school stability and continued enrollment at a time when a student's nighttime residence may be constantly changing. In Washington, the number of children and youth experiencing homelessness has increased since 2001, when the McKinney-Vento Act began requiring all school districts to annually report the number of students experiencing homelessness who are enrolled in schools. Due to COVID-19 school building closures, districts had difficulty identifying and serving students experiencing homelessness during the 2020-21 school year. Many districts indicated that students previously enrolled under the protections of the McKinney-Vento Act failed to connect to remote instruction and were not in contact with the districts during the closure. The number of students experiencing homelessness identified and enrolled in districts declined significantly during the 2020-21 school year. With the return of in-person instruction, districts continue to identify and enroll increasing numbers of students identified as experiencing homelessness.

In 2013, the Washington Student Achievement Council (WSAC) proposed as the state goal that 70 percent of the state's 25- to 44-year-olds (i.e., early and mid-career residents) should have a credential beyond high school. WSAC's Strategic Action Plan (SAP) provides a framework to organize the policy and practice innovation needed to achieve this goal. The work is framed by four strategic clusters: (1) Affordability; (2) Enrollment; (3) Student Supports; and (4) Completion. The framework is based on the belief that if an affordable and supportive educational environment is built, more Washingtonians will enroll in programs and complete credentials. Ensuring equitable access and success for all students is central to the strategic framework. This SAP discusses the attainment goal, strategic clusters and values, a snapshot of current state policy by cluster, and the work plan for the year. [For "2022 Strategic Action Plan," see ED628851.]

Annually, the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) prepares the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) and Head Start Saturation Study to analyze access to Washington's ECEAP and Head Start programs serving 3- and 4-yearolds. This study estimates the number of eligible children living within each school district boundary and calculates the percentage currently served. It assigns points for each district based on numbers and percentages of unserved children and child maltreatment rates. These data are used to sort districts into groups by priority for ECEAP slot expansion. This Saturation Study is part of the information DCYF uses to determine appropriate locations for ECEAP slots. Current or potential ECEAP contractors may also use this study to inform decisions to apply for ECEAP slots or move existing ECEAP slots to communities with high needs

The Washington State Board of Education (SBE) issues an annual report to the Governor, the Legislature, and the public, in accordance with the Charter School Act, RCW 28A.710.250. The statute requires the annual charter school report to include the following: (1) The performance of the state's charter schools during the prior school year, including a comparison of the performance of charter schools to the performance of the home district and the state; (2) A comparison of the performance of charter school students with the performance of academically, ethnically, and economically comparable groups of students in traditional public schools2 (TPS); (3) The SBE's assessment of the successes, challenges, and areas for improvement in meeting the purposes of the Washington Charter Public Schools Act, including the Board's assessment of the sufficiency of funding for charter schools, the possible changes to the formula for authorizer funding; and (4) Any suggested changes in state law or policy necessary to strengthen the state's charter schools.

Research shows that when students have access to advanced coursework opportunities, they work harder and are more engaged in school, have fewer absences and suspensions and higher graduation rates. Unfortunately, many Black and Latino students and students from low-income backgrounds lack equitable access to advanced coursework opportunities, such as gifted and talented programs in elementary school, eighth grade Algebra courses, Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), and dual enrollment programs in high school. As a result, these students are missing out on crucial opportunities that can set them up for success after high school. Increasing access to advanced coursework requires commitment from state leaders to collect and analyze disaggregated participation and outcomes data and targeted, data-informed efforts to develop policies that increase access to, and success in, high-quality advanced coursework. This brief is designed to support these efforts by providing data analyses and a scan of policies and practices in Washington for advocates, educators, and policymakers who are leading this work at the state level. [This report was co-produced with Stand for Children Washington.]

Basic needs insecurity -- including housing and food insecurity, as well as lack of access to healthcare, childcare, transportation, and other basic needs -- is a critical barrier that can undermine persistence and completion rates for postsecondary students. The gaps in covering critical costs such as housing and food are pervasive among students in both two-year and four-year institutions, and they disproportionately impact certain groups of students. The Supporting Students Experiencing Homelessness (SSEH) pilot program was launched in fiscal year 2019-20 to address basic needs insecurity among postsecondary students experiencing homelessness and those who were former foster youth. This first legislative report for the program was developed collaboratively. It provides state-level, cross-sector information about the students supported by SSEH, strategies employed by the institutions to serve them, institutional infrastructure changes made to strengthen access to the program, and participating institutions' collective reflections and recommendations. The aim is to provide important state-level insights across all institutions while highlighting some distinctions that may be unique between community and technical colleges and public baccalaureate institutions.

There is widespread speculation (e.g., Johnson, 2021; Klinger et al., 2022; Mathews, 2022; Walker, 2021) and some evidence (e.g., Sanchez & Moore, 2022, Sanchez, 2023) that grading standards have changed over the course of the pandemic, making higher grades relatively easier to achieve and less reflective of objective measures of learning. It is possible--even likely--that shifting grading standards give parents, guardians, and students a confusing or inaccurate picture of what students know and can do, especially considering pandemic- related learning losses (Dorn et al., 2021; Goldhaber et al., 2023; Kuhfeld et al., 2022). Despite considerable theoretical work about grading standards and some evidence of changes in grading over the pandemic, there is limited research on the extent to which eased grading standards continued post-pandemic, as teachers and students returned to normal schooling. In this research brief, researchers used administrative data on student grades from Washington state to assess whether grading standards have returned to pre-pandemic levels.

The objectives of this audit was to determine whether the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (Washington) had an adequate oversight process in place to ensure that (1) local educational agencies' (LEA) American Rescue Plan (ARP) Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) plans met applicable requirements and (2) LEAs use ARP ESSER funds in accordance with applicable requirements and their approved LEA ARP ESSER plans. The audit covered March 24, 2021, through October 31, 2022. For the first objective, the authors gained an understanding of Washington's process for reviewing and approving LEAs' ARP ESSER plans, which consisted of both their Academic and Student Well-Being Recovery Plan (Academic Plan) and their grant application. For the second objective, the authors gained an understanding of Washington's oversight of LEAs' use of ARP ESSER funds. Washington did not have an adequate review and approval process to ensure that LEA ARP ESSER plans met all applicable requirements. As a result, the public did not have sufficient insight into how the LEAs planned to spend ARP ESSER funds.

Guided pathways is arguably the most widespread whole-college community college reform movement in decades. In this report, the authors present findings from a study on the scale of adoption of guided pathways practices across community and technical colleges in three states--Ohio, Tennessee, and Washington--where there are state-level efforts to support adoption among colleges system-wide. These findings are based on an institutional survey developed and administered to these colleges in 2022 to more precisely measure the scale at which they have adopted guided pathways model practices. By May 2022, only a minority of colleges in each of the states had adopted at least one practice at scale from each of the four guided pathways practice areas. Most commonly, colleges adopted a few practices at scale across one or more practice areas, while other practices were still in the process of being scaled. Many colleges had put guided pathways reforms on hold because of the COVID pandemic. There is evidence, however, that most colleges in the three states are now continuing to scale guided pathways reforms. This report provides an interim look at a reform movement that will continue to play out in these and other states for several years to come.

States must adopt an equity-focused approach to transfer policies to address racial equity gaps and make progress toward attainment goals in postsecondary education. State higher education agencies should assess transfer performance based on race and income and establish standards for creating equitable transfer policies. To support state and system-level improvements in transfer outcomes, State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO) launched the State Transfer Policy Standards Project. SHEEO and the Gardner Institute worked with four states--Colorado, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Washington--on an intensive self-study process. These states were chosen for their diverse student populations, institutional types, and governance models. The central goal of the self-study process was to assess how well transfer systems within those states were working for students of color and low-income students. Findings from the self-study were used to develop action plans to create more efficient and equitable transfer systems within the state. To facilitate this process, SHEEO drew upon its models for working with state teams and providing technical assistance and implementation support; the Gardner Institute adapted the Foundations of Excellence Transfer process to provide valuable insights at the state level. [This project was in partnership with the John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education (Gardner Institute).]

This research builds a narrative of a nationwide study on tuition waiver and tuition assistance programs. The authors administered a survey to long-standing and newly implemented tuition waiver programs within universities that identified limitations and opportunities. The purpose of this study is to highlight the varied approaches to administering tuition waivers for American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) students. This study will inform how tuition waiver initiatives impact AI/AN student success at mainstream institutions of higher education. The research questions that guided this study are: (1) How are active tuition waivers for American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) students administered? (a) What are the criteria of tuition waivers? and (2) How have active tuition waivers impacted AI/AN student enrollment and success? This study affirms tuition waivers are impactful for AI/AN students. Tuition waivers are specific to the institution and both internal and external factors, such as federal or state legislation or existing relationships with Tribal nations, including local or regional proximity to the institution. This research provides context and support for Washington State to consider implementing a statewide tuition waiver to broaden Native student access to higher education.

The second of three "bright spot" briefs examines how states are leveraging ARP funds to improve SEL for all students through collaboration among schools, families, and communities. The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP) provided a $122 billion historic federal investment in K-12 education to help states and districts safely reopen schools and address students' academic, social, and emotional learning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. CASEL has recommended three priority areas for social and emotional learning (SEL) investment that can assist states and districts in optimizing ARP for student success: (1) Promote social and emotional learning (SEL) for students; (2) Align SEL efforts across schools, families, and communities; and (3) Support adult SEL competencies and capacity building. This "Bright Spots" brief highlights policy innovations around Priority Area 2--aligning SEL efforts across schools, families, and communities--through state investments in evidence-based SEL to support academic recovery and social and emotional well-being, the need for which was made abundantly clear by the COVID-19 pandemic. A brief for Priority Area 1 was published in December 2022 and an additional brief for Priority Area 3 is forthcoming. [For the Priority Area 1 brief, see ED626379.]

Nationally, more than 75% of individuals who are credentialed to teach are prepared in traditional college- or university-based teacher education programs (TEPs). But the college and employment pathways that prospective teachers take to TEP enrollment and completion have not been comprehensively examined. A better understanding of how credentialed individuals find their way into TEPs helps us understand the sources of new teacher supply early in the prospective teacher pipeline. With that in mind, we analyze pathways into and through TEPs using historical postsecondary and unemployment insurance data from Washington state. We find that the pathways are quite varied with around 40% of bachelor's-level TEP completers spending at least some time in community colleges and less than 40% enrolling and finishing at the same university directly after high school. Pathways to master's TEP completion are even more varied, with almost half of the completers having prior employment experience. For researchers, this varied landscape raises important questions about the relationship between pathways, candidate persistence, and eventual job performance. For policymakers, the results suggest that efforts to recruit the next generation of teachers need to look beyond the pool of students already enrolled at a 4-year university to include students at 2-year colleges or in the labor force who might be interested in entering a TEP.

The Washington Student Achievement Council partnered with the North Central Educational Service District to design and develop a series of animated videos to share simple and clear information with students about the Washington College Grant and the benefits of pursuing education or training after high school. The videos aimed to build an engaging storyline by presenting sequential information about financial aid and postsecondary education and training in short segments. Videos were available in English and Spanish. The pilot project intended to address information gaps and increase students' awareness and understanding of postsecondary education opportunities and state financial aid. Survey results from the pilot project found that the videos were received positively, and students learned relevant information about financial aid and postsecondary education and training opportunities in Washington. Positive feedback and evidence of knowledge transfer led to an expansion of the informational videos project to several additional areas of the state. This demonstrates how evidence from a pilot project can be translated into practice and brought to scale to reach more students. Building intentional outreach strategies can more effectively engage with students and families and could contribute to increased awareness of postsecondary opportunities and improved educational outcomes in the state. [This project was a collaborative effort between the Washington Student Achievement Council and the North Central Educational Service District.]

As the most recent reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) provides to public and private school students and schools wide-ranging academic and educational supports. This paper provides a historical review of: (1) the federal government's role in education; (2) the creation and passage of ESEA; and (3) ESEA's subsequent development and reauthorizations. The authors next describe ESEA's application to parentally placed private school students. The law makes it clear that private school students are to participate equitably in the benefits that ESEA confers. Upon identifying and describing the challenges to this equitable participation that private school students and stakeholders have faced under ESEA's most recent reauthorization (ESSA), the authors conclude by offering concrete recommendations on how ESEA's next reauthorization can effectively address these challenges.

The most recent data on tuition, appropriations, and state grant aid present an economic outlook that appears favorable in the West. Tuition rates remained relatively flat for the past decade, total state funding to higher education increased across the region in the past year, and state grant aid continued to increase since 2010-11. Despite these promising trends, higher education institutions and systems face considerable challenges such as declining enrollment, concerns about the value of a degree, rising costs for students and institutions, and a need to address critical workforce gaps. With potential for an economic slowdown in the near future, higher education leaders and policymakers must strategically align fiscal policy levers to address state priorities and concerns on the affordability and value of a postsecondary degree. This WICHE Insights looks at the trends and implications for tuition and fees, appropriations, and financial aid in the west for 2022-23. [For the 2021-22 report, see ED622567.]

Prior research has connected characteristics of cooperating teachers who supervise student teaching to performance measures of the teacher candidates they host, suggesting more effective teachers may also be better mentors. The specific measures of cooperating teacher effectiveness considered in this prior literature (value added and performance evaluations), however, are infrequently observable to individuals responsible for student teaching placements. In this paper, we consider a more easily observed proxy for mentor effectiveness: National Board (NB) Certification. We find that NB teachers are considerably more likely to host candidates than other teachers, candidates supervised by NB teachers are slightly more likely to be hired within three years, and these candidates have slightly lower value added in English language arts than their peers, all else being equal. We find no significant relationship between cooperating teacher NB certification and candidates' later attrition and value added in math. We conclude that individuals and policies seeking to leverage student teaching placements to improve student and teacher outcomes may need to focus on less easily observable proxies of cooperating teacher quality than NB certification status.

There is a growing call to reconsider current approaches to national and state assessment system policies and practices. State and local education agency leaders, educators, community leaders, and advocates have voiced concerns that current state assessment systems--defined primarily by end-of-year multiple-choice tests--are unable to meet contemporary needs for information that supports teaching and learning. More than 20 states are involved in efforts to transform one or more aspects of their assessment systems; however, the process of securing federal assistance and approval to make transitions to substantially improved systems poses numerous challenges. This report synthesizes policy analyses and findings from legal and research analyses, as well as consultations with national, state, and local leaders, to (1) outline the history of federal testing guidance and state responses that have shaped the current context, (2) describe strategies states and districts are pursuing to evolve their assessment programs into high-quality systems that both signal and support better teaching and learning processes for all students, and (3) identify key ways that the federal government could support assessment reforms that enable thoughtful assessment of meaningful skills in ways that also better support teaching and learning. [This report was written in collaboration with Michael DiNapoli, Tara Kini, Tiffany Miller, and Julie Woods. For the Policy Brief, see ED630213.]

School discipline policies are broadly intended to foster a high-quality learning environment by maintaining safety in the classroom; however, far too often, schools adopt measures that harm a student's social, emotional, academic, and in some cases, physical health and well-being. To create physically safe and emotionally supportive environments for all students, schools must adopt evidence-based approaches such as restorative justice that can be used to build and repair relationships while also holding students accountable for their actions. When positive discipline policies and practices use a race-equity lens and are fairly implemented, these efforts can not only create safe and inclusive learning environments, but also support students' holistic development.

The bachelor's degree remains a fundamental path to economic opportunity in the United States. Critical for policymakers, then, is ensuring equitable access to such benefits--a task often constrained by long-standing structural barriers. One of the most obvious structural impediments for bachelor's degree-aspirants in California (CA) is the current version of the CA Master Plan for Higher Education. With a robust public higher education system that is continually forced to adapt to demographic shifts and evolving labor markets, California is an especially important region for exploring the future of postsecondary education and economic growth. This report describes what we currently know about the California Community College Baccalaureate (CCB) program that was launched in 2017 and expanded in 2021. The program shows promising outcomes and that state education leaders can leverage existing components of the state's education ecosystem to meet the economic and social demands of 40 million diverse Californians and to close existing racial equity gaps. This report was published as part of a new research series, "A Civil Rights Agenda for California's Next Quarter Century," in commemoration of the Civil Rights Project's 25th anniversary.

We use over 25 years of longitudinal data from Washington state to provide a descriptive portrait of the paraeducator workforce in the state. Paraeducators are more racially and ethnically diverse than special education teachers, particularly in the last decade, and tend to be less experienced. They also have full-time salaries that are about half of the average special education teacher salary. Paraeducator-to-student ratios have decreased over time in the state, but they are higher in schools serving more students of color. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, paraeducator attrition rates from the state's public school workforce have increased dramatically over time; for example, the paraeducator attrition rate after the 2021-22 school year (23%) was over twice as high as the attrition rate after the 2008-09 school year (8%). These findings have implications for how policymakers and school leaders should approach decision-making related to the paraeducator workforce, as well as how researchers might approach further research with this group of educators.

Data governance is a core obligation for leaders and staff across any agency that collects, stores or uses individuals' data. It ensures that individuals' personal information is protected, and can support the continuous improvement of data quality and use, particularly when it includes well-defined processes, structure and responsibilities. Effective data governance can promote trust among those who administer the data systems, those who use them and those whose private information the data systems collect. This Policy Brief stems from a Thinkers Meeting hosted by Education Commission of the States that gathered experts in data governance to discuss how state leaders can avoid common pitfalls that undermine data governance policies. The group developed six principles that can aid any state leader in establishing effective governance of data systems.

Civics education continues to gain national importance, especially in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election and with recent debates about the teaching of history that addresses the legacy of racism and discrimination in the United States. Despite the increasing interest in strengthening civics education, states continue to differ in their interpretation of what constitutes relevant and high-quality civic engagement among students. This report describes how states are approaching policies to encourage civic engagement. It first provides an overview of state policies and then describes the work in 10 states that are encouraging both the development of civics knowledge and engagement in civic action.

Approximately 1.3 million public school students in the United States were identified as experiencing some form of homelessness in 2019-20. Due to their unstable living situations, students experiencing homelessness often have additional educational, social, emotional, and material needs compared to their stably housed peers. Housing instability can result in increased absences from school and can lead to students changing schools midyear. Each school move can disrupt students' education and limit opportunities to learn. The multiple challenges associated with homelessness negatively impact student learning outcomes. Reading, mathematics, and science scores for students experiencing homelessness tend to be lower than those of their peers, including those from economically disadvantaged but residentially stable families. While there is a need to focus attention on students experiencing homelessness, school districts may face barriers supporting them. These barriers include unstable funding or funding that is inadequate to meet student needs, and restrictions on the allowable uses of federal funds, which limits district ability to support noneducational expenses, such as for emergency housing. In addition, prior research has found that funding may help districts identify students experiencing homelessness, and without sufficient funding, fewer students are able to be identified as needing support, leading to inadequate services. The purpose of the report is to examine the federal and state funding sources directed to schools to support students experiencing homelessness. [For the research brief, see ED630220.]

Anecdotal evidence points to the importance of school principals, but the limited existing research has neither provided consistent results nor indicated any set of essential characteristics of effective principals. This paper exploits extensive student-level panel data across six states to investigate both variations in principal performance and the relationship between effectiveness and key certification factors. While principal effectiveness varies widely across states, there is little indication that regulation of the background and training of principals yields consistently effective performance. Having prior teaching or management experience is not related to our estimates of principal value-added.

We use administrative panel data from seven states covering nearly 3 million students to document and explore variation in "academic mobility," a term we use to describe the extent to which students' ranks in the distribution of academic performance change during their public schooling careers. On average, we show that student ranks are highly persistent during elementary and secondary education--that is, academic mobility is limited in U.S. schools as a whole. Still, there is non-negligible variation in the degree of upward mobility across some student subgroups as well as individual school districts. On average, districts that exhibit the greatest upward academic mobility serve more socioeconomically advantaged populations and have higher value-added to student achievement.