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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.

In 2023, charter school advocates continued to make legislative gains in statehouses across the country. These gains were made in red, blue, and purple states, oftentimes in ways that showed bipartisan support for charter schools remains firmly in place. In looking at the results of this year's legislative sessions across the country, four developments in particular stand out. First, in perhaps the biggest win this year, Montana became the 46th state to enact a charter school law. Second, charter school advocates notched an unusually large number of major wins on funding and facilities legislation, with especially significant progress in Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Colorado, and Wyoming. Third, charter school supporters opened the door to new types of authorizers in several states, including in Montana (new state authorizer), Nevada (cities and counties), North Carolina (new state authorizer), Oklahoma (new state authorizer, more types of universities, and accredited private institutions of higher learning), Utah (private institutions of higher education), and Wyoming (new state authorizer). Fourth, charter school supporters successfully played successful defense on anti-charter school efforts in several states, with three of the most notable defensive victories in blue states. In New Mexico, the Senate Education Committee voted down a charter school moratorium bill that was proposed by the Senate President Pro Tempore by a 7-1 margin. The bill would not have allowed any more charter schools in school districts where 20% of the students already attend a charter school. In California, Governor Newsom vetoed a bill that would have made harmful changes to the Charter School Facility Grant program and unnecessarily raise facilities cost for charter schools that want to establish or expand in low-income communities across the state. In Michigan, the legislature reversed a 20% cut to the funding of virtual charter schools proposed by the governor and instead level funded these schools. This report provides highlights from this year's state legislative activity across the country, organized into the following categories: funding and facilities, authorizing and accountability, other issues, no law states, and harmful legislation.

While recent studies have demonstrated the potential of automated feedback to enhance teacher instruction in virtual settings, its efficacy in traditional classrooms remains unexplored. In collaboration with TeachFX, we conducted a pre-registered randomized controlled trial involving 523 Utah mathematics and science teachers to assess the impact of automated feedback in K-12 classrooms. This feedback targeted "focusing questions" -- questions that probe students' thinking by pressing for explanations and reflection. Our findings indicate that automated feedback increased teachers' use of focusing questions by 20%. However, there was no discernible effect on other teaching practices. Qualitative interviews revealed mixed engagement with the automated feedback: some teachers noticed and appreciated the reflective insights from the feedback, while others had no knowledge of it. Teachers also expressed skepticism about the accuracy of feedback, concerns about data security, and/or noted that time constraints prevented their engagement with the feedback. Our findings highlight avenues for future work, including integrating this feedback into existing professional development activities to maximize its effect. [This paper was written with TeachFX and financial support was provided from the Learning Agency.]

Utah Leading through Effective, Actionable, and Dynamic (ULEAD) Education is required to report on successful K-12 practices in Utah and other states and propose policy changes to remove barriers to implementation successful practices. Notably, successful and innovative practices across topic areas rely on additional staff expertise and time, requiring more staff, more training, and more or flexible time to implement work. A continued commitment to well-defined data collection and accurate reporting is also highlighted need. This report includes a brief review of report findings, limitations or barriers, and recommendations for supporting best practice implementation at scale. An overview of ULEAD additional materials, current partnerships, related legislation, and ULEAD program updates are also included.

Implementation of ESA programs will not be easy. The ESA model is novel and foreign to most state education agencies, which have little to no experience with helping families purchase a wide variety of educational goods and services using government funds. Even if agencies had the relevant experience, ESA programs are complex, involving millions of individual transactions as thousands of families make purchases from thousands of schools and other education providers. EdChoice developed this guide to help state agencies succeed as they roll out ESA programs. EdChoice's goal is to ensure that ESA programs achieve their purpose: to empower families to choose the best education for their children.

The growth of homeschooling from a somewhat fringe movement during the 1970s and 1980s to a more widespread and socially accepted approach in recent decades has provided a strong foundation of flexible learning models. When Florida's school choice expansion, House Bill 1, was introduced in January 2023, one of its goals was to allow more homeschoolers to participate in the education savings account (ESA) program. But many homeschoolers and homeschool advocacy groups balked at the proposal. Having worked hard to achieve independence, they were loath to be linked to government funding. Even if the program were optional, they feared that associated regulations would eventually extend to traditional homeschoolers. In the end, the bill passed with new language that satisfied traditional homeschoolers by creating a new option for parents to educate their children at home. As states continue to enact and expand education savings accounts, Colleen Hroncich argues that it is crucial that policymakers craft bills in a way that maximizes freedom and minimizes roadblocks.

The new world of work demands not only academic knowledge and skills but also transferable skills such as communications, creativity, and collaboration--skills that are rarely captured formally. Meeting that demand will require a new approach to the high school diploma. The opportunity is ripe to redesign credentials to enable competency-based pathways and learning. The transcript for the next generation ("next gen") of learning and work will better represent what individuals have actually learned, what they know, and what they can do. It's time to explore how all learners (adults and youth) could record and communicate their learning from a variety of powerful learning experiences using the next generation of credentials. The goal of this report is to deepen state policy makers' understanding of the changes needed to facilitate meaningful next gen credentials and advance state policy to support those changes. This includes building support to modernize education, opening pathways for learning and reskilling, and providing value for lifelong learning to both individuals and employers. Students, families, employers, and organizations focused on education and employment, as well as nations around the globe, are exploring how to ensure students receive a world-class education that builds knowledge and skills needed for the future. New models of credentialing knowledge, skills, and qualifications are emerging to help achieve this goal. [Funding was provided by the Stand Together Trust.]

The purpose of the Teacher Prep Review is to guarantee teachers have expertise in reading instruction (as well as other essential areas NCTQ assesses) before being trusted to teach children to read. By regularly reviewing the reading coursework provided by nearly 700 elementary teacher preparation programs, the National Council on Teacher Quality seeks basic evidence that programs are using what is empirically known about how to teach reading--so every child can learn to read. [For a list of sponsors of "Teacher Prep Review," see page 53 of the full text.]

This report aimed to identify the key characteristics of Utah postsecondary graduates pursuing a graduate degree. Besides demographic data, the percentage of students who earned a graduate degree outside of Utah and those who attended private institutions are included. Additionally, this report explored how many students can fill Utah's high-demand and high-wage jobs at the post-baccalaureate level. Finally, the following question is answered: what is the picture of underrepresented populations seeking graduate degrees from institutions within the Utah system of Higher Education?

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.]

Trellis' Student Financial Wellness Survey (SFWS) seeks to document the financial well-being of post-secondary students and provide institutions with a detailed profile of the financial issues their students face, some of which could potentially impact their success in college. This report details aggregated findings for the 89 colleges and universities across the country that participated in the fall 2022 implementation of the survey. [For "Student Financial Wellness Survey: Fall 2021 Semester Results. National Aggregate Report," see ED625724.]

This appendix provides additional characteristics of the studies of "Class-Wide Function-Related Intervention Teams (CW-FIT)" that meet What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) single-case design standards, including six studies that contribute to the findings in the "CW-FIT" intervention report and six studies that do not contribute to the findings because the WWC could not calculate a design-comparable effect size for any of the outcomes. [For the Intervention Report, see ED628223. For the Intervention Brief, see ED628224.]

The Working Group on Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and Learning Differences was launched in 2021 as an initiative of the Global Cities Education Network (GCEN). Fourteen school districts each worked to implement a unique action plan designed to strengthen SEL supports in their district, including for students with learning differences. Districts drew on expertise and resources shared in the working group and adapted the strategies to meet their needs. The learning centered on deep dives into two international school systems: a virtual site visit to Surrey Schools (British Columbia, Canada) and an in-person convening in Melbourne (Victoria, Australia). This report features four case studies and shares lessons learned and strategies implemented by the districts.

Recently new types of scholarships have emerged known as promise scholarships. A promise scholarship aims to increase collegiate attainment by promising financial aid to eligible students. Promise scholarships differ from traditional scholarships in that promise scholarships are non-competitive and not necessarily needs based. Typical eligibility criteria for promise scholarships include a set minimum GPA and residence within a specific geographic area. Utah's Regents' Scholarship could be considered a promise scholarship. For Regents', the criteria included a minimum GPA of 3.0 with no grade below a "C" and residence within Utah for high school grades 9 through 12; specific coursework was also required. This brief studies the effects of the Regent's Scholarship awards finding that recipients earned more associate and bachelor's degrees in time than similar students, required less institutional and federal support, and helped more underrepresented populations complete degrees on time.

A wealth of literature shows positive outcomes and experiences from arts learning, yet youth access to arts education has become significantly more inequitable over the past 30 years. Alongside the growing discourse around arts learning and equity issues, there is a recognized and persistent need for more research. We conducted a critical, qualitative study of out-of-school time (OST) arts organizations across the United States. Our primary research questions were: (1) How do community youth arts organizational leaders, teaching artists, and participants describe the leading ideas and practices in OST youth arts programming? (2) How can OST youth arts work center the cultural, historical, and geographic resources that artists and arts organizations bring to arts programming? We first developed a theoretical framework for understanding arts practices in education and summarize key learning outcomes associated with youth participation in the arts. We then talked with OST arts education experts across the United States to understand how their programs support and center youth in arts learning, particularly Black youth, Indigenous youth, and youth of color (BIPOC youth), youth from low-income backgrounds, and LGBTQIA+ youth. This report offers the concept of "cultural-regional scenes" to describe the critical, qualitative case studies we developed of OST youth arts practice. We describe four unique cultural-regional scenes--the Urban Midwest, the Bay Area, Texas-Mexico Border Towns, and the Indigenous Southwest--and provide examples of youth arts practice in each scene. We conclude with ideas that stretch across scenes and suggest that researchers and practitioners can take up this approach in the study of OST youth arts programs. [Written in collaboration with community artists and artist-leaders across the United States and Indigenous Nations.]

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, K-12 schools are under immense pressure to meet the diverse needs of students. But policies and practices have not evolved quickly enough to meet those needs -- and as a result, the system continues to fail far too many young people. In "Levers of Change: How State Policies Support District Innovation," Bellwether delves into the ways states can support and catalyze innovation in public school districts -- adopting new laws, amending or repealing existing laws, changing policy or regulation, providing funding, or creating new programs. The report identifies seven states that have taken steps to enable innovation in public school districts -- Colorado, Kentucky, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Utah, and Washington -- and explores the lessons they can offer to leaders looking to spark innovation in their schools.

Much attention has been focused on the importance of providing physical and mental health services to students in educational environments in recent years. Millions of students receive school-based health services, and for many students, schools are their first and only option to receive health care. State policymakers have a lot to consider in this policy area, including funding, workforce needs and coordination of efforts across agencies. State leaders are not only enabling health services to be offered in schools but working to ensure equitable access to those services for students who may otherwise struggle to receive them. This Policy Brief outlines how some states have been using school-based health services in K-12 environments -- particularly through the school-based health center (SBHC) and community school models -- to pursue equitable access to both physical and mental health services for all students.

During the State of Utah's legislative session 2020, HB114 was passed proving Grants for Professional Learning, however due to COVID-19 disruptions, the bill did not receive funding until the 2021 session. The Grant for Professional Learning is meant to provide preschool through grade three teachers with professional learning opportunities in early literacy and/or early mathematics. The majority of eligible districts and charter schools, Local Education Agencies (LEAs), chose to apply for this grant. This document reports how the grant provided an allocation of $3,965,000 which was distributed to the 111 LEA applicants during the 2022-2023 school year, using a per teacher allotment. Of those LEAs, the majority chose to support early literacy professional learning opportunities. A pre and post survey was distributed to measure outcomes of professional learning regarding deepening educator understanding of early literacy and/or early math and applying the knowledge learned in their educational practices.

This report contains the proceedings of a forum held on June 28, 2023 in New Orleans, Louisiana, to discuss issues surrounding meaningful accessibility of assessments. The forum was a post-session to the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) National Conference on Student Assessment (NCSA) and was a collaboration of the "Assessment, Standards, and Education for Students with Disabilities" (ASES) Collaborative and the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO). A specific goal of the forum was to gather representatives from state education agencies (SEAs), assessment vendors, assistive technology experts, and others to discuss the meaningful accessibility of assessments and to identify possible solutions to the challenges that students face when accessing assessments. [This report is a result of a collaboration with the Assessment, Standards, and Education for Students with Disabilities (ASES) Collaborative.]

Politically charged education issues roiled the 2022 races for seats on state boards of education, yet none of the boards flipped partisan control. However, majority parties expanded their representation on boards in Colorado, Kansas, and Utah so far. Of the 63 seats on the ballot for 12 state boards, 35 incumbent candidates were reelected. This policy update discusses elected state boards, the impact of governors' elections, elected state chiefs, ballot measures, and what is next.

2022 turned out to be a dynamic year for charter schools, as many state lawmakers recognized the fact parents want more schooling options that fit their children's unique needs. In total, close to 50% of states with charter school laws gained at least one legislative win. Read for more details on how the charter school movement strengthened in the areas of funding equity, support for facilities, improved authorizing practices, and increased funding for students.

Providing instruction in multiple languages has the potential to simultaneously help both native English speakers and English learners to develop language proficiency. "Dual language programs" can help native English speakers develop proficiency in a second language and English learners develop proficiency in both their native language and English. Typically in "dual language programs," classroom teachers instruct students from an early age and over multiple years in both English and a second language called the partner language. These programs vary widely by partner language, primary language of the student population, and duration. Because reaching proficiency in a second language may require substantial exposure over an extended period of time, this report examines "dual language programs" that (1) span at least the elementary grades; and (2) provide at least 50 percent of instruction in the partner language. The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) reviews existing research on educational interventions to identify evidence-based programs and practices. This WWC intervention report summarizes the available evidence on the effects of "dual language programs" on student outcomes. [For the Intervention Brief, see ED625370.]

Providing instruction in multiple languages has the potential to simultaneously help both native English speakers and English learners to develop language proficiency. "Dual language programs" can help native English speakers develop proficiency in a second language and English learners develop proficiency in both their native language and English. Typically in "dual language programs," classroom teachers instruct students from an early age and over multiple years in both English and a second language called the partner language. These programs vary widely by partner language, primary language of the student population, and duration. Because reaching proficiency in a second language may require substantial exposure over an extended period of time, this report examines "dual language programs" that (1) span at least the elementary grades; and (2) provide at least 50 percent of instruction in the partner language. The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) reviews existing research on educational interventions to identify evidence-based programs and practices. This Intervention Brief provides an overview of the full Intervention Report. [For the Intervention Report, see ED625372.]

State legislators have the opportunity to create and support legislation that positions data as a tool to help decisionmakers at all levels take action to support student success. This checklist can serve as a guide to crafting legislation that addresses education data. It applies specifically to education data legislation which includes bills that: (1) Govern statewide data collections, reports, or discrete uses of data to meet education and workforce goals; or (2) Create policy conditions to make the collection, reporting, analysis, or use of education data possible.

This report analyzes the descriptive outcomes for students with disabilities (SWDs) from schools overseen by the Utah State Board of Education (USBE) who enrolled in postsecondary institutions. Data provided by USBE, the Utah System of Higher Education (USHE), and the Department of Workforce Services (DWS) allowed for the examination of metrics including the demographics, Career and Technical Education (CTE) enrollment, inclusion in a regular classroom setting, postsecondary programs, and wages up to five years after high school for SWDs from 2012-19. Compared to national analyses, SWDs from USBE schools had lower enrollment and graduation rates from postsecondary institutions. However, CTE enrollment and inclusion in regular classroom settings had an impact on enrollment and graduation rates. Students who completed a CTE pathway had the highest enrollment and graduation rates for SWDs from higher education institutions. Similarly, students who participated more in a regular classroom setting also enrolled in postsecondary institutions at higher rates than their peers who were participated less in a regular classroom setting.

Utah Leading through Effective, Actionable, and Dynamic (ULEAD) Education is required to report on successful K-12 practices in Utah and other states and propose policy changes to remove barriers to implementation successful practices. These practices should result from ULEAD's innovative research reports and repository development. There have been 11 projects added to the repository this year, however; none have fully addressed the innovative practice report format. This report includes an overview of ULEAD developed materials and collaborations, stakeholder survey findings and related policy implications, and a model for how ULEAD plans to address repository creation, collaboration, and reporting on findings in the future.

Several state boards of education have adopted graduate profiles or portraits to better define the skills and knowledge students should master before they graduate high school. This report discusses the graduate profiles developed by the following states: South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, and Washington. While their entry points and approaches to the work differ, these states have all drawn up profiles that many call the North Star of their state education systems. Particularly since the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) opened the door to state-specific accountability measures, states have searched for ways to better shape and communicate the elements of school and system performance that more holistically reflect what preK-12 students should be able to know and do upon graduation. Profiles of a graduate provide the broad strokes for a range of skills and dispositions that go well beyond reading and math. In creating them, states have sought to respond to the critique that a high school diploma is not sufficient to prepare all students to engage in the next steps in work, postsecondary education, and life.

The project's primary goal was to develop, test, and disseminate a model workforce development curriculum for Cooperative Extension Professionals (CEPs). The curriculum, which we have named Future Opportunities for Rural Workforce and Rural Development (FORWARD), is designed to support CEPs working to address workforce development issues in rural communities.

Salaries are one of the most powerful policy levers states and school districts can use to attract qualified, effective, and diverse teachers. What role do states play in supporting strategic use of salaries? This report examines the state teacher compensation policies that influence districts' potential strategic use of teacher pay. It analyzes three types of state policies that aim to attain three purposes: (1) Differentiated pay: To attract teachers to traditionally hard-to-staff subjects or schools; (2) Performance pay: To reward high-performing teachers; and (3) Pay for prior work: To compensate teacher candidates for prior experience relevant to teaching. With the influx of federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds, some states have designed new or expanded already existing initiatives aimed to attract or retain teachers to hard-to-staff positions. The analysis in this report includes these state strategies, while acknowledging that they might only remain in place temporarily while ESSER funds remain available. [For the the second report in this three-part series, "State of the States 2021: Teacher Preparation Policy," see ED611532.]