On September 2, 2010, the U.S. Department of Education announced the winners of the $350 million Race to the Top Comprehensive Assessment Systems Competition: the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) and the SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium (SMARTER). In his announcement, Secretary of Education Arne…

This report proposes a detailed plan that positions digital and media literacy as an essential life skill and outlines steps that policymakers, educators, and community advocates can take to help Americans thrive in the digital age. It offers a plan of action for how to bring digital and media literacy education into formal and informal settings…

Urban Teacher Residencies (UTRs) are an emerging innovation designed to embody best practices in recruitment, screening, preparation, placement, induction, and teacher leadership for urban school districts. UTRs can be a key element of urban districts' portfolio of pathways into teaching and a lynchpin of a larger strategy to strengthen the…

This year, Congress is scheduled to review the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). In 2002, this law signaled an important change in federal education policy by focusing on accountability for results rather than simple compliance and by seeking to set the performance bar high for all children, regardless of where they live. The time is now to learn…

While most urban school districts face rapid turnover in leadership and limited results, Boston has won national attention for its stability and success. The purpose of the study is to inform the leadership transition that will occur as Payzant's superintendency comes to a close in June 2006. This study examines Boston's accomplishments and…

The Aspen Domestic Strategy Group exists to encourage a search for common ground on the nation's social challenges by bringing together leaders of diverse views and backgrounds. It is not expected to produce legislative proposals but rather a continuing conversation to shape a more coherent approach to domestic needs. (SLD)

Examines traditional functions that the family has performed and describes what happens when sizable numbers of families do not fulfill these functions. Presents data on the scope and significance of childhood poverty and declining academic achievement. Explores implications for public policy of links between family change and child development.…

Data explain causes of declining well-being among families with small children in terms of demography, economics, inadequate government programs, perverse government programs, family structure, neighborhood and community, and culture. Declining economic prospects for young male workers and accelerated movement toward single-parent families are the…

Argues that much can be done to solve the problems of U.S. children by building on the lessons from past successes. Removing the risk factors we know how to remove can bring about improvements. Strategies are offered to build responsive programs that deal with children as part of families. (SLD)

Explores the concept of culture as a factor in the well-being of children. Holding students accountable for their behavior, holding schools accountable for activities and achievements of students, and inducing parents to support their children in school require a cultural change in how we look at schooling. (SLD)

Summarizes remarks made by the Governor of Wisconsin about welfare reform, supporting more flexibility at the state level to enable states to try new approaches that will help people get off welfare. Initiatives undertaken in Wisconsin are reviewed, with emphasis on work programs and apprenticeships for high school students. (SLD)

Suggests ways to improve child support enforcement. Getting the child support system out of the courts to the extent possible and providing government guarantees of child support are two types of proposals that must be considered. A final necessity is increasing welfare benefits to a subsistence level. (SLD)

Presents nine recommendations developed at the 1992 Policy Issue Forum of the Aspen Institute's Program on Policy Issues in Energy and Resources. The underlying theme is that the world is entering a new era of environmental policy formation. Issues a call for a national strategy for environmental management. (SLD)

Assesses the state of U.S. education after a decade of debate about school improvement, and explores what research is teaching us about child development. Children develop a significant portion of their cognitive skills before they are old enough for Head Start, making early interventions crucial. (SLD)