Every student absence jeopardizes the ability of students to succeed at school and schools to achieve their mission. Students who are not at school cannot receive instruction. Schools funded on the basis of average daily attendance have less resources to do the job. Some youngsters who are truant from school engage in behaviors that are illegal.…

As with so many guides for school improvement, the U.S. Department of Education's March 2006 Non-regulatory Guidance document entitled, "Designing Schoolwide Programs," continues to marginalize the essential role of student/learning supports. This brief report analyzes the guidance document with a specific focus on how to ensure Title I schoolwide…

It is time for reform advocates to expand their emphasis on improving instruction and school management to include a comprehensive component for addressing barriers to learning. In doing so, they must pursue this third component with the same level of priority they devote to the other two. That is, such an enabling (or learner support) component…

Anticipating Congressional hearings related to reauthorizing NCLB, this policy analysis report focuses on how learning supports can be enhanced in the reauthorized law. The intent is to enhance effectiveness in addressing the factors that interfere with a great many students succeeding at school. The emphasis is on fully integrating the…

Few would argue against the idea of planning and implementing improvements to the nation's schools. This report contends, school improvement planning processes have frequently not been conceived in ways likely to produce desired learning outcomes for many students. The analyses presented in this report focus on a lack of attention to how schools…

Properly conceived and implemented new initiatives are essential to improving schools and communities. Such new initiatives usually are pursued as projects, pilots, or demonstrations, with temporary funding and staffing. When the funding ends, more often than not much of what has been developed disappears. Sometimes this is appropriate (e.g., when…

Given the range of student learning, behavior, and emotional problems experienced each day by teachers and families, meeting the challenge of supplying appropriate support is complex. Efforts to do so may be handicapped by the way in which student support interventions currently are conceived, organized, and implemented. Student supports are…

As schools pursue their mission to educate and as communities pursue the aim of improving the quality of life of their residents, major initiatives have been introduced and progress is being made. At the same time, it is evident that there remains considerable fragmentation and significant gaps in some of our efforts to assure no child is left…