Over the past 15 years, federal, state, and local officials have pursued a broad range of reforms aimed at ensuring that the nation's public school system is more accountable--that it delivers a rich, full education for children in communities across the country. New research from the Kettering Foundation and Public Agenda suggests that there…

Efforts to improve student learning and success at community colleges are in the national policy spotlight. Colleges around the country are reviewing their institutional practices and gathering groups of education stakeholders to design and then implement changes in advising, developmental education, programs of study and curricula, student…

It's been a decade since former President Bush proposed and Congress passed the No Child Left Behind law. The goal of this law was to raise student achievement and reduce the gap between different groups of students, especially white and minority students. The law's passage reflected a broad consensus among elected officials, business leaders and…

Community colleges are facing tough challenges, and engaging faculty members--both full-time and adjunct--in the hard work of meeting these challenges is critical. Colleges can reap major benefits from meaningful engagement with faculty, yet many institutions find it difficult to do. In partnership with Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges…

This is the second guide of the Cutting Edge Series and is designed to help colleges apply strategies that will allow successful institutional change and student achievement initiatives to reach more students. Section 1 of this guide lays out the most common obstacles to successful scaling and serves as a sobering reminder of the complexity of the…

This paper offers a summary of key findings from a telephone survey of 1,204 California parents conducted in September and October 2009 in both English and Spanish. The survey was prefaced by four focus groups: in Oakland, San Jose, Fresno and Los Angeles. The survey highlights several important themes for educators and policymakers, the most…