College accreditation began as a voluntary means to advise American institutions of higher education on "best practices" and signal to prospective students and their parents that the accredited school offered a quality education. This document critiques the current accreditation system in higher education, which has shifted from a…

Each year in the U.S., hundreds of individuals die from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth, and tens of thousands experience unexpected outcomes such as heart failure. In 2022, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that research showed more than half of rural counties lacked hospital-based services for pregnant…

Many district-led summer learning programs are at the intersection of in-school and out-of-school time (OST) learning. These summer programs play a critical role in providing students with academic supports and enrichment during the summer months. Districts offer a range of program types, but most are motivated by district and state policies…

Quite commonly, reports on elementary and secondary school teachers begin with the rather obvious notion that the quality of instruction is critical to student learning. Decades of federal policymaking have been built on the premise that good pre-service preparation is an effective route to quality teaching and, ultimately, improved educational…

Childrens' learning has been massively disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing the need for more opportunities for differentiated, high-quality learning, stronger relationships with the adults in their school, and streamlined access to social-emotional support -- especially for the country's lowest-income students, Black and Latinx students,…

Parents, educators, advocates, and state policymakers alike want excellence in teaching and learning every day for every educator and student. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) gives states renewed authority as well as leverage to make this vision a reality. The role of state boards of education in this process cannot be underestimated. State…

Background: The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA; 2015) constituted a reauthorization of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and replaced the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001. ESSA, although still recognizing the need of standardized testing, diverged from NCLB by transferring a significant amount of power over…

Across the U.S., large numbers of young children are affected by one or more risk factors that have been linked to academic failure and poor health. High quality early care and education can play a critical role in promoting young children's early learning and success in life, while also supporting families' economic security. Young…

This Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) annual performance report for the year 2014 describes Georgia's accomplishments, lessons learned, challenges, and strategies Georgia will implement to address those challenges. In 2014, the first year of implementation, Georgia was able to use the Early Learning Challenge opportunity to…

The Issue: Washington is taking a close look at Title II, Part A (Title IIA) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) as Congress debates reauthorization. The program sends roughly $2.5 billion a year to all states and nearly all districts to "(1) increase student academic achievement through strategies such as improving teacher…

For decades, for-profit educational provision has been merely tolerated, often grudgingly. In the world of charter schooling, for-profit providers are lambasted and sometimes prohibited. In higher education, for-profit institutions have grown rapidly, enrolling millions of nontraditional students and earning enmity, suspicion, and now…

The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) and the National Association of State Title I Directors (NASTID) drafted this paper to spark local discussions on the coordinated uses of funds to implement technology in the classroom. State and local Title I and Title IID directors can work together to ensure that these ideas are…

To ensure a high-quality education for every student, close partnerships among federal, state, and local education agencies must be established. This publication focuses on several issues related to this goal, including the need to: (1) reaffirm the Federal Government's historically defined role in supporting education; (2) set a national…

The National Science Foundation (NSF) should be a guiding force in science education and in building public understanding of science and technology transfer issues. The nation's community, junior, and technical colleges, which now enroll 52% of all Americans who go to college for the first time, are eager to work with the NSF to further these…

The significant role of the federal government in the support of higher education is noted in a survey of the development and changing patterns of federal support, and a critical review of the directions of current federal policy is offered. Implications are drawn about the effects of this policy on such national concerns as providing equal…