The objective of the report was to determine whether the University of Cincinnati used the Student Aid (Assistance Listing Number (ALN) 84.425E) and Institutional (ALN 84.425F) portions of its Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) funds for allowable and intended purposes. It also reviews the University's cash management practices and the…

How can the Truman Commission report be read 75 years after its release? Why should anybody care about it? What is this thing, anyway? The most compelling way to read "Higher Education for American Democracy" is as a visionary and progressive statement of the public purposes of American higher education. In so many ways, the report reads…

The Office of Higher Education is required by the Minnesota Legislature to publish the Sexual Assault Data Report, which includes information regarding the outcomes of sexual assault incidents reported to postsecondary institutions. This report provides data for Minnesota colleges for the years 2015-2021. This report also includes discussion of…

When Congress reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Schools Act in 2015, it intended to send a strong signal: any further encroachment of federal authority on the nation's K-12 schools needed to end. Compared to its more prescriptive predecessor in 2000, known as No Child Left Behind, the new law, dubbed "ESSA" for the Every Student…

There was a lot of talk about both the fate of American democracy and American higher education in 2021, but not much consideration about how the two were deeply intertwined. The 1947 report "Higher Education for American Democracy" showed awareness of how race, sex, class, and religious discrimination thwarted the talents and ambitions…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires all states to report school-level spending data. This fall, the Department of Education released the first round of data on per-pupil expenditure as part of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). As states continue to release new spending data, it will be possible for a variety of stakeholders to…

There is growing interest in providing students and others with information about the performance of postsecondary education and training programs. Currently, if one wants to know how many students get jobs and what those jobs pay, one cannot find comparable information for programs across the nation. Consumer reports, which display information…

The examination of the two featured pages of a 1921 House anti-lynching report can facilitate an engaging inquiry into the continued absence of a federal lynching law as well as historical efforts by lawmakers and civic groups to promote justice and change. In the decades between the end of the Civil War and the 1920s, thousands of individuals…

Developing and releasing a user-friendly school report card site is a process for ongoing engagement and improvement. This report describes the continuous improvement efforts of three states--Georgia, Illinois, and Virginia--to make their school and district report cards more user-friendly. The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) has…

The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) is urged to submit a report to the General Assembly by December 31, 2021, with information on the reviewed areas and recommendations on how to streamline the school data reporting and collecting systems of the State of Illinois. ISBE supports more than 200 software applications that were created in…

The final Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) accountability regulations were issued November 2016. Draft regulations were released in the Spring 2016, and the Department of Education received comments and feedback from over 21,000 individuals and organizations. The final regulations provide specific details regarding the implementation timeline,…

Students today face a grim reality: they pay exorbitant tuition costs--often for little gain. In recent decades, policymakers and educational institutions have focused on increasing access and funding for first-generation, low-income, and minority students. But these efforts have failed to close the achievement gap because they do nothing to…

The objective of this audit was to determine whether Lincoln College of Technology (Lincoln) used the Student Aid (Assistance Listing Number (ALN) 84.425E) and Institutional (ALN 84.425F) portions of its Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) funds for allowable and intended purposes. The authors also reviewed Lincoln's cash management…

Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) invited 10 districts to participate in a community of practice designed to increase understanding of how to braid and blend federal funds. District teams composed of principals, superintendents, business managers, and other district leaders participated in four 90-minute virtual sessions. The purpose of…

As states continue to evolve and implement their accountability and public reporting systems in 2016 and beyond, they have an opportunity to select indicators that inform continuous improvement, guide decisions about resource allocation, inform policies, capture progress, and factor into accountability determinations. Achieve and Advance CTE have…