Passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in December 2015 signaled a new era for teacher evaluation reform. Under ESSA, states and districts have greater autonomy to design and implement teacher evaluation systems independent of federal influence. This new flexibility brings with it new responsibilities and challenges for states and…

Sooner or later, talk of closing achievement gaps turns to education finance--specifically, fixing widespread disparities in school funding within individual states. The difference between the resources that a district needs to educate all students and the amount the district actually spends is called an adequacy gap. The availability and use of…