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This brief outlines how the Stanislaus County Office of Education (SCOE) supports the educational and mental health needs of 25 school districts in the county. SCOE partnered with three school districts--Hughson Unified, Patterson, and Turlock--to enhance their school-based mental health programs for approximately 22,000 students. The brief highlights various initiatives undertaken by SCOE through Project Cal-Well, including: (1) mental health training for staff and students; (2) the creation of wellness spaces based on student input; (3) the implementation of universal mental health screening systems across districts using tools like the Covitality screening tool; and (4) the expansion of National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) On Campus Clubs to promote advocacy and awareness campaigns related to mental health. Additionally, the brief mentions efforts made toward increasing availability and access to school-based mental health services through referral pathways and building partnerships with community organizations, such as Sandy Hook Promise's Start With Hello program at Turlock USD. Overall, SCOE aims to sustain these initiatives beyond the initial funding period through strategic alignment with existing programs focused on children's behavioral health care.

The objectives of the audit were to determine whether the Kentucky Department of Education (Kentucky) had an adequate oversight process in place to ensure that (1) local educational agencies' (LEA) American Rescue Plan (ARP) Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) plans met applicable requirements and (2) LEAs use ARP ESSER funds in accordance with applicable requirements and their approved LEA ARP ESSER plans. The review covered Kentucky's processes for reviewing and approving LEA ARP ESSER plans and overseeing LEAs' use of ARP ESSER funds from March 24, 2021, through July 31, 2022. For the first objective, the authors reviewed the summary results of Kentucky's review of LEA ARP ESSER plan narrative submissions to verify that Kentucky approved the plan narratives for all 171 LEAs and gain an understanding of how often and why plan reviewers did not approve plans. For the second objective, the authors reviewed samples of ARP ESSER expenditures at Warren County and Jefferson County to determine whether they used ARP ESSER funds in accordance with applicable requirements and their approved LEA ARP ESSER plans. It was determined that the ARP ESSER plans for Warren County and Jefferson County met applicable requirements and that Kentucky was consistent in how it reviewed and approved the two plans. Kentucky also designed a process to annually review and approve updated LEA ARP ESSER plans that, if implemented properly, is adequate to ensure that updated plans meet applicable requirements.

The term "newcomers" is commonly used to describe students who have recently arrived in U.S. schools. Depending on usage, newcomers may mean students in their first 6 months in U.S. schools, in their first 4 years, or anywhere in between. A majority arrive speaking little to no English, most are from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, and a large but unknown proportion have experienced trauma. Unfortunately, reliable national data are not available on language proficiency or socioeconomic status. This report gives an overview of newcomer education in California and makes recommendations to support improved student outcomes. The report is informed by a special data request to the California Department of Education (CDE), interviews with staff from 12 California school districts, and a literature review. Sam Finn's perspective is further contextualized by Finn's experience as an elementary school teacher in three cities, a consultant for the California Newcomer Education and Well-Being (CalNEW) program, and a researcher and advocate for Oakland Unified School District. [For "Newcomer Education in California. Report Summary with Recommendations," see ED628245.]

The Indiana Choice Scholarship Program (ICSP), which began in fall 2011, is a state taxpayer-funded financial aid program that helps low and lower-middle income Hoosiers to send their children to the private K-12 school of their choice. This voucher program has been extremely popular among families, as the number of students receiving scholarships has increased from 3,911 students in academic year (AY) 2012 to 36,707 by 2020. This report addresses two questions regarding the fiscal effects of the ICSP up through and including academic year (AY) 2020: (1) The fiscal effects of the ICSP on the state of Indiana budget; and (2) The fiscal effects of the ICSP on local school corporation budgets (in Indiana public school districts are termed "school corporations"). The estimates in this report suggest that the ICSP has provided modest fiscal benefits to taxpayers to date--however, the fiscal savings per scholarship recipient are quite large. Therefore, as more students access the ISCP the savings to Indiana taxpayers will increase significantly. The major findings include: (1) The ICSP saved state taxpayers a total of $42.5 million in 2019-20. These savings translate to savings of $1,158 per scholarship student--a significant sum on a per student basis; and (2) The ICSP yielded a total of $60.6 million in savings to local public school corporations in 2017-18, which was the most recent year with complete data available. These savings to local school corporations were $1,709 per student. These findings are not surprising given that the average scholarship awards are below both total expenditures per student and state per pupil funding as well.

High school student participation in dual enrollment--a key strategy for increasing equitable access to postsecondary education and improving readiness for college--has been on the rise in California in recent years. Despite the overall increase in participation, however, large gaps between racial/ethnic subgroups persist. Also of concern, English learners, socioeconomically disadvantaged students, youth in foster care, and students experiencing homelessness lag their peers in dual enrollment participation. To address these gaps, California policymakers and advocates are working with K-12 and community college educators to increase participation and to ensure that dual enrollment opportunities are more equitably available to students and accessed by them earlier in high school. This report updates and expands our prior work by examining participation in dual enrollment among California public high school students at all grade levels. Our partnerships with the California Department of Education (CDE) and the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office (CCCCO) enable us to merge data from both segments and analyze the full extent of dual enrollment for California public high school students through the state's 72 community college districts. While we have previously reported dual enrollment participation among high school graduates, this analysis incorporates new data to show rates of participation and characteristics for all 9th- through 12th-grade students during the 2021-22 academic year. For the first time, we have a statewide picture of dual enrollment participation for high school students at all grade levels to inform current policy discussions and efforts by local educational agencies (LEAs) and community colleges to increase dual enrollment. [An additional collaborator for this report is the University of California, Davis, California Education Lab.]

During the 2020-2021 school year, the Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) examined two hubs leading continuous improvement networks focused on increasing the rate at which students are on track to graduate high school positioned for postsecondary success. Both hubs offered: (1) coaching, with expectation of monthly meetings; (2) professional development from hub staff and external content experts; (3) frameworks, tools, and common data to promote reform efforts; and (4) access to a network of sites doing similar work. This is a companion document to the report "Generating Traction with Continuous Improvement: Lessons from Two Learning Networks" (ED624973). It summarizes the main findings about the ways hubs of learning networks--external support providers, county offices of education, or districts working with their schools--can help an improvement project gain traction toward improving student outcomes at scale.

In partnership with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and 22 San Mateo County school districts, this report and research brief explore the ways in which local students experience housing instability, and how cross-sector strategies can better identify and serve these students. This study considers a rich set of school administrative data, which allow us to describe youth based on their dwelling status designations reported by the school districts, their free or reduced-price meal participation, and several demographic characteristics. We also examine the relationship between student dwelling status designation and educational outcomes. At a high level, our research finds that over 2,600 adolescents in San Mateo County experienced housing instability over the course of the three school years before the pandemic. Students experiencing housing instability were also: (1) disproportionately Latinx, Black, and/or English language learners; and (2) likely to miss more days of school than their housing stable peers. Based on these findings, we conclude that youth experiencing housing instability face a range of unique challenges, and we recommend a set of concrete actions that state policymakers, local and county leaders, school district leaders, and leaders from youth-serving organizations can take to help ensure positive and equitable outcomes. [This report was written with contributions from Francine Biscocho, Elise Dizon Ross, Kristin Geiser, Amy Gerstein, Leslie Patron, Jayme Pyne, Nicole Tognozzi, and Charlotte Woo. For the report brief, see ED624056.]

Teacher mobility, or teacher turnover, has long garnered attention as a critical educational equity gap. This attention is warranted as, within schools, teachers have the single greatest impact on student achievement. The unprecedented interruptions to school-based learning and the trials of navigating remote and hybrid instruction due to the COVID-19 pandemic heightened concerns about the stability of the teacher workforce and the potential of a pending teacher shortage across the U.S., state of Pennsylvania, and locally in Allegheny County. This study takes a closer look at teacher mobility in the region by examining six years of data leading up to the pandemic. Specifically, this study: (1) Identifies teacher mobility trends in Allegheny County public schools from 2014-2015 to 2019-2020; (2) Describes the destinations of mobile teachers; and (3) Identifies key characteristics of mobile teachers and the schools they exited and entered within the county to determine if potential equity gaps exist. This report concludes with implications for policy and practice including a list of suggestions for educational leaders to reduce mobility and eliminate consequential disparities for students.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in the United States in March 2020, districts across the nation have faced the difficult task of reopening schools safely and keeping them open. It is useful to learn from the successes of districts that have used multilayered mitigation strategies to reduce the risk of in-school transmission. This brief describes reopening efforts in San Diego County, CA, where 98% of districts had reopened for in-person learning as of May 2021. The San Diego County Office of Education has mobilized technical assistance, leveraged partnerships, and gathered data to support districts as they have navigated initial school closure, distance learning, and planning for reopening. The brief also describes how the county supported the reopening of child care programs and highlights the reopening strategies adopted by Cajon Valley Union School District, the largest district in the county to resume in-person learning in fall 2020. It is part of a series of reopening profiles produced by the Learning Policy Institute to disseminate key public health research and reopening strategies to educators and policymakers.

The COVID-19 pandemic presents a unique opportunity to examine how local governments respond to a public health crisis amid high levels of partisan polarization and an increasing tendency for local issues to become nationalized. As an arena that has, in recent years, been relatively separate from national partisan divides, public schools provide a useful window into these dynamics. Leveraging the fact that all of the nation's school districts had to adopt a reopening plan for the fall, we test what factors best predict whether a district chose to return students to the classroom or educate them remotely. Contrary to the conventional understanding of school districts as localized and non-partisan actors, we find evidence that politics, far more than science, shaped school district decision-making. Mass partisanship and teacher union strength best explain how school boards approached reopening. Additionally, we find evidence that districts are sensitive to the threat of private school exit. Districts located in counties with a larger number of Catholic schools were less likely to shut down and more likely to return to in-person learning. These findings have important implications for our understanding of education policy and the functioning of American local governments.

California's school accountability and support system, the Statewide System of Support (System of Support), was designed to transform California's approach to school improvement. Rather than focusing on punitive consequences for underperformance, the System of Support is designed to provide education leaders and educators with needed support to build their skills and knowledge. Central to the state's theory of action is that building system capacity to improve will lead to increases in student achievement and will reduce disparities in outcomes. In practice, this has resulted in heightened interest and investment in continuous improvement approaches in California schools. Continuous improvement entails collective problem identification; rapid development of potential solutions; feedback mechanisms to quickly assess the effectiveness of potential solutions; and willingness to learn from failures in order to deploy successful solutions. The effective implementation of continuous improvement requires structures, practices, cultures, and capacities that are often in contrast to traditional school improvement strategies, which have prioritized scaling ideas quickly or presenting top-down mandates. This report describes the contextual factors of organizations and the capacities of individuals that can foster the success of continuous improvement and the goals of the System of Support. As schools, districts, counties, and state agencies embark upon the work of continuous improvement, they must also attend to the enabling conditions and capacities that undergird the success of continuous improvement efforts.

In March 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic caused schools to close for the remainder of the school year, all Pennsylvania school districts and charter schools were required to "make good faith efforts to implement continuity of education plans for the duration of the 2019-20 school year." RFA analyzed these plans for each of the 43 districts and for 13 charter schools located in Allegheny County. During these months of remote instruction in Allegheny County: (1) Districts and charters relied heavily on asynchronous (work at your own pace) instruction and alternative grading and attendance tracking; (2) Students missed significant amounts of formal instruction time; (3) The overall quality of remote instruction varied widely, with students experiencing inequitable access to devices and other technology; (4) Most plans provided only vague descriptions of how they would provide special education and student support services; and (5) Access to quality remote instruction varied by student race and poverty. [This is a publication of Allegheny County Education Research (ACER).]

The Professional Learning Reimagined Framework, developed by the West Virginia Board of Education (WVBE) and the West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE), provides a model for coordinated, cohesive professional learning and leadership processes and opportunities for West Virginia counties. A wealth of research has proven that the methods outlined in this framework are highly effective models in the delivery of high-quality, sustained professional learning experiences. After careful analysis of state data, the WVBE created professional learning goals to support educators and administrators in developing necessary knowledge and skills to direct student growth and achievement in their respective school districts.

In this brief we summarize findings from three surveys that sought to learn how county offices of education (COEs) are changing in response to the implementation of the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) and the Statewide System of Support (SSS). COEs have been assigned critically important responsibilities in the implementation of these initiatives, and our survey results suggest that most county superintendents are strongly supportive of the state's new policy direction. They are increasingly aware of the scale of change that will have to occur to fully implement the LCFF and the SSS, both in the organization and operation of their own COEs and in their relationships with other agencies, and they recognize that full implementation remains a work in progress.

California's new Statewide System of Support is grounded in the fundamental principles of the Local Control Funding Formula, especially its emphasis on the central role of local educators in determining the best approaches to improvement. This report examines the early implementation of the System of Support, with a focus on the work of the county offices of education (COEs) and the experience of the districts identified for differentiated assistance. The System of Support is a notable effort by the state to reinvent accountability aligned with the principles of the Local Control Funding Formula. However, it is not yet fully a system, as it is under-funded, fails to draw upon the full range of expertise in the state, and is not well-aligned with other accountability components of the Local Control Funding Formula. The report concludes with five recommendations designed to make the System of Support a more robust and comprehensive system to realize the aspirations of the Local Control Funding Formula. [This report was written with major assistance from Eupha Jeanne Daramola, Nina Houghton, Magaly Lavadenz, Julia Koppich, Julie Marsh, Haley Nelson, David Plank, Laura Stokes, Laura Tobben, and Tara Vahdani.]

National Household Education Surveys Program of 2016: Supplementary Restricted-Use Geocode Data for the Parent and Family Involvement in Education, Early Childhood Program Participation, and Adult Training and Education Surveys are available through an NCES restricted-use data license. Variables are drawn from administrative and survey data from NCES and other federal agencies (primarily data from the Census Bureau) to expand the analytic utility of NHES:2016 data. The supplementary data include geographic identifiers down to the census block group and identifiers for a child's assigned public school district. The files also include measures based on radii around a respondent's home for access to different education programs and schools. While additional geographic characteristic information is provided, the data support estimates of national-level characteristics and not subnational geographies like states or specific localities. The additional geocode data can be used to produce nationally representative estimates or national-level subgroup analyses such as schooling experiences of students living in low-population density areas with high employment rates across the U.S. but not schooling experiences of students in a specific rural area.

Across the nation, headlines have trumpeted soaring high-school graduation rates. Ohio is no exception. Lofty rates leave the impression that the vast majority of students are ready to take their next steps in life. But the truth is that too many students exit high school not fully prepared for college and career. This new study goes beyond traditional graduation rates (and state test scores) by making use of publicly available state education data that can be used to gauge the readiness of Ohio students. Analyses indicate that less than half of students exit high school well-equipped to take their next steps into college or the workforce. Key findings for the graduating class of 2017 include: (1) 26 percent meet college remediation-free benchmarks on the ACT or SAT; (2) 5 percent earn industry-recognized credentials while in high school; (3) 13 percent achieve passing scores on at least one AP exam; and (4) 21 percent earn college credits via dual enrollment. In a first-of-its kind analysis, this report also conducts a deeper dive at regional and county levels. Based on these data, counties are assigned rankings that allow communities to see how readiness in their county compares to other parts of the state.

In this study, the authors provide the first nationally comprehensive examination of charter school effects on school segregation using longitudinal data on public school enrollment by grade level and race or ethnicity. The authors identify the causal charter school effects on segregation exploiting between-grade-level variation in the dynamics of charter school enrollment share within a school district in a given year from 1998 to 2015. Key findings include: (1) The finding that increasing charter school enrollment leads to small increases in segregation holds for cities and counties as well as school districts. The averages, however, mask considerable variation across districts, cities, and states; (2) The segregative effects of charter schools are greater in urban districts with high shares of black and Hispanic students and in suburban districts with low black and Hispanic representation; and (3) Charter schools have no discernible impact on the segregation of metropolitan areas. This is because the increase in segregation within districts in metropolitan areas is offset by greater integration between districts within the same metropolitan area. Essentially, districts within a metropolitan area become more diverse, but the schools within those districts do not become more integrated. [Olivia Piontek provided assistance in preparing this paper.]

This is the executive summary for the full report, "The Economic Value of the Maricopa County Community College District. Main Report." The Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) creates value in many ways. The colleges play a key role in helping students increase their employability and achieve their individual potential. They also draw students to the county, generating new dollars and opportunities for Maricopa County. This study measures the economic impacts created by MCCCD on the business community and the benefits the colleges generate in return for the investments made by their key stakeholder groups--students, taxpayers, and society. The following two analyses are presented: (1) Economic impact analysis; and (2) Investment analysis. [For the full report, see ED627561.]

The Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD), established in 1920, has grown to serve 191,073 credit and 24,497 non-credit students. This report assesses the impact of MCCCD as a whole on the county economy and the benefits generated by the colleges for students, taxpayers, and society. The approach is twofold. It begins with an economic impact analysis of the colleges on the Maricopa County economy. To derive results, it relies on a specialized Multi-Regional Social Accounting Matrix (MR-SAM) model to calculate the added income created in the Maricopa County economy as a result of increased consumer spending and the added knowledge, skills, and abilities of students. Results of the economic impact analysis are broken out according to the following impacts: (1) impact of the district's day-to-day operations; (2) impact of student spending; and (3) impact of alumni who are still employed in the Maricopa County workforce. The second component of the study measures the benefits generated by MCCCD for the following stakeholder groups: students, taxpayers, and society. For students, an investment analysis is performed to determine how the money spent by students on their education performs as an investment over time. The students' investment in this case consists of their out-of-pocket expenses, the cost of interest incurred on student loans, and the opportunity cost of attending the colleges as opposed to working. In return for these investments, students receive a lifetime of higher earnings. For taxpayers, the study measures the benefits to state taxpayers in the form of increased tax revenues and public sector savings stemming from a reduced demand for social services. Finally, for society, the study assesses how the students' higher earnings and improved quality of life create benefits throughout Arizona as a whole. [For the Executive Summary, see ED627562.]

The 2020 Census risks undercounting thousands of young Colorado children, depriving communities of federal funding and political representation for the next decade. Children under age 5 are more likely to be missed by the census than any other age group, with children of color, non-English speakers, and kids living in high poverty communities at highest risk. The 2010 Census undercounted Colorado kids under age 5 by 5 percent, and the undercount of young kids in the 2020 Census could be even worse given fears about data privacy and confidentiality, according to the 2019 edition of "KIDS COUNT in Colorado!," an annual county-by-county report on child well-being. Failing to count Coloradans will put billions of federal dollars and representation in Congress at stake in the decade following the nationwide count of every person. In 2015, Colorado received more than $2 billion in census-guided federal funding for kids' programs alone, including Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program and Head Start, among others. The annual "KIDS COUNT in Colorado!" report tracks the well-being of Colorado children statewide and at the county level. The 26th annual report includes data and research on kids in the areas of demographics, health, early childhood, K-12 education and family economic security. The report is a complement to the national KIDS COUNT Data Book produced by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. [For the 2018 report, see ED586466.]

Based on the 2018-2019 Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (KRA) results, nearly half (47%) of all entering kindergarten children in Maryland displayed the foundational skills indicating they are fully ready for kindergarten. A third (33%) are approaching readiness. Twenty percent of children are assessed with emerging readiness skills. The school readiness results for the 2018-2019 school year show a continued increase from the administration of the KRA in 2017-2018 with 45 percent being assessed as fully ready. This technical report presents information on: (1) School Readiness Results for School Year 2018-19; (2) New KRA Legislation and Weighting; (3) Weighting for State Level Results; (4) Local School Systems Administrating KRA on all Students (Census Administration) versus Representative Sampling; (5) School Readiness Based on Demographic Categories; (6) Reporting and Interpreting of KRA results; (7) What the KRA Results Represent; (8) Availability of the 2018-19 School Readiness Report; (9) Background of Maryland's School Readiness Initiative; (10) Maryland's Assessment System of Measuring School Readiness; (11) Alignment of KRA Standards with the Maryland College and Career-Ready Standards; (12) KRA Item Types; (13) Administration of the KRA; (14) Use of Data and Accountability; (15) Accessibility for Special Populations; (16) Teacher Professional Development; (17) Validity and Reliability Data; (18) Measurement of the Internal Consistency of the KRA--Cronbach's Alpha; (19) KRA Item Reduction and Standard Setting; and (20) Standard Setting Validation. [For the 2017-2018 report, see ED589991.]

The California Next Generation Science Standards (CA NGSS)--adopted in 2013--have the potential to improve scientific literacy and strengthen the global competitiveness of California's workforce. However, longstanding underinvestment in science education and the unprecedented disruptions caused by COVID-19 have heightened challenges faced by California's districts, schools, and students. In the full report, the authors use data from multiple sources to understand the impact of COVID-19 on science education when schools were mainly virtual. The following technical appendices accompany the full report: (1) Data, sample and, methodology; (2) Additional tables and figures; (3) Survey instruments; and (4) Interview protocols. [For the full report "The Impact of COVID-19 on Science Education: Early Evidence from California," see ED623554. For "The Impact of COVID-19 on Science Education. Policy Brief," see ED623555.]

The California Next Generation Science Standards (CA NGSS)--adopted in 2013--have the potential to improve scientific literacy and strengthen the global competitiveness of California's workforce. However, longstanding underinvestment in science education and the unprecedented disruptions caused by COVID-19 have heightened challenges faced by California's districts, schools, and students. In this report, the authors use data from multiple sources to understand the impact of COVID-19 on science education when schools were mainly virtual. The authors found that: (COVID-19 derailed science education in most; (2) Support for science education was limited; (3) County offices of education received fewer requests for science-related assistance; (4) Most district recovery plans do not prioritize science education; and (5) California can take steps to support equitable investments in science education. [For "The Impact of COVID-19 on Science Education. Policy Brief," see ED623555. For "The Impact of COVID-19 on Science Education. Technical Appendices," see ED623557.]

"Paving the Path to College Aid: Expanding Access to the Cal Grant Program" looks at promising practices for increasing Cal Grant application rates, including the initial implementation of AB 2160, a new law introduced by Assembly member Phil Ting and sponsored by Ed Trust-West, to streamline the Cal Grant application process by requiring that high schools submit GPAs electronically. The brief outlines tangible practices that county offices of education, districts, and schools are using to meet this new requirement and increase Cal Grant access, and concludes with recommendations for ways state and local leaders can further improve access to financial aid.

Creating continuously improving education systems could be the antidote to one-off education reforms that come and go with little to show for the effort. What distinguishes continuous improvement from other reform strategies is its focus on the underlying architecture of the system that is producing undesirable outcomes (e.g., low graduation rates, high suspension rates, English learner performance gaps). Continuous improvement engages multiple stakeholders (e.g., teachers, administrators, operational staff, parents) in disciplined problem-solving to discover, implement, and spread evidenced-based changes that work locally to improve student success. Education organizations that have invested in continuous improvement approaches have been able to provide early examples of the advantages of this approach in education. The two reports summarized in this brief describe continuous improvement and what it looks like in practice, examine the current state of continuous improvement efforts in California, explain the challenges and barriers facing districts trying to get it going, and offer some policy ideas to smooth the way. [This brief summarizes two Getting Down to Facts II technical reports on continuous improvement for California: (1) Toward a Common Vision of Continuous Improvement for California (see ED591091); and (2) Using Data for Improvement: Learning from the CORE Data Collaborative (see ED594744).]

Under emerging policy structures in California, the responsibility for school improvement is increasingly placed upon local school districts, with County Offices of Education (COEs) playing a critical support role. In this system, districts are responsible for school improvement, with counties in charge of ensuring quality across districts and providing feedback and support where necessary. Underlying this major policy shift is the idea that local leaders are in the best position to drive real educational improvement and ensure quality across multiple schools and contexts. As California supports districts and counties statewide to embark on this improvement journey, there are important lessons to be learned from the CORE districts, six of which developed an innovative accountability system under a waiver from No Child Left Behind (NCLB). The CORE districts are early adopters of the new accountability paradigm: local leaders using multiple measures of school performance and working together to figure out collectively what works best for struggling schools. Now deepening their work together as a Networked Improvement Community (NIC), the CORE districts have simultaneously expanded access to their multiple-measures data and learning system by inviting other California districts to join their "Data Collaborative." Districts who join contribute their own student data to the CORE measurement system and are then able to benchmark student performance against other schools in the state. Data Collaborative districts engage in structured network learning activities that enhance their capacity to use data to drive system improvements. Currently, over 50 California school districts representing nearly a million students have joined the Data Collaborative. This report first provides a framework for how data use for improvement is different from data use for accountability and how data should be used by actors at different levels of the system. Next, it discusses the policy context in California and the current state of data use based on interviews conducted in the summer of 2017 with 41 leaders from state education agencies, COEs, school districts, technical assistance providers, education advocacy organizations, and education associations. Finally, the report shares lessons from the CORE Data Collaborative about how data can be used for improvement within networked structures, including what data is needed and how learning and collaboration can be facilitated. [For "Using Data for Improvement: Learning from the CORE Data Collaborative. Facts-at-a-Glance," see ED594745.]

The Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) was adopted by the California Legislature in 2013. The LCFF made fundamental changes in the way the state funds school districts and charter schools (Local Education Authorities or LEAs), shifting decisions about how to spend resources from the state to the local level. The LCFF also introduced a new accountability system, under which the first line of accountability is local. LEAs are expected to work closely with their local communities and stakeholders to develop Local Control Accountability Plans (LCAPs), which set goals for improvement and adopt strategies and align resources to advance local goals. Parents and other community members are expected to monitor the LEA's progress. In the event that progress falls short of expectations, the community can hold local leaders accountable and demand changes, either directly through the LCAP process or by voting out and replacing current members of the school board. The new system aims to support continuous improvement in the performance of schools and students, with a particular focus on reducing or eliminating gaps in opportunities and outcomes for different groups of students. The question that motivates this report is how California is progressing in building and sustaining this system of support. This report begins with a discussion of the challenges that LEAs face in moving from a system focused on compliance with state regulations to one focused on improving performance in cooperation with local communities. It then reviews the statutory and policy provisions under LCFF that aim to ensure that all LEAs have the knowledge and skill they need to improve the performance of local schools and students and close gaps between student sub-groups. The balance of the report focuses on the current state of California's emerging system of support, with a particular focus on County Offices of Education (COEs). COEs are at the center of California's current effort to construct a robust and effective system of support for LEAs, but a variety of other agencies also have important roles to play. The report concludes with some implications for future action.

In keeping with the provisions of Tennessee Code Annotated 49-1-201(12), this Annual Statistical and Financial Report for the scholastic year ending June 30, 2018, provides a numerical record of information describing the condition of education in the state of Tennessee. The report provides the following information: (1) Public School Officers; (2) Statistical Summaries; (3) Financial Summaries; and (4) Statistical & Financial Tables for Public Schools Grades K-12.

This report was commissioned by Mid-America Regional Council and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to gain an understanding of the current state of Career and Technical Education (CTE) in nine counties of the Kansas City region: Missouri counties of Cass, Clay, Jackson, Platte, and Ray; and Kansas counties of Johnson, Leavenworth, Miami, and Wyandotte. Additionally, there is a desire to find evidence of promising practices within other states that are responsive to the needs of the economy and to articulate any barriers and/or incentives that inhibit or support scaling CTE efforts. To develop this report, the author engaged education, business, government, and community leaders to gather the current state of CTE and incorporated extensive input from a wide variety of sources: (1) Relevant research reports, policy conceptual frameworks on CTE reform and success from Kansas, Missouri and national sources; (2) Approximately sixty interviews and site visits with stakeholders and experts inside and outside of the CTE system; (3) Previous CTE-related surveys of student, parent, and teacher satisfaction; (4) Center for Advanced Professional Studies (CAPS) Network Summer Huddle (thirty-three school districts); (5) CTE data from Kansas and Missouri State Departments of Education; (6) Programs that support postsecondary credentialing (KC Scholars, Full Employment Council); and (7) Foundations and other organizations that provide support to educational innovation. This report is organized into five sections. The first section begins with an accounting of the current state of CTE in the Kansas City region (nine counties) by reviewing major CTE programs. The second section explores best practices of business-education partnership and examples of business and industry partnerships. The third section introduces evidence of promising practices of other states, focusing on a handful of statewide and/or district level actions like conversion charter schools, workforce development centers, waivers, tax incentives, apprenticeships, sector-level partnerships, and effective high school programming efforts like personalized learning, competency-based learning, and value-add diplomas. The fourth section is a comprehensive view of the barriers and headwinds to scaling the access of high-quality, market-driven CTE programming for 85 percent to 90 percent of the student population. The final section explores what we have learned and offers recommendations for going forward. [This report was prepared by the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC).]