The No Child Left Behind Act, enacted in 2002, aimed to improve learning and eliminate achievement gaps by raising accountability in schools. The new requirements also generated volumes of valuable long-term data on students and teachers—data that are now grounding and guiding education policy and allowing researchers to answer long-held questions about what leads to student success. Read more.
The 16th annual Fact Book is a comprehensive data source for indicators of child well-being in the District of Columbia. It tracks the progression of child well-being over time, as well as differences in child well-being across wards and races/ethnicities. It is organized to reflect the six citywide goals for children and youth in DC: children are ready for school; children and youth succeed in school; children and youth are healthy and practice healthy behaviors; children and youth engage in meaningful activities; children and youth live in healthy, stable, and supportive families; and all youth make a successful transition to adulthood.
The National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP) is a collaborative effort of the Urban Institute and local organizations in more than 30 cities that operate recurrently updated information systems with neighborhood level data and work to ensure the data will be applied effectively in policy development and community building. This collection of brief case studies describes the local partners’ successes in using neighborhood indicators to improve their communities in several areas, including neighborhood development, housing, children and schools, crime and prisoner reentry, health and service delivery.
Federal and state budgets are under unprecedented pressure: deficits are ballooning, programs are being cut back, and tax rolls are anemic, or worse. As part of the federal government's response to the severe recession, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) cushioned state budget cuts, particularly in education, and included investments in children and families -- yet next steps after ARRA are unknown.
New research by Urban Institute and Brookings Institution analysts reveals how children -- collectively and at different ages -- fare in the federal budget and how federal and state spending mesh. Drawing on these forthcoming reports, a panel of distinguished experts will begin a vital and timely exchange on how the nation can, amid severe fiscal and budgetary challenges, make the wisest public investments in its children.
Low-income youth and adults have less access to and lower rates of completion in higher education in the US than do others. What are states and local community college systems doing to deal with these problems?
In this paper, we review a wide range of efforts by community colleges and the states, with funding from private foundation as well as the federal government, to improve enrollments and completion rates among disadvantaged students. We review the extent to which such efforts are "proven" (based on rigorous evaluation evidence) or "promising" (with impressive outcomes that require strong evaluation). We then consider policies by states and the federal government that can advance
opportunities for the disadvantaged in this area.
An unmistakable sense of urgency runs throughout Creating a New Teaching Profession, with the top scholars and practitioners who coauthor the book underscoring that current systems for training, hiring, retaining, and rewarding teachers not only are imperfect, but are detrimental to building the best teacher workforce possible. Contributors to the book propose such major reforms as remaking longstanding teacher training systems and using private-sector approaches to modernize recruitment and compensation.
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