Policy Briefs
Consortium for School Improvement
To foster information exchange between states, the Consortium for School Improvement will disseminate emerging practices and promising initiatives through a series of annual policy briefs. Click on the title of the policy brief to access the PDF document.
State Support to Schools in Need of Improvement
September 2006
“State Support to Schools in Need of Improvement” is a policy brief that describes systems of support in eight states—Alabama, Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. The brief was developed to facilitate cross-state discussions about maximizing human and fiscal resources to support schools in need of improvement by assisting with data analysis, plan development, implementation, and ongoing evaluation. CCSSO State Support Team Network members collaborated on the state profile template to ensure that the data are useful.
A look into these systems demonstrates both similarities and differences between large-scale approaches to school improvement in terms of state capacity, conceptual frameworks, and service delivery. State capacity differs according to the number of school improvement staff members, districts, schools and Title I schools. The system is framed by the state’s dual accountability status as well as its research base and organizational models, including those based on other states. Service delivery varies in intensity, duration, and provision, and providers include regional and nonprofit organizations, as well as state, local, and higher education staff members.
Professional Development for Teachers of English Language Learner Students
September 2005
All states are in the process of implementing an integrated system of standards and assessments for English language learner students according to the Title III requirements in NCLB. As states move toward the new Title III requirements, we were interested in learning about the planned or provided professional development for general education elementary teachers related to ELL students.
The purpose of this policy brief is to describe the state wide preservice and inservice practices for general education elementary teachers in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, and Utah. This brief does not evaluate or analyze states’ methods; instead, the goal is to capture how these states are beginning to respond to their increased proportions of English language learners. These states have a higher than average proportion of ELLs, and the proportion of ELLs has grown during the past decade. Two questions guided this paper:
- How are these states responding to the recent influx of English language learner students through state wide teacher preparation policies?
- Have approaches and lessons emerged from these states that other states with smaller yet growing populations of English language learners can learn from, as all states continue to plan for the success of ELL students?
