Additional CPE Reports
2024 CUBE Report: How Urban School Districts Spend Education Dollars
Understanding how urban school districts allocate their education funds can help school leaders create more effective budgeting strategies and provide a basis for advocating for additional funding when necessary. This report provides an overview of how urban districts distribute their financial resources, highlights key areas of spending, and examines current challenges they face.
Educational Equity for Rural Students: Out of the Pandemic, but Still Out of the Loop (A Five-Part Series)
In 2018, CPE published "Out of the Loop: Rural Schools Are Largely Left out of Research and Policy Discussions, Exacerbating Poverty, Inequity, and Isolation," a comprehensive report on U.S. rural K-12 public education. Now, the data and research presented in the report more than five years old. However, the facts, together with the suggested policies and practices about rural education, are still valid and accurate. After a two-year pandemic, issues related to funding, teacher recruitment and retention, and serving disadvantaged students have become more severe in rural school districts. This five-part series is a data-driven study to inform policymakers, school leaders, educators, and parents. The primary research goal was to examine educational equity for rural students.
- Part 1: Growing Diversity of Rural Students
This report discusses enrollment changes in rural schools and the growing diversity of rural students. Overlooking the broad diversity of rural students can lead to oversimplifying issues in rural schools. To illustrate the diversity of rural students, it not only presents data about the demographic changes of rural students, but also report isolation levels, poverty concentration, regional differences in poverty, and other challenges.
- Part 2: An Urgent Need to Fix the Digital Divide
This report addresses how the persistent digital divide--often referred to as the homework gap--causes underserved rural students to face more challenges and disadvantages (NSBA, 2020). The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the urgency of building equal access to internet services in rural areas. To fix the digital divide, we suggest that policymakers look at data about internet accessibility and affordability in rural areas and prioritize specific strategies to close the homework gap caused by the inadequate broadband access of rural students.
- Part 3: Thinking Broadly and Deeply about Rural Student Achievement and Teacher Pipelines
This report focuses on the student achievement gap and teacher shortages in rural areas. It first looks at the diversity of rural students on the Nation's Report Card and examines whether there is any regional, demographic, or geographical pattern of student academic performance in fourth and eighth grade reading and math. Based on the findings, it also discusses five unique learning opportunities that rural students often miss and encourage education leaders to consider providing more policy and practice support in those fields.
- Part 4: School Safety and Mental Health of Rural Students: Things That Matter
This report presents data about how the COVID-19 pandemic changed rural student behaviors and aggravated mental health issues in rural schools. Challenges and considerations are examined in the areas of preventing suicide in rural schools, preventing school violence in rural areas, and partnering with parents and communities to foster a safe and healthy school culture.
- Part 5: Parent and Community Supports Are Assets of Rural Schools
In this concluding report, the focus is on stories of rural families that go beyond statistics and delve into specific challenges rural parents encounter when getting involved in their children's education. Strategic recommendations are provided for rural school districts to support their communities better and enhance educational outcomes.
Urban Student Characteristics and Urban School Challenges: What High-Quality Education for Every Student Means
In CPE's 2024 report on urban education, researchers explore the unique challenges and strengths of urban schools. This comprehensive analysis offers insights into demographic diversity, equity issues, and the meaning of high-quality education for every urban student. The report incorporates many data points and best practices at the district level; it is an informative read for educators, policymakers, and anyone interested in the future of urban education.
Ten Thousand Democracies, One Common Goal School Board Accountability, Evaluation, and Effectiveness
In the United States, most students attend a public school in a district overseen by a democratically elected school board. In political science, school boards are often portrayed as ten thousand democracies (Berkman and Plutzer, 2005). School board members are often described as "citizens-policymakers" because they "constitute a middle ground between normal citizens and professionalized policymakers -- with large variations based on the size of the districts and the model of selection" (Asen, 2015; Delevoye, 2020). School board members have been regarded as one of the largest groups of policymakers in the U.S. (Delevoye, 2020). Fostering an educational environment in which every student reaches a high achievement level and successful postsecondary life is a common goal of all local school boards. In education research, school board accountability, effective governance, and board evaluation are all relevant to this common goal. An important characteristic of effective school boards is "accountability driven, spending less time on operational issues and more time focused on policies to improve student achievement" (Dervarics and O'Brien, 2011). To inform school leaders of some of the current challenges and potential solutions to improve education leadership, the Center for Public Education (CPE) of the National School Boards Association (NSBA) compiled this research report. There are three parts to this report. Part I presents readers with statistics about school districts and school boards that show the diverse nature of the education system across the country. Part II shares the recent NAEP data to help readers understand the urgent call for education leaders to improve student achievement. Part III focuses on what research says about the following three discussion issues: (1) The connection between student achievement and school board accountability; (2) The association between effective governance and student achievement; and (3) The relationship between board effectiveness and evaluation.
Community Schools: A Strategy Focusing on Student Needs and Parent Engagement
The concept of community schools can be traced back to the early 20th century when industrialization, immigration, and urbanization were rapidly increasing, and public schools in cities were struggling to meet the social and civic needs of students from low-income families. In the 1960s and 1970s, advocacy groups promoted community schools as a way to improve learning and address social issues, particularly in largely segregated and underfunded schools in urban centers unable to provide quality education to students. This research brief is a literature review and briefly reports on the characteristics of community schools and how they engage parents and all stakeholders to improve student achievement and well-being.
Social Media Use and Adolescent Mental Health
To help school leaders understand the association between social media use and adolescents' mental health, the Center for Public Education (CPE) of the National School Boards Association (NSBA) reviewed over a hundred relevant empirical studies, professional or federal research papers, and media articles. This report attempts to answer the following questions: (1) What adolescent mental health issues manifested themselves most during the pandemic? (2) How do teenagers use social media? What does the research say about the association between social media use and adolescents' mental health? and (3) What are some professional recommendations, state policies, and/or local practices that have been adopted to promote positive use of social media and mental well-being?
Quality Public Education for ALL Students with Disabilities: Meeting Both IDEA Requirements and Post-Pandemic Challenges
Students with disabilities need quality education to develop their skills and reach their full potential. However, according to the U.S. Department of Education (ED) in its 2021 report, more than half of the 50 states and the District of Columbia did not meet the requirements or purposes of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) for Part B, which ensures the free appropriate public education (FAPE) of students with disabilities, ages 3 through 21. During a similar period, as of Nov. 26, 2021, a snapshot of data about complaints filed with the ED's Office of Civil Rights (OCR) showed the annual number of OCR pending cases alleging discrimination in providing the FAPE for K-12 students under other federal anti-discrimination laws had tripled compared with 2019 or 2020. To address the key challenges states face in meeting the requirements of IDEA Part B, especially during this time of the pandemic, and to provide insight into solutions and best practices that states may leverage to meet the requirements, this white paper reviewed federal special education data, agency documentation, federal laws and regulations, selected state laws and policies, state report cards, and data collected by large research organizations. Its objective is to help readers to understand complicated IDEA compliance issues, particularly the post-pandemic challenges that states and school districts are facing to meet the needs of all students with disabilities.
From "Educating Peter" to Serving More Students with Special Needs
The 1993 documentary Educating Peter highlighted the impact of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which ensures students with disabilities receive a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). Since the 1990s, special education enrollment in public schools has grown significantly, reinforcing the need for sustained investment in IDEA to support students with disabilities and promote inclusive learning environments.
Linking LifeReady Skills to Transition in Special Education: A Way to Close Achievement Gaps
Career and technical education (CTE) programs have proven effective in helping students with disabilities develop essential life and career skills, with data showing higher graduation rates, academic proficiency, and technical skill attainment among these students. The National School Boards Association's LifeReady Students initiative aligns with this approach, emphasizing transition planning under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to prepare students for postsecondary success.
A New Look at Apprenticeship: Linking School to 21st Century Skills
A skills gap challenges educators and policymakers alike. To help meet the economic and educational needs for the modern workplace, Congress recently reauthorized the Perkins Act. The bill, "Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act," emphasizes an important mission of education in the 21st century, that is, helping students to acquire academic knowledge and technical and employability skills. both college and career readiness play an essential role in every student's K-12 education. Students are clearly getting the college message; about two-thirds of recent high school graduates enroll in two- and four-year colleges and universities. However, issues, such as low college completion rates, high student loans for college, and high unemployment rate among young adults, have driven us to ask whether we have also done enough to inform students about options in the world of work and help them get ready for the increasingly challenging and competitive job market. Across the country high schools are providing different program--such as career pathways and certifications--to acquaint teenagers with workplace demands. Yet it seems to be short on a potentially effective strategy--apprenticeships--and how students may benefit from such programs. The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of apprenticeships in the United States, from the following four dimensions: (1) What does the 21st century apprenticeship look like in the United States? (2) What does data from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) say about apprenticeships in the U.S.? (3) What are the challenges that educators, both international and national, are facing to expand apprenticeship programs? and (4) What perspectives should school districts consider when developing apprenticeship programs?
Busting the Myth of "One-Size-Fits-All" Public Education
CPE has been examining the research and data related to school choice in hopes of informing the conversation about effective policies. This report turns from looking at the impact of school choice to examining access to options within the public education system. It first estimates how many students are able to choose which public school to attend, regardless of whether or not they take advantage of the opportunity. Using data from the federal Schools and Staffing Survey, it then documents the prevalence of various program choices inside public schools and, where possible, compares these to private schools. It concludes with a discussion of growing efforts by public schools to personalize learning, which show a lot of promise for aligning students' different interests and needs with effective pathways toward success.
School Segregation Then & Now: How to Move toward a More Perfect Union
In 1954, "Brown v. Board of Education" struck down state laws that required schools to be segregated by race, which then existed in 17 southern states. Yet in 2016, many schools across the country are still segregated along largely racial and socioeconomic lines. There are many reasons schools aren't better integrated. School district boundaries coupled with the legacy of discriminatory housing policies and practices that influence where families live are chief among them. But even though schools can no longer exclude students on the basis of race, many public schools still do not reflect the diversity of the nation. This report examines the effects that racial and economic segregation have on students and communities. The report presents data that describes what enrollments in American schools look like now and show trends that contribute to "de facto" segregation. The author also discusses outcomes in integrated schools, and offers best practices and policies, such as controlled choice, that can bring these benefits to more students. The goal of this report is to shine light on the issue with the hope that readers will find this report a good place to begin when planning how they can improve diversity in local schools, districts, and communities.
Career and Technical Education: Building New Pathways Into the Labor Market
Career and Technical Education (CTE) balances the pull between the practical and theoretical by applying academic knowledge to real-world problems, preparing students for a wide array of careers. Unfortunately, confusion and stereotypes still reign when it comes to what career and technical education is and is not, even as public sentiment shifts to expand these educational opportunities and Congress considers legislation and funding to do just that. These inherent contradictions around an issue that seems to enjoy broad support are among the reasons the Center for Public Education wanted to produce this FAQ guide. This report provides a brief overview of the history and purpose of career technical education, how it is funded and operationalized at various levels, and ultimately the outcomes for students who have participated in CTE programs. The report concludes with questions for policy makers to help guide them in implementing or expanding their own CTE offerings.
Eight Characteristics of Effective School Boards Report
In this research brief, the National School Boards Association's Center for Public Education looks at indicators of school board effectiveness. From this research, it is clear that school boards in high-achieving districts exhibit habits and characteristics that are markedly different from boards in low-achieving districts. In the most dramatic examples from this research, scholars compared districts with similar levels of poverty and disadvantage to determine factors that separate high-performing districts from those with low performance. In many cases, these differences included the approaches taken by local school boards. Much of the research cited in this research brief focuses on school board/district practices and approaches gleaned through interviews, surveys, observations and qualitative measures rather than in-depth quantitative information. Several studies also date back to the early 2000s or earlier; as a result, the data have limitations. Taken together, these reports provide a sound basis to explore the role played by school boards in student achievement. The pertinent studies for this paper fall into three general areas: (1) meta-analyses of education research, with a focus on the practices of boards, superintendents, and other school leaders; (2) case studies of high-achieving districts, with a focus on the evolving role of school boards; and (3) studies that compare school board practices in districts with similar demographics but substantially different student outcomes as reflected by annual assessments and other factors.
Students Serving on School Boards: Democratic Education in Action
One way to nurture democratic citizenship is to engage students in the governing process of local school boards. While little research is found on student representatives in school boards, there is a consensus on the positivity of having students serve on the board. By creating opportunities for students to participate in the democratic process, school leaders can help student board members to learn how to observe all laws and rules, how to resolve conflicts peacefully, how to demonstrate a commitment to the public good, and how to work for a community and cooperate with all stakeholders.
The Public's Voice: Uncontested Candidates and Low Voter Turnout Are Concerns in Board Elections
While school boards are a quintessential example of representative democracy, many districts experience low participation by both candidates and voters. CPE examines the data behind uncontested elections and low voter turnout.
Fixing the Holes in the Teacher Pipeline: An Overview of Teacher Shortages Report
School districts across the country are struggling to attract and keep good teachers, a situation that seems to be particularly acute in states such as California and Oklahoma. This is not a good time for schools to be facing a teacher shortage. States have raised K-12 standards to new heights with the expectation that all students will graduate ready for college and careers. At the same time, enrollments in public schools are growing more diverse and include higher proportions of English language learners and students with special needs. As local school leaders are painfully aware, the new standards will not be met if they cannot make sure all their students have the benefit of well-prepared teachers. School leaders are clearly feeling the urgency. At the National School Boards Association, which houses the Center for Public Education, the issue rose to the top of school boards' concerns just in the last year. This paper was developed in order to address those concerns and, hopefully, provide some useful information for moving forward. The authors begin by examining the scope of the problem. The first finding is hard to explain. While it is known that many districts and even whole states have teaching vacancies they cannot fill, many in the research community have concluded that, nationally, there is no shortage. Substantially fewer college students are enrolling in teacher preparation programs, but those who do appear to be completing at higher rates. More veteran teachers are leaving, but more new teachers are staying. The net effect seems to be that the supply of teachers nationwide is not significantly different than it was five years ago. In this report, the authors will look at the national data on teacher supply and discuss the issues affecting it with a focus on the three main leverage points in the teacher pipeline: (1) initial preparation; (2) recruitment; and (3) retention. The authors will examine best practices regarding each, including how districts have forged collaborations with universities to strengthen the local pipeline. The authors also highlight four states that have been impacted by shortages: (1) California; (2) Indiana; (3) North Carolina; and (4) Oklahoma. They conclude this paper with questions school leaders should consider in order to fulfill their commitment to provide every child with a good teacher.
Fixing the Holes in the Teacher Pipeline: Three Ways for School Leaders to Act
Teacher shortages occur for many reasons, and how a school district addresses the problem depends on understanding why it exists, in what areas and which groups of students are most affected by it. In Fixing the Holes in the Teacher Pipeline, CPE examined three problematic points along the teacher pipeline, namely initial preparation, recruitment and retention. Sadly, all along there are holes all along the path that lead to teacher shortages in subject areas (e.g., math), school level (e.g., high schools) and instructional type (e.g., special education). This publication proposes three steps that school leaders can take to ameliorate the situation caused by teacher shortages.
Going Above and Beyond: Achievement of Students Employment Experiences
CPE explored data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97) and investigated the relationship between students' employment experiences and their achievements. Our findings suggest that employment experience -- appropriate quantity and quality of employee-type jobs -- not only has positive effects on students' grades in academic courses but also helps students to acquire real-world skills.
How Teachers in the U.S. and Finland See Their Jobs
In an international benchmark survey of high school students, the U.S. consistently scores in the middle of the pack compared to many western European and eastern Asian countries. Finland has been among the top performers dating back to 2000. The country's performance led many in the U.S. to ask, what is Finland doing that is leading to high student achievement? Are there lessons the U.S. can apply here at home? Using data from the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), this report examines key areas in preparation, teacher work hours, student demographics, teacher autonomy, and evaluation for both countries and compares the results to the OECD average. The analysis indicates that while Finnish lower secondary teachers excel in certain areas, the U.S. outdoes Finland in others. Findings reveal that: (1) About the same proportion of lower secondary teachers in the U.S. and Finland report having had formal teacher training, and both are above the OECD average; (2) Teachers in the U.S. teach significantly more hours per week than teachers in Finland: 26.8 hours per week in the U.S. compared to 19.3 hours in Finland; (3) Student demographics and needs in Finland and the U.S. are very different. American teachers report teaching more students that come from economically disadvantaged homes, and are not native speakers of the national language; (4) Teachers in Finland utilize student survey data to inform instruction and evaluate other teachers, more than their U.S counterparts; in contrast, U.S. teacher evaluations are more likely to emphasize assessment data; and (5) Teachers in Finland report having more decision-making power on school level policies and procedures than teachers in the U.S, and are far more likely to report feeling valued by society.
IDEA Factsheet #3: Where Do Students with Disabilities Usually Receive Education Services?
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires that schools assist students with disabilities to develop independent living skills and abilities essential to succeed in most of their life's endeavors. According to the law, each student with a disability must have an individualized education program (IEP), and the IEP must address transition services. Transition planning is required in the IEP for students by age 16; many students begin this planning at age 14 or earlier so that they have the time to build skills they will need as adults. This third factsheet in the IDEA Factsheet series discusses where students with disabilities usually receive education services. The coronavirus pandemic caused at least 123,000 public and private schools to close across the U.S. School closures affect more than 50 million students, including 7 million students ages 3-21 who receive special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). With prolonged school building closures, school districts are faced with more challenges about how to provide remote learning for students with disabilities while complying with civil rights and disability laws. By increasing awareness of where students with disabilities receive their instruction, school leaders can work with teachers, specialists, and parents to make evidence-based policies and develop effective strategies to support the learning of each student with a disability. Therefore, this factsheet reports the 2018-19 IDEA data from the U.S. Department of Education regarding the following topics: (1) Where do students ages 3-5 with different disabilities usually receive their education services? (2) Where do students ages 6-21 with different disabilities usually receive their education services? and (3) How do education environments for students with disabilities differ by states?
Out of the Loop: Rural Schools Are Largely Left out of Research and Policy Discussions, Exacerbating Poverty, Inequity, and Isolation
American discourse is often accused of neglecting the interests and values of rural citizens, and this is particularly true when it comes to education. Rural students and the schools they attend receive little attention in either policy or academia. This report attempts to shed badly needed light on the challenges, and point to policies and practices that can effectively address the distinctive needs of rural schools. The author begins by describing the diversity and poverty of rural students. The author then discusses the academic hurdles they face, among them the difficulty in finding qualified teachers, and looks at how policies, like school choice, designed for densely populated areas may not work in non-metropolitan settings. The report ends with questions for rural school leaders to consider in their efforts to make sure their youth can compete with the best of their urban and suburban peers. By raising awareness of the problems faced by rural schools, the hope is to focus the attention of policymakers and communities on the solutions.
The Path Least Taken: A Quest to Learn More about High School Graduates Who Don't Go to College, 2014-2016
High school graduates are defined as those students who graduated high school on time with a standard high school diploma or higher. It does not include students who earned a general education diploma (GED), a certificate of completion, vocational diploma, special education diploma or any other credential that illustrates student accomplishments but not satisfaction of high school requirements. This analysis does not include students who dropped out of high school. Non-college enrollees are high school graduates who had not attended a two- or four-year college, but may have enrolled in a non-academic institution like a trade school. Policymakers pour a lot of resources into making sure students graduate ready to enter college but not necessarily the workforce. In order to better understand how non-college goers fared in the years after graduation, this report, comprised of three parts, investigated how best to prepare them for success, finding that rigorous academics benefit all students.