P-12 Policy & Practice

Done right, strong accountability systems create the conditions, supports, and pressure to improve opportunities and outcomes for all students.

Ensuring true equity in our schools means closing gaps at every level of achievement.

Learn about our work to understand and call attention to gaps at all levels of achievement.

Because the road map and mile markers of learning — high-quality standards and assessments — are critical to ensuring all students get access to the rich learning and skills they need.

On September 5, 2017, the Trump administration announced the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. This decision is irresponsible and immoral, putting the futures of 800,000 children and young adults at risk—many of them students.

Since the DACA announcement, advocates from across the country, including Ed Trust, have been calling on Congress to show strong moral leadership and pass a clean Dream Act, which already has bipartisan support, to put Dreamers on a path to citizenship.

Dual enrollment encompasses college and high school programs, which are partnerships between school districts and institutions of higher education that allow high school students to enroll in college courses and earn transferable college credit.

How can advocates make sure dual enrollment programs are high-quality and advancing equity?

Inequities in funding are foundational to all sorts of other inequities in our schools. Yet as a nation, we continue to spend less on educating our low-income students and students of color — the very students who could benefit most from additional support in their schools.

These schools serving low-income students and students of color prove that it is possible to get all students to high levels of achievement—it’s being done.

Learn about our work to identify, honor, and draw critical lessons from such schools and share those lessons with the field.

The Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015, the long overdue reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, moves the country forward in its efforts to close the longstanding gaps in opportunity and achievement separating students of color and students from low-income communities from their peers. The law contains critical protections for these student groups and provides levers for equity-minded leaders and advocates to move the ball forward in accelerating the achievement of these students.

If teachers are the most important in-school factor for student achievement, school leaders are a close second. We want to ensure that low-income students and students of color get the effective, well-supported teachers and school leaders they need and deserve.

To truly understand patterns of opportunity and achievement in America’s schools, we need to understand the stories behind the numbers. To do this, we spend time listening to and learning from the people who live these experiences every day — the students.