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BackgroundFlavoured tobacco products are widely available in youth-accessible retailers and are associated with increased youth initiation and use. The city of Boston, Massachusetts restricted the sale of flavoured tobacco products, including cigars, smokeless tobacco and e-cigarettes, to adult-only retailers. This paper describes the impact of the restriction on product availability, advertisement and consumer demand.MethodsBetween January and December 2016, data were collected in 488 retailers in Boston at baseline and 469 retailers at 8-month follow-up, measuring the type, brand and flavour of tobacco products being sold. Process measures detailing the educational enforcement process, and retailer experience were also captured. McNemar tests and t-tests were used to assess the impact of the restriction on product availability.ResultsAfter policy implementation, only 14.4% of youth-accessible retailers sold flavoured products compared with 100% of retailers at baseline (p<0.001). Flavoured tobacco product advertisements decreased from being present at 58.9% of retailers to 28.0% at follow-up (p<0.001). Postimplementation, retailers sold fewer total flavoured products, with remaining products often considered as concept flavours (eg, jazz, blue). At follow-up, 64.0% of retailers reported that customers only asked for flavoured products a few times a week or did not ask at all. Retailers reported that educational visits and the flavoured product guidance list aided with compliance.ConclusionTobacco retailers across Boston were largely in compliance with the regulation. Availability of flavoured tobacco products in youth-accessible retailers declined city-wide after policy implementation. Strong educational and enforcement infrastructure may greatly enhance retailer compliance.

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H ow much and how soon should we expect any federal or state education policy to improve student learning? The answer likely depends on the demands that the policy places on those who are expected to implement it and their capacity for change to meet those demands. The Common Core State Standards have been judged by many to be more challenging and ambitious than previous state standards (Porter et al., 2011; Shanahan, 2013; Brown and Kappes, 2012; Schmidt and Houang, 2012). Since the Common Core State Standards were developed and launched by a group of state school chiefs and governors in 2009, nearly all states have voluntarily adopted them. While some states have since made changes to their standards, analyses suggest that most of these states have retained standards closely aligned with key tenets of the Common Core (Korn, Gamboa, and Polikoff, 2016; Achieve, 2017; Norton, Ash, and Ballinger, 2017). Furthermore, most states that never adopted the Common Core State KEY FINDINGS ■ While teachers' use of published textbooks changed very little, their use of standards-aligned and content-focused online materials appeared to increase. ■ English-language arts (ELA) teachers were less likely to regard the use of complex, grade-level texts as aligned with their standards in 2017 than in 2016, although most aspects of teachers' knowledge about their standards did not change. ■ Mathematics teachers' overall reports of practices did not appear to change. That said, mathematics teachers of low-vulnerability students reported that their students were less engaged in some standards-aligned student practices in 2017 than in 2016, whereas we did not observe any changes in reports of teachers serving more-vulnerable students. ■ ELA teachers reported that their students engaged less in several standards-aligned practices in 2017 than in 2016.