A clear and comprehensive guide to evaluating and supporting instructional coaches and coaching programs, including how to recruit, hire, and retain effective coaches. With sound practices in place to evaluate coaching programs, instructional coaches will become better partners, teachers will become better mentors, and students will become better…

This guide was created to help district leaders understand the benefits and drawbacks of the four-day school week, assess their district's readiness to make the switch, and evaluate the results of implementing the new schedule. This guide begins with an overview of common goals and outcomes for the four-day school week. It then provides a set of…

This tool is a simplified version of the evaluation framework developed by Wenger, Trayner, and de Laat (2011), building upon Kirkpatrick (1976, 1994). These internationally recognized experts on professional learning and collaboration developed their value creation framework to address the dual challenges of attending to the diversity of types of…

Many schools identified by states as needing improvement through their Elementary and Secondary Education Act waivers have selected Response to Intervention (RTI), a three-tiered instruction program sometimes referred to as tiered levels of instruction, as one of their main strategies for improving school performance and closing achievement gaps.…

Regional Educational Laboratory Midwest assisted Milwaukee Public Schools in developing a fidelity monitoring system for measuring schools' progress in implementing Response to Intervention (RTI). The study examined the ratings produced by that system to determine the system's reliability, schools' progress in implementing RTI, and whether ratings…

This guide for district and school leaders shows how to recognize opportunities to embed randomized controlled trials (RCTs) into planned policies or programs. Opportunistic RCTs can generate strong evidence for informing education decisions--with minimal added cost and disruption. The guide also outlines the key steps to conduct RCTs and responds…

Using data strategically to guide decisions and actions can have a positive effect on education practices and processes. This facilitation guide shows education data teams how to move beyond simply reporting data to applying data to direct strategic action. Using guiding questions, suggested activities, and activity forms, this guide provides…

An assessment with the Environment Rating Scales (ERS) is designed to give early childhood administrators and teaching staff much more than a set of quality scores. Appropriately used, an ERS assessment can provide a blueprint for planning and carrying out both immediate and long-range program improvements. Unfortunately, programs often complete…

These days, Response to Intervention (RTI) is everywhere, and there are lots of claims about what RTI is and how to do it. At last, here's a book that helps you cut through the quackery and ensure that your approach to RTI represents the very best of what is known about assessment, instruction, and intervention. Author Margaret Searle provides you…

While there is consensus that institutions need to represent their educational effectiveness through documentation of student learning, the higher education community is divided between those who support national standardized tests to compare institutions' educational effectiveness, and those who believe that valid assessment of student…

This guide is designed to help districts and schools evaluate reform efforts related to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), including School Improvement Grants. It includes practical, how-to tips for conducting program evaluations, whether one takes a "do-it-yourself" approach or seeks outside assistance to evaluate reform…

Available resources and indicators of high quality inclusive practices are presented in this compilation. Assembling many different resources in one place allows for easy comparison of potential indicators of quality. Excerpts and adaptations of the resources are intended to provide some familiarity with the content of each resource and encourage…

The purpose of this Guide is to provide education officials, program providers, and others seeking to sponsor a rigorous program evaluation with practical advice on finding a capable evaluator. More specifically, this Guide offers practical advice on finding an evaluator to conduct a rigorous evaluation to measure the effect of an educational…

The Multicultural Education Quick Assessment Test (QAT), an abbreviated instrument for administrators, staff, parents, community members, and/or students who want to determine how their district is doing in multicultural education, is presented in this paper. An introduction discusses the importance of multicultural education. Instructions are…

Principles of program evaluation research are outlined so that bilingual education program coordinators can conduct methodologically acceptable program evaluations. The three basic principles of evaluation research are: identification of the program participants, definition of the program intervention, and assessment of program effectiveness.…