This report provides a first look at how Illinois school districts' uses of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds were related to their test score outcomes in the years following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using data on districts' ESSER expenditures as of November 2023, the authors analyze test score trends across…

The recent Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires states to identify and turn around their lowest performing schools, but it breaks somewhat from prior policies by granting states significant autonomy over how they identify and turn around these schools. This mixed-methods study, which draws on administrative, qualitative, and survey data,…

The American Rescue Plan Act has made funds available to states and districts to speed up recovery from the effects of COVID-19, including addressing learning loss. The Wallace Foundation has distilled evidence from its work that may be helpful in informing choices about how to spend those funds, as well as how to implement key strategies. Summer…

Numerous high-profile efforts have sought to "turn around" low-performing schools. Evidence on the effectiveness of school turnarounds, however, is mixed, and research offers little guidance on which models are more likely to succeed. We present a mixed-methods case study of turnaround efforts led by the Blueprint Schools Network in…

The Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund was established by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which called on the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to provide student achievement awards to local education agencies and nonprofits with a record of improving student achievement. ED set priorities for the program and specified them in…

The authors of this report offer an in-depth analysis of the Teacher Effectiveness and Certification (TEACh) program, an alternative teacher preparation program intended to train diverse cohorts of high-quality teaching candidates to fill hard-to-staff positions. They follow three TEACh programs in different regions of the United States, which…

Research across the decades has confirmed that effective school leadership is associated with better outcomes for students and schools. A high-quality school leader affects dozens of teachers and hundreds or thousands of students. It is a pivotal role. From 2011 to 2016, The Wallace Foundation, through its Principal Pipeline Initiative (PPI),…

This study evaluated the long-term impact of schoolwide positive behavioural interventions and supports (PBIS) on student academic achievement. In this quasi-experimental study, academic achievement data were collected over 9 years. The 21 elementary, middle, and high schools that achieved moderate to high fidelity to the Save & Civil Schools'…

In 2013, the Arizona State University (ASU) Preparatory Academy (ASU Prep) was awarded an Investing in Innovation (i3) Grant through the U.S. Department of Education. The district applied with an ambitious grant designed to innovate programming for a total of six schools: two elementary (one Kindergarten through grade 5; one Kindergarten through…

This document is intended to help teachers understand and create Student Learning Objectives (SLOs). This resource is a practical guide intended to provide clarity to a complex but worthwhile task. This resource may also be used by administrators for professional learning. As Utah moves toward providing a "Model for Measuring Educator…

States and districts are beginning to use student achievement growth--as measured by state assessments (often using statistical techniques known as value-added models or student growth models)--as part of their teacher evaluation systems. But this approach has limited application in most states, because their assessments are typically administered…

States and districts are beginning to use student achievement growth--as measured by state assessments (often using statistical techniques known as value-added models or student growth models)--as part of their teacher evaluation systems. But this approach has limited application in most states, because their assessments are typically administered…

This report examines program implementation in the first two cohorts of Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) grantees (i.e., recipients of five-year grants awarded in 2006 and 2007). It follows on a 2012 interim report on the same cohorts. The report highlights principal and teacher award sizes and distribution and composition of awards, as well as…

The Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) was first authorized in 2006 to support efforts to develop and implement performance-based compensation systems for teachers and principals in high-need schools. The authorizing statue specifies that grantees' performance pay systems are to provide incentives based on gains in student academic achievement,…

RMC Research used a case study approach to document implementation of "Imagine Language & Literacy" and a correlational design to examine the relationship between student program usage and student academic achievement outcomes for students in grades K-2. "Imagine Language & Literacy" is a digital education program…