Research suggests that students who participate in formative assessment perform better on measures of academic achievement than students who do not. To raise school and systematic performance, teachers need access to high-quality, rigorous tools designed to provide timely and individualized feedback for student learning. According to a report…

Ohio law requires the director of the Department of Education and Workforce to report annually the numbers and percentages of students in kindergarten through grade 4 who are reading below grade level based on diagnostic assessments, and also to report progress for all students placed on Reading Improvement and Monitoring Plans in kindergarten…

California is on the cusp of implementing universal preschool--a step that could help level the playing eld for young children. Over the next few years, all four-year-olds will become eligible for Transitional Kindergarten (TK), which has been part of the state's early learning programs since 2012. In the report, "Setting the Stage for…

In 2021, California made historic investments in early learning to expand transitional kindergarten (TK) to serve all of California's 4-year-olds. Transitional kindergarten began in California in 2012 as a free public school program for 4-year-olds who were not yet eligible for kindergarten (a non-compulsory grade). Yet by 2019, just 28 percent of…

This study explores the ways in which local students experience housing instability--and how cross-sector strategies can better identify and serve these students. The report accompanying this brief considers a rich set of school administrative data, collected over the course of three school years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic: 2016-17 through…

The need to address teacher pipeline challenges has never been more urgent--and doing so will require bold, systemic changes to how teachers are recruited, prepared, compensated, supported, and respected. Teacher Preparation Partnerships are one promising strategy to help address the state's significant teacher pipeline challenges through…

In 2019, the Washington Student Achievement Council adopted a Strategic Framework to better understand how state higher education policy contributes to campus and student success. The framework organizes the policy work into four areas deemed essential to achieve the 70 percent goal: (1) Affordability; (2) Enrollment; (3) Completion; and (4)…

The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) has been a leader in the field of social and emotional learning (SEL) for over two decades. CASEL collaborates with thought leaders to equip educators, policymakers, and researchers with the knowledge and resources to make evidence-based SEL an integral part of equitable…

With the passage of the 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), states were required to add a fifth indicator on "School Quality or Student Success" (SQSS) to their school accountability systems. An analysis of submitted ESSA state plans found that 13 states included measures of school climate as their SQSS indicator or incorporated…

Signed into law in May of 2019, the Student Success Act (Oregon House Bill 3427) is an historic opportunity for Oregon schools. The bill makes significant investments in programs to support historically underserved students. When fully implemented this act will invest approximately $2 billion per biennium for early learning and K-12 education. The…

In this paper, I present a design case of the problem-identification process prior to the initiation of a Networked Improvement Community (NIC). A NIC is a type of research-practice partnership (RPP) that brings together researchers and practitioners to tackle complex problems of practice, and in doing so, proposes a social reorganization of the…

At the start of the unprecedented 2020-2021 school year, many schools prioritized or re-prioritized social and emotional learning (SEL) to foster the competencies and learning environments that students and adults need to reunite, renew, and thrive. Entering the second half of the school year, many students will make new transitions -- from…

As Illinois schools moved toward reopening during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools (IARSS) identified a need for coordinated statewide COVID-19 forums for district leaders to discuss immediate challenges faced by educators as schools reopened in fall 2020. IARSS and the Illinois State Board of…

Strategic planning and performance management are not new concepts; however, education agencies and other nonprofit organizations have struggled to embrace and use the concepts, especially in unison. The strategic performance management (SPM) process provides a mechanism to bring performance management to state education agencies (SEAs), local…

Schools that support teachers and other members of the school community in taking initiative and exercising leadership over their work look and feel different from schools where decision-making and influence are more centralized. A growing body of research, backed by the experience of teachers and school leaders across the country, supports the…