Transforming schools through mastery learning may solve education's existential crisis, offering today's learners the relevance and individualization they need while returning to the most ancient form of assessment, proving that learning has occurred. Mastery learning requires significant change to all the norms and practices of school, altering…

The Washington Student Achievement Council's (WSAC) Regional Partnerships (RP) strategy invests in cross-sector partnerships that are committed to increasing local postsecondary attainment through geographically and culturally responsive approaches. In this first installment of the RP Learning Brief Series, the Washington Student Achievement…

A system of climate learning includes students, educators, administrators, educational leaders, community members, and others across different contexts and from diverse lived experiences. As people begin to foster climate learning within these systems, the work of drawing people together in this work can seem daunting. However, the lessons from…

Over the past decade, Illinois has emerged as a national exemplar of how state policy can drive systemic change in civics education. The Illinois Civic Mission Coalition, a pan-ideological alliance of educators, policymakers, and civic organizations, has shaped the state's civics education vision. The coalition built a scalable infrastructure of…

Partnerships funded by the Washington Student Achievement Council's (WSAC) Regional Challenge Grant (RCG) are only in their second year of funded work. Still, early evidence makes clear the impact of these disciplined investments. Financial aid application rates, high school graduation rates, and even college retention rates--these critical…

By the time Donald J. Trump was running for president in 2024, he had landed on a clear vision for the federal government's role in education. In short, he had concluded that the federal government's power over education should be relinquished to states, local communities, and, most importantly, families. Early into his second term, Trump has…

School improvement is complex and difficult, especially in comprehensive support and improvement (CSI) schools, which concurrently struggle with multiple challenges. To guide state education agencies (SEAs) in supporting schools, this annex provides (1) the resources that SEAs have identified and developed to support the identification and…

This appendix contains programmatic updates regarding the Washington Student Achievement Council's (WSAC) regional partnership work: (1) Strategic Involvement; (2) Long-Term Outlook Based on the 2025 Biennial State Budget; (3) Upcoming Report on Regional Partnership Outcomes for the 2024-25 Academic Year; and (4) Reapplication and Investment…

Recent reforms in developmental education represent a transformative step towards advancing the goals of the California Community Colleges system. Guided by Vision 2030, these reforms are designed to promote equity in success, access, and support for students in transfer-level English and mathematics courses, ensuring that all students have the…

This appendix provides summaries of work for Research Challenge Grant (RCG) partnerships. Each partner section includes a theory of change and a summary of impact. There are thirteen partners included in this appendix.

In 2020, Kentucky embarked on a journey to transform teaching and learning in the state through its "United We Learn" initiative. As a result of that work, Kentucky learning communities are making significant strides toward innovative deeper learning practices. In Aurora Institute's glossary, the term "deeper learning"…

The Regional Challenge Grant (RCG) seeks to intentionally grow the scale of its work by awarding funds to additional regional partnerships. This document includes five new partnership recommendations for Council consideration as a result of the 2024 Request for Letters of Interest.

The Washington Student Achievement Council's (WSAC) Regional Partnerships (RP) strategy invests in cross-sector partnerships that are committed to increasing local postsecondary attainment through geographically and culturally responsive approaches. In this second installment of the RP Learning Brief Series, the Washington Student Achievement…

Passed in 2022 with bipartisan support, Senate Bill 5789 established the Washington Career and College Pathways Innovative Challenge Program with a $6 million initial investment in the first year and a $16 million appropriation in the 2023-2025 Washington state biennium budget. The program awards competitive grants to existing and new…

The Washington Student Achievement Council (WSAC) works collaboratively with place-based, cross-sector partnerships seeking to increase postsecondary attainment in their communities. The Regional Challenge Grant (RCG) is a key mechanism in WSAC's broader Regional Partnership (RP) approach to invest in partnerships that self-identify strategies to…