This report presents an overview of the history, collective learning, and concluding products of a networked improvement community (NIC) that operated and evolved between 2017 and 2021: the Student-Centered Assessment Network (SCAN). SCAN comprised a group of teachers from three Rhode Island high schools; a coordinating team of researchers,…

Teachers have access to more data than ever before, including summative (state-level), interim (benchmarklevel), and formative (classroom-level) data. Yet research on how often and why teachers use each type of data is scarce. The Nebraska Department of Education partnered with the Regional Educational Laboratory Central to conduct a study of…

Teachers have access to more data than ever before, but comparative research on how often and why teachers use different types of data is scarce. The Nebraska Department of Education identifies summative (state-level), interim (benchmark-level), and formative (classroom-level) assessment data as key measures of student learning. The department…

In partnership with the Consortium for Policy Research in Education, RFA has been studying Philadelphia schools' take-up of an instructional reform that has demonstrated positive impacts on teacher knowledge and student learning in math. The Ongoing Assessment Project (OGAP) is designed to deepen teachers' understanding of foundational concepts in…

In 2023, the U.S. Department of Education announced the "Raise the Bar: Lead the World" initiative to use decades of research and professional experience to transform public education and advance education equity. There are three focus areas: (1) Achieve Academic Excellence; (2) Boldly Improve Learning Conditions; and (3) Create Pathways…

This memo, which is the sixth in the series, highlights the ongoing work of the Sunnyside Unified School District (SUSD) to create an ecology of equity. Their efforts focus on developing a school system that fosters a belief in each person's capacity to learn (administrators, teachers, and students alike) and increases students' opportunities for…

Principal preparation programs in Kentucky can use the items in the Dispositions, Dimensions, and Functions for School Leaders (EPSB, 2008) as mastery benchmarks to quantify incoming Educational Specialist (Ed.S) students' perceived level of mastery. This can serve both internal and external purposes by providing diagnostic feedback to students…

This article describes a case study in which Our Lady of Hungary Catholic School (OLH) principal Kevin Goralczyk and the parish's pastor, Reverend Kevin Bauman, faced educators' universal challenge: Knowing what students need to learn but wondering how to evaluate if they were really successfully taking in the information rather than simply…

The School-University Research Network (SURN) Principal Academy at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, has a mission to build a leadership development program that increases principals' instructional knowledge and develops mentor principals to sustain the program. The academy is designed to connect and empower principals…

A lot has changed in the principalship since the principal was the head teacher in a school. Current principals are building administrators and that is likely to continue, the authors posit. Nonetheless, they report their study focusing on leadership's role in formative assessment concluded that in order to lead learning the principal must become…

Like educators everywhere who constantly examine data in an attempt to make decisions to help improve their schools, the authors of this article, a new principal and assistant principal of North Oconee High School in Bogart, GA, looked for ways to lead school improvement instead of just pointing out flaws. They wanted their school to improve, but…

This case focuses on one parent's request to have his daughter exempted from district-mandated computer tests (called STAR Enterprise tests). These tests are administered several times per year as a formative assessment to gauge student achievement in the areas of reading and math. The parent was concerned that the district was spending too much…

As resources shrink, the need to do more with less becomes critical. As a business CEO turned superintendent, the author has seen firsthand that many options exist, but none are fun, easy, or politically rewarding. In 2005, he launched a 50-person listening tour with school committee members, central-office staff, curriculum leaders, and…

Collaborative learning teams are improving teacher practice and student learning results in the Dallas Center-Grimes Community School District near Des Moines, Iowa. Since 2009, all teachers and principals in the district have participated in collaborative learning teams to study a process known as assessment for learning, in which formative…

In a very short period during the spring and summer of 2012, researchers at the University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research (CCSR) and the Illinois Education Research Council (IERC) collected data from respondents in five districts across Illinois to examine how school districts in the state approach designing and implementing new…