While there are many different types of education data, policymakers and education leaders often place heavy emphasis on data from large-scale quantitative measures, such as annual state assessments. But data from these sources alone do not provide a complete picture of learning and are often not well suited to informing improvements at the local…

The Data Culture Framework is a high-level guide designed for institutional leaders who want to create and sustain an effective data culture on campus. The Framework offers a set of practices designed to help institutions of higher education create and maintain an effective data-informed community among institutional leaders, faculty, and staff.

Regional Educational Laboratory Appalachia researchers developed the Cost-Feasibility Analysis (CFA) Toolkit to help education leaders estimate whether implementing supplemental online programs is affordable given a school or district's available resources. The CFA Toolkit guides users through a four-stage process that yields cost information that…

This guide is designed to help district and school site leaders assess the professional learning needs of elementary school teachers to implement research-based recommendations for the instruction of English learner students. It comprises two tools--the Teacher Self-Reflection Tool and the Classroom Observation Tool--and outlines a 10-step process…

Head Start provides access to high-quality, affordable early learning opportunities for children alongside wraparound supports for parents which can help families achieve economic security by helping to facilitate parents' attainment of college credentials. Head Start-college collaboration can also bring important benefits to colleges and…

Improving the quality of teaching and instruction takes time and planning and may be costly and require intensive work. This is particularly true when trying to make improvements among multiple preschool sites, because preschool systems often lack a cohesive infrastructure for supporting high-quality implementation of curricula and teacher…

The teaching performance expectations and assignments that preservice art teachers currently address in field experiences and in their coursework are designed to help them meet the expectations of being a quality art educator in the 21st century. These assignments may be very different from the assignments that art educators had in their…

This guidebook is designed for institutional leaders and student success teams who are ready to talk openly about the students they serve and who are eager to learn practical strategies from national experts and peer institutions. We cannot design an experience that meets our students where they are unless we holistically understand who they are.…

The recommendations in this brief create a framework for using data effectively to make instructional decisions. The availability of student-level data for educators has pushed forward the movement to strengthen the role of data to guide instruction and improve student learning. While improvements in technology and assessments, as well as recent…

There is a vast amount of research on what goes on in schools, but how can school leaders sort credible findings from dubious claims and use these to make informed decisions that benefit their schools? How can abstract ideas from research be translated into dynamic plans for action? This book is a practical guide to evidence-based school…

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…

An increased emphasis on collecting and using data in schools has occurred, in part, because of the implementation of multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS). Commonly referred to as response to intervention in the academic domain and school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports in the behavioral domain, these initiatives have a…

The purpose of this Guidebook is to describe the process and basic requirements for the student learning measures that are used as part of the building administrator evaluation and support process. For aspects of the process that have room for flexibility and school/district-level discretion, the different options have been clearly separated and…

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…