Although research scholarship offers valuable guidance to those hoping to use improvement science in their teaching and practice, it tends to center the perspectives of researchers and EdD program faculty. Less research has focused on the voices of practitioners who use improvement science in their schools and organizations. We draw on sensemaking…

The field of gifted education in the United States faces an existential crisis due to well-founded charges that many school programs fail to identify students who reflect the diversity of the overall student population. In this study, we used a mixed methods light approach to explore gifted education coordinators' perceptions of equity and…

Assessment practitioners are well aware that evidence of learning improvement in higher education is scarce. A Learning Improvement Community has been created to promote learning improvement. Recently, this group created a "Readiness for Learning Improvement Tool." Given learning improvement projects are resource intensive, this tool was…

In the United States, thousands of students attend urban, secondary schools that are in need of improvement due to their inability to meet state standards (National Center for Education Statistics, 2020a). These schools are in need of transformation but cannot be turned around without the right leader in place (Herman et al., 2008). Turnaround…

Balanced assessment systems provide feedback and support decision-making to improve instruction and learning. "Supporting Continuous Improvement Efforts Through Balanced Assessment Systems: Components, Integration, and High-Leverage Actions" outlines key features and components, integration of various assessment approaches, and guiding…

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic forced districts to rapidly adjust their policies in ways that altered teachers' working conditions. Teachers' perceptions of how conditions changed could impact their well-being, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Purpose: We examined the relationships between Virginia teachers' perceptions of how…

We examined if students' understanding about the purpose and use of institutional assessment scores was affected by moving to remote testing due to COVID-19. Moreover, we examined if students' knowledge about the purpose of outcomes assessment related to their effort on these tests. If knowledge about accountability testing and effort were…

In today's educational landscape, state and local educational agencies (SEAs and LEAs) often experience challenges connecting large-scale accountability data with actual school improvement initiatives. These challenges tend to be rooted in incoherent design and use of data systems for continuous improvement. As we aim to support SEAs in…

The job of the school principal has become much more complex and demanding over the past several decades. Many university-based principal preparation programs -- which prepare the majority of school principals -- have struggled with how to make the fundamental changes needed to prepare principals for today's schools. This report shares lessons…

This report in brief shares findings from the RAND Corporation's five-year study of The Wallace Foundation's University Principal Preparation Initiative (UPPI). The job of the school principal has become much more complex and demanding over the past several decades. Many university-based principal preparation programs (PPPs)--which prepare the…

A review of the First Year Engineering course sequence at Virginia Tech characterized the current state of ethics education in the program, and informed a strategy to enhance the ethical development of first-year engineering students. This paper reports the results of our initial review of the curriculum, our improvement plan, assessment of our…

This memo, which is the fourth in the series, describes how 11 Virginia school divisions have come together to form Virginia's Student-Led Assessment Networked Improvement Community. This Networked Improvement Community (NIC) is focused on increasing the use of student-led assessment practices, including capstone projects, to increase students'…

As a result of federal legislation (ESSA, 2015) accreditation ratings of elementary schools are based on the performance of third through fifth grade students on the end of year assessments in the content subjects of reading and math. As a result of these requirements schools that fail to meet these standards are identified as Accreditation Denied…

This issue of "Assessment Update" presents the following articles: (1) Organizing for Learning Improvement: What It Takes (Andrea M. Pope and Keston H. Fulcher); (2) Editor's Notes: The Leadership Imperatives for Assessment Excellence -- Imperative #2, Attracting and Retaining Talent to Support Assessment Excellence (Stephen P. Hundley);…

In April 2017, a three-day Learning Improvement Summit, held in Washington, DC, brought together a broad array of national and international assessment stakeholders. The purpose of the summit was to empower a diverse group of faculty and assessment leaders to develop, refine, discuss, and address evidence-based learning improvement initiatives…