Schools are increasingly turning towards restorative practices as a pathway to building schools with stronger relationships, justice, and equity. While effectiveness studies are increasing, too little attention is focused on evaluating implementation. This resources is for audiences who evaluate implementation of whole school restorative practices…

The Minnesota Principals Academy (MPA) is an executive development program that provides ongoing professional development to Minnesota's school leaders by connecting theory to practice. The program is housed in the University of Minnesota's Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development in the College of Education and Human…

The Minnesota Principals Academy (MPA) is an executive development program designed to enhance the performance of school leaders in order to improve educational outcomes for students. The Center for Applied Research and Education Improvement (CAREI) serves as the program evaluator with the intention of providing information on the extent to which…

The purpose of this article is to describe the defining characteristics of an effective professional development school (PDS) model in physical education. The article outlines what a PDS is, discusses the defining characteristics of a current physical education PDS, and provides suggestions for implementation by other universities and P-12 schools…

The purpose of this article is to describe lessons learned from studying the leadership in eight award-winning secondary schools and districts that were recognized for successfully leveraging technology as part of their efforts for school improvement. Data were collected through observations, interviews, and document analysis in schools and…

During the summer of 2008, the Minnesota Department of Education contracted with Hezel Associates, LLC, to conduct an external evaluation of the Q Comp implementation. The evaluation team has adopted a formative-summative approach to the investigation of Q Comp impact and sustainability. This approach has made it possible to study how Q Comp works…

What happens when teams from 57 cities building afterschool systems gather to discuss two key system responsibilities--improving afterschool programs and using data for informed decision-making? Lots of rich discussion. This report covers a national afterschool conference held in February 2013. It details what mayors, program providers, system…

This article details a strategic planning model and concurrent 3-year research study focusing on the benefits of preK-16 professional development school learning communities for the participating preK-16 educational leaders in a midwestern school-university partnership network. Results of the study, along with the strategic plan's success at…

As part of the usual end of year meeting that has been a feature of the National Center for Engineering and Technology Education (NCETE) project, a conference intending to provide a forum for young voices in an outside of the Center was organized. The basic model for the gathering was borrowed from track and field. This was to be an intellectual…

The eight schools profiled in this document are serving different populations, but all of them are closing the achievement gap between low-income, minority, and special needs students and their peers. By trying out innovative new strategies, these schools are blazing a trail for others to follow. They are dispelling the myth that some students can…