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…

From mid-2018 through early 2024, the BHP Foundation--a charitable organization that works to address social and environmental challenges--supported the Center for Universal Education (CUE) at the Brookings Institution in its efforts to accelerate global educational progress. CUE's funded work included several initiatives that were characterized…

Evidence shows that children's early years are a crucial time for their development. Well-designed early childhood education (ECE) experiences can foster meaningful gains in school readiness, as well as long-term benefits such as lower rates of special education placement and higher graduation rates. The quality of early education is highly…

Across many countries, national, federal and district level governments are increasingly pursuing approaches to school improvement that seek to achieve so-called 'bottom-up' change. That is, improvements to teaching and learning that are generated by teachers, and subsequently shared horizontally and vertically within educational systems. Often…

The National Snapshot provides a baseline of how evidence is used by teachers and leaders across Australian schools. Better use of evidence is proven to lift student outcomes, so it's important to understand and advance its use in schools. The National Snapshot helps to do this by bringing together new and existing information to see a more…

Participants in the Global Education Policy Leadership Program (GEPLP) in the U.S. collaborated with the Schools, Students and Teachers Network (SSAT) in England in 2023 to conduct a study of three high performing schools that are members in the SSAT Leading Edge Network. This article describes U.K. and U.S. educational accountability systems as…

I conducted a single instrumental case study to address the problem of practice in which approximately one-third of students entering the ninth grade for the 2019-2020 school year in the study school district were reading below grade level proficiency. I chose an instrumental case study method because it allows for an in-depth examination of a…

After decades of frustration that education research is irrelevant to practice and that educators do not use research to inform their work, there is reason to believe that the relationship between research and practice is improving. Elizabeth Farley-Ripple describes the how the conversation about research and practice is becoming broader, how…

In an era of rapid change, it is important to not lose sight of the potential of high-quality teaching and the power of refining teaching practices that have demonstrated impact. This report aims to deepen understanding of the complexities of teaching and its multifaceted nature as a discipline grounded in scientific research, but so too an art…

Regardless of sector, implementation science and improvement science are used to support and improve the implementation and scale-up of evidence-based programs and practices. This brief highlights similarities and differences between implementation science and improvement science, as well as how they can be used together to support programs and…

"Systems coaching" is used to implement systems-level school improvement initiatives that will build capacity and strengthen infrastructure. In Ohio, the state's regional network of literacy specialists and state support teams for central office and district leaders provided systems coaching to build an infrastructure to support the use…

This national snapshot presents findings on the current use of evidence by teachers and leaders in Australian schools. The authors examine attitudes towards and use of various types of evidence, and challenges and enablers in using evidence. In examining the use of evidence, they distinguish between: (1) research evidence: academic research, such…

Innovative learning practices are highly student-centric and student-responsive. Yet, while many educators talk about wanting their classrooms to emphasize student-centered learning, few schools actually walk the walk in terms of creating a school culture that supports the sustainable implementation of concepts, such as individualizing learning to…

In education systems around the world, planners and policymakers are calling for more attention to whole-system improvement. To best address teaching and learning outcomes, teachers and head teachers need whole-system support to build professionalism and improve their practice. The middle tier of education systems, composed of professionals…

This report presents the results of an Education Endowment Foundation (EEF)-funded, independent evaluation designed to investigate the extent to which, and in what ways, Research Schools (RSs) in Opportunity Areas (OAs) had supported schools to enact evidence-based practices in their classrooms. The evidence centred upon the lived experiences of…