Education administrators expect teachers to participate in professional learning. Traditional professional learning for teachers comes in workshops, professional learning communities, meetings, conferences, self-guided professional development, coaching, and courses (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2014). Teachers are dissatisfied with this…

The research is clear; the formative assessment process positively impacts student achievement. However, it is a complex process which is often implemented unsuccessfully in classrooms. Teachers lack a true understanding of how to use formative assessments techniques to make instructional adjustments in a continuous and ongoing manner through the…

This study examined a professional development (PD) intervention that provided kindergarten-through third-grade teachers with drama-based pedagogy to improve student reading achievement. The PD consisted of collaboration between teaching artists and teachers to integrate drama into English language arts instruction for a school year. Twenty-six…

Responsive coaching at engage2learn is an innovative, and with this and previous reports--an evidence-based solution. This 2021-2022 study compellingly validates the efficacy of the engage2learn program through an exploration of NWEA MAP® Growth™ and STAAR test scores for Math and Science, Grades 6-8. LXD Research, an independent research firm,…

The purpose of this quasi-experimental, quantitative study was to examine the effects of implementing a non-evaluative teacher goal setting process to determine if there was an impact on student achievement as measured by MAP growth scores and if there was an effect on teacher job satisfaction. For this study, teacher job satisfaction was measured…

When superintendent Rudy Hernandez first arrived at Cicero School District 99, he knew he had challenges to address across the district. With a near-90 percent poverty level and a student population made up of 50 percent English language learners, he knew he needed to work with teachers to build a data-driven support system to affect change.…

Background: Over 15% of kindergarten and first grade students in U.S. public schools are English learners (ELs) (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2021). Many classroom teachers, however, have not had specialized training in providing instruction for ELs. The BELLA (Bridging English Language Learning and Academics) professional…

The aim of this study was to explore how the Coding as Another Language using ScratchJr (CAL-ScratchJr) curriculum, developed by Boston College's DevTech Research Group utilizing the ScratchJr app, impacted second grade students' computational thinking, coding skills, and reading comprehension. To accomplish this, the research team randomly…

The purpose of this study is to measure the effects that professional development focused on specific Danielson domains has on teacher professional practice and student achievement. This was studied in a suburban Chicago junior high school with a student enrollment of 511 students and 40 certified staff members. The study followed a mixed method,…

A rural Midwestern school district the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) adaptive assessment did not yield the expected improvements in student outcomes. Therefore, the purpose of this qualitative study was to better understand teacher practice regarding MAP implementation. The conceptual framework was based on Fullan and Langworthy's change…

The purpose of this longitudinal, mixed methods quasi-experimental study was to investigate the impact of balanced literacy coaching on teacher efficacy, practices, beliefs, and student achievement. The participants were third- through sixth-grade teachers from five elementary schools within the same south suburban Chicago public school district.…

Standards-based grading has been researched for years, but the research has not focused on the impact it had on intermediate elementary aged students and their mathematical achievement. This quantitative research study examined the impact standards-based grading had on intermediate elementary age students in math, as well as the impact it had on…

The engage2learn approach to educator support provides an in-person and virtual coaching system that builds capacity and engagement in public schools. Engage2learn hired LXD Research to conduct an independent evaluation and analysis of NWEA Math and Reading data collected during the 2021-2022 school year. The goal was to measure how engage2learn…

At Tamassee-Salem Elementary School in South Carolina, teacher Anna Durham likes to have data conferences with her third graders. She creates a simple graph of their MAP® Growth™ interim assessment scores with past and current scores, along with a future goal. She believes talking about goals--and how they will get there together--helps to engage…

Over the past 35 years, the public education system in the United States has undergone large-scale changes to improve student achievement, yet students' scores on standardized assessments have remained relatively flat (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2013). The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between teachers'…