This research-practice partnership (RPP) focused on developing and testing metrics and tools to foster improved evidence-based budgetary decision-making. The expectation was that research findings would directly influence decisions about program expansion, contraction, or elimination. Instead, unexpected findings led to unexpected uses: changes in…

Our research-practice partnership (RPP) focused on developing and testing metrics and tools to foster improved evidence-based budgetary decision-making. We expected our research findings to directly influence decisions about program expansion, contraction, or elimination. Instead, unexpected findings led to unexpected uses: changes in program…

This brief provides district PBIS [positive behavioral interventions and supports] leadership teams a framework to examine school-level fidelity and self-assessment data to guide resource, professional development, and technical assistance decision making.

Learning another language is considered a key 21st century subject, something that all students should begin in elementary school. However, most school districts in Illinois do not offer students the opportunity to learn another language in elementary school. There are effective and high quality programs available to learn another language that…

The achievement gap has a long history in the United States of America which is demonstrated by inequitable graduation rates. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic of 2019, the continued genocide and murder of countless Black and Brown people, civil unrest demonstrated by protests nationally after the execution of George Floyd and countless others,…

This report provides a first look at how Illinois school districts' uses of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds were related to their test score outcomes in the years following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using data on districts' ESSER expenditures as of November 2023, the authors analyze test score trends across…

Superintendents as decision-makers in public school systems, in their roles of both leader and manager, have been the topic of studies for many decades (Waters, J. T., & Marzano, R. J., 2006; McClellan, R. L., Hyle, A. E., & Ivory, G. (2010). However, there is little research regarding superintendents' decision-making related to resource…

The purpose of this qualitative inquiry was to explore the implementation of the third pillar of dual language education (DLE), sociocultural competence. Teachers' perceptions of the structures both supporting and challenging implementation of the pillar were examined. An Elementary (K-5) two-way immersion DLE Program in the lower Hudson Valley…

Policy analysts often concern themselves with understanding the messiness of implementation. Scholar Milbrey McLaughlin urged scholars to follow the "policy footprint" approach, and this article introduces this concept's application in studying arts education policy implementation. Specifically, I explore several important questions.…

The objective of this study is to assist school psychologists and school districts in understanding the cost of implementing the Dual Discrepancy/Consistency (DD/C) method, which is the most widely used PSW method of SLD identification. A literature review was conducted to obtain national data on variables needed to estimate the cost of…

State aid for special education shapes local decisions about identifying students for special education, the programs and services to which students have access and in which students with disabilities are educated, and how local educators structure and administer their special education programs. The connection between state funding for special…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the implementation of the "Phonics First"® program within one district to inform district level curriculum team decisions and program planning moving forward. As a level 4 Directed State Support district, the studied district was looking for ways to close the achievement gap and raise overall…

School climate is important for continuous improvement. California's LCFF requires districts to report on school climate and use data to inform decision making. Qualitative data, derived from an explanatory sequential mixed-methods study, explored three belief constructs and sub-groups by response patterns. Education leaders have a range of…

The problem statement for this project-based learning was loose coupling, when applied to the PBIS framework, translates into major gaps with district-wide implementation of Tier II and Tier III interventions. Additionally, lack of superintendent-adaptive schools' knowledge and practices impact fidelity of implementation. Tier II and Tier III…

As the day-to-day leaders of a school district, superintendents oversee budgetary and other district operations, help give practical meaning to federal and state policy, and set local district policy for the schools under their charge. Superintendents therefore work in a unique and important leadership space that exists between federal, state,…