K-12 educators will find a structured, evidence-driven approach to Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), offering powerful tools and facilitation techniques to enhance both teaching and professional growth. Unlike typical approaches to data teams, the VITAL (Visibly Improving Teaching and Learning) Collaboration model uses concrete evidence…

In this article, we describe a large-scale data collection effort about the environmental learning field in Maine. This approach utilized a stakeholder engagement process which included over 600 project managers, educators, and school administrators from both formal and informal education settings. Our focus on collecting data about specific…

Resources for school improvement efforts, such as school improvement plan (SIP) templates, can espouse governmental entities' perspectives on and requirements and recommendations for the school improvement planning process. These resources, in turn, can influence how educators enact school improvement efforts generally and the school improvement…

During the 2022-2023 school year, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) assigned staff development teachers (SDTs) to each school. This allocation supports three pillars of the FY 2022-2025 Strategic Plan: professional and operational excellence, academic excellence, and wellness and family engagement. The 1.0 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff…

"It's Not Rocket Science - A Guide to the School Improvement Cycle: With Examples From New Zealand and Australian Schools" presents an easy-to-read, practical guide to effectively leading school improvement. It walks leaders through each step of 'The School Improvement Cycle' developed by Bendikson and Meyer, providing case studies,…

The Partnership Model for School and District Turnaround is Michigan's policy for improving student outcomes in its lowest-performing schools. In compliance with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) identifies schools that rank in the bottom 5% of the Michigan School Index System as Partnership schools.…

Statewide school accountability systems have been required by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) for more than 20 years. However, many states implemented school accountability systems well before federal requirements, demonstrating a recognition of their role in supporting school improvement. As a new administration takes office…

The provisions in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) include (1) the requirement for states to periodically review resource allocation in local education agencies (LEAs) serving a significant number of schools identified for comprehensive support and improvement (CSI),…

States continue to work to implement statewide accountability systems; publicly report extensive information on State and local report cards, as required under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA); and provide additional resources to schools designated for support and improvement. These systems are vital for improving outcomes…

The Every Student Succeeds Act's evidence requirements mandate the use of research in the selection of school improvement interventions, with the aim of ensuring that schools and districts invest their efforts and funding more wisely. This study of eight states presents three different approaches to the evidence requirements: using lists of…

This report presents the interim findings from an evaluation of a number of the Department for Education's (DfE) Language Programmes which support Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) provision in schools in England: the Language Hub programme; the Language Assistants programme run by the British Council; the UK German Connection (UKGC); and the German…

There is renewed interest around including performance assessments in state and local assessment systems to spur positive changes in classroom instruction and student learning. Previous research has identified the external conditions that mediate the role of assessment in changing instructional practices. We extend that work by focusing on the…

This paper examines the competitive effects of the Indiana Choice Scholarship Program on public and participating private schools. Using a difference-in-differences design, we find that high exposure public schools witnessed increases in quality, driven by improvements in math. Initially poor performing public schools drive our results, suggesting…

This study explored the function of school leading in the implementation process of education for sustainable development (ESD) in five Swedish schools employing a whole school approach (WSA). A follow-up study design was used, in which schools that had initiated an ESD project in 2016 were subsequently visited twice for interviews with principals…

South Carolina implemented its Read to Succeed (RTS) policy in 2014 in accordance with federal requirements. The problem addressed in this study was that there are many students in South Carolina Title I schools still failing to achieve reading proficiency after 3 years of full implementation of RTS. The purpose of this qualitative study was to…