The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) emphasizes evidence-based interventions while providing new flexibilities to states and districts with regard to the use of federal funds, including funds that could be used to support social and emotional learning (SEL). This report is a companion to "Social and Emotional Learning Interventions Under the…

Persistently low-performing schools have been repeatedly targeted for comprehensive reform for more than two decades, usually with poor results. These efforts have suffered, however, because they were often poorly implemented or insufficiently grounded in rigorous research. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), enacted in 2015, provides a…

The conventional approach to scaling up educational reforms considers the development and testing phases to be distinct from the work of implementing at scale. Decades of research suggest that this approach yields inconsistent and often disappointing improvements for schools most in need. More recent scholarship on scaling school improvement…

The conventional approach to school implementation involves different sets of schools in designing, developing, and testing an innovation and yet another set of schools involved in implementation at scale. Decades of research suggest that this approach has yielded inconsistent and often disappointing improvements for schools most in need. More…

As they prepare for initial implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), many state and local education agencies across the country have been taking the opportunity to redefine how best to support improvement in their lowest-performing schools. ESSA requires districts to play a larger role in the improvement process, with SEAs…

The purpose of this paper is to report findings from an exploratory study of the early implementation of the Common Core Learning Standards in New York City by a sample of charter management organizations (CMOs) and Children First Networks (CFNs). Using the existing literature on policy implementation--specifically the concepts of boundary…

The article examines the scope for initiative and independent action that lies with school principals in Kazakhstan, with a particular focus on capacity-building approaches. The study is situated within a large collaborative project between three institutions: the University of Cambridge Faculty of Education, Nazarbayev University Graduate School…

We report on the implementation experience of carrying out data collection and other activities for a public health evaluation study on whether U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) investment improved utilization of health services and health system strengthening in Uganda. The retrospective study period focused on the PEPFAR…

This literature review examines the evidence base of the Breakthrough Series Collaborative (BSC) to better understand its outputs and outcomes, as well as the contextual factors that may support success. The review's findings will be incorporated into the next phase of the "Culture of Continuous Learning (CCL) Project," which includes a…

This paper describes a study undertaken within the education faculty of a mid-sized university in response to the recommendations of the Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group (TEMAG) (2014) that initial teacher education (ITE) graduates emerge with an evidence-based professional standards-focused portfolio of teaching competency. In…

Online and blended learning are becoming more important in k-12 public schools because of their flexibility and increased opportunity for students in urban as well as rural environments. Implementing and sustaining technology-based learning is a complex process that requires educational leaders to have a broad spectrum of knowledge and skills…

This paper connects the dots between arts integration, students' personal competencies, and school turnaround. Its thesis is that by intertwining art forms and methods with content in all subject areas, students learn more about art and the other subjects and build their personal competencies for learning. The paper includes the story of an…

Background: The YMCA of USA has adopted Healthy Eating and Physical Activity (HEPA) Standards for its afterschool programs (ASPs). Little is known about strategies YMCA ASPs are implementing to achieve Standards and these strategies' effectiveness. Aims: (1) Identify strategies implemented in YMCA ASPs and (2) evaluate the relationship between…

Despite the growing popularity of apprenticeships, pre-apprenticeships, and in-school youth apprenticeships in the United States, young adults who lack the credentials and connections to seamlessly enter postsecondary pathways remain overlooked. Young-adult-serving agencies and community-based organizations (CBOs) are underutilized key actors in…

Many studies have called attention to the limitations of current teacher evaluation systems and the need for reform nationwide. This study addresses three research questions: (1) What are the features of the new teacher evaluation systems in New Hampshire's districts with SIG schools?; (2) To what extent did schools implement the evaluation system…