The education enterprise struggles to get evidence-supported practices and programs operating in schools and classrooms. Three factors are contributing to this reality: (1) a limited understanding of evidence-supported practices at the practitioner level; (2) the centralized selection of (sometimes evidence-weak) improvement strategies; and (3) the researcher-practitioner divide. This report discusses some specific issues US education must address to build research and evidence more productively into its decision-making processes, as well as practical, feasible ways to improve evidence-informed decision-making in schools. It begins with the steps an actual school today would likely use to plan its improvement strategies. This brief look, informed by the author's own work with US schools, sheds some light on (1) how schools commonly determine their improvement priorities; and (2) how schools commonly use evidence ineffectively (or neglect it altogether) when planning improvement actions. And it provides an illustrative landmark he returns to when discussing challenges and recommendations.