The National Center for Rural Education Research Networks (NCRERN) was founded to expand the use of evidence-based decision-making in rural education. NCRERN partners with networks of rural school districts to generate and evaluate strategies for improving student outcomes. During the 2020-21 academic year, over 40 rural districts in New York and Ohio embarked on a continuous improvement process, in partnership with researchers at NCRERN, focused on increasing attendance rates in their schools. NCRERN's continuous improvement model aims to build the capacity of rural districts, engage district staff as key decision makers throughout the process, and foster collaboration and cross-district learning, while generating evidence about what works in rural education. The duality of NCRERN's process--which tries to balance the needs of districts and practitioners with the requirements for conducting causal, quantitative research--has both benefits and constraints. This brief provides a case study of NCRERN's continuous improvement process, including outlining the steps to implement a pilot-and-test model in a rural context. This case study is part of a collection of briefs focused on the attendance interventions piloted by NCRERN's partner districts in New York and Ohio during the 2020-21 school year. In this brief, we detail the sequence of steps New York and Ohio districts used to identify, select, implement, and test promising attendance interventions in their schools, as well as highlight key takeaways from engaging in this process.