NCEE Blog

The U.S. Department of Education’s ten Regional Educational Labs (RELs) partner with states, districts, and education service agencies to create and support the use of evidence by educators and administrators. RELs provide a wide variety of direct services to our partners, including evidence- or research-focused training, coaching, technical support, and applied research. 

RELs also create free, user-friendly tools and resources that any state, district, education service agency, or other support provider can use so that the learnings from direct REL services can be shared nationwide. Below, we share a sampling of products across key topic areas. Visit our website to access our full library of over 2,000 tools, resources, and studies.

Literacy

A Practitioner’s Guide to Improving Literacy Outcomes for Students by Using Evidence to Strengthen Programs and Practices (IES, 2024)

This resource was developed to help state and local education agencies implement evidence-based literacy practices in their classrooms. It is based on the U.S. Department of Education’s Non-Regulatory Guidance for using evidence to improve teaching and learning that includes a five-step, continuous improvement cycle. Each step includes freely available, high-quality literacy resources.

Empowering Young Readers by Using Assessment Data to Inform Evidence-Based Word Reading Skill Instruction (REL Midwest, 2024)

This resource features a set of flowcharts that can help K-2 educators identify student skill reading needs in phonological awareness, phonics, and fluency based on universal screening data. Once the needs are identified, the flowcharts direct educators toward evidence-based instructional practices that can be used to provide reading acceleration targeted to student needs. 

Professional Learning Community: Emergent Literacy (REL Southeast, 2020)

This resource supports preschool teachers through collaborative learning experiences in a professional learning community (PLC). Preschool teachers who participate in this PLC will learn evidence-based instructional practices that can enhance their emergent literacy instruction and benefit their students.

Teacher’s Guide to Supporting Family Involvement in Foundational Reading Skills (REL Southeast)

This is a companion to the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) practice guide, Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten through 3rd Grade. This guide is organized according to the four recommendations and how-to steps from the WWC practice guide. The activities follow the typical developmental progression through which students learn to read. While teachers may use the guide sequentially, the activities are designed to be used flexibly. Teachers can select activities to share with families based on each student’s instructional needs. 

• A Kindergarten Teacher’s Guide to Supporting Family Involvement in Foundational Reading Skills (REL Southeast, 2020) 
• A First Grade Teacher’s Guide to Supporting Family Involvement in Foundational Reading Skills (REL Southeast, 2020) 
• A Second Grade Teacher’s Guide to Supporting Family Involvement in Foundational Reading Skills (REL Southeast, 2021) 
• A Third-Grade Teacher’s Guide to Supporting Family Involvement in Foundational Reading Skills (REL Southeast, 2021)

STEM

Community Math Night Facilitators’ Toolkit (REL Appalachia, 2021)

REL Appalachia created the Community Math Night Facilitators’ Toolkit as a detailed resource for K–5 elementary school educators to plan and implement a Community Math Night event. Community Math Nights use research-based, interactive math activities to engage families in building positive math attitudes, facilitate their participation in children’s math learning, and build a community of educators, students, families, and other caring adults to support students. 

Professional Learning Community: Improving Mathematical Problem Solving for Students in Grades 4 through 8 (REL Southeast, 2019)

REL Southeast developed this facilitator’s guide on the topic of mathematical problem solving for use in professional learning community settings. The facilitator’s guide is a set of professional development materials designed to supplement the What Works Clearinghouse practice guide, Improving Mathematical Problem Solving in Grades 4 Through 8. 

How Educators and Caregivers Can Create Supportive Conditions for Success in PreK-12 Mathematics (REL Program, 2023)

This infographic includes freely-available, evidence-based resources from across the REL program that all educators can use immediately to promote supportive math learning both in school and in partnership with families and caregivers in the community.

Multilingualism

Supporting Integrated English Learner Student Instruction – A Guide to Assess Professional Learning Needs (REL West, 2021)

REL West and the Region 15 Comprehensive Center developed a guide to assess teacher professional learning needs to implement research-based recommendations for the instruction of elementary-grade English learner students. 

Welcoming, Registering, and Supporting Newcomer Students: A Toolkit for Educators of Immigrant and Refugee Students in Secondary Schools (REL Northwest, 2021)

This resource toolkit is intended to help educators and other stakeholders identify and use research-based practices, policies, and procedures for welcoming, registering, and supporting newcomer immigrant and refugee students who are attending secondary schools (grades 6-12) in the United States. Resources include professional development curricula, policy and implementation guides, evaluation reports, and sample surveys and assessments.

Professional Learning Communities Facilitator’s Guide for the What Works Clearinghouse Practice Guide Teaching Academic Content and Literacy to English Learners in Elementary and Middle School (REL Southwest, 2015)

This facilitator’s guide is designed to assist professional learning communities (PLCs) in applying evidence-based strategies to help K-8 English learners acquire the language and literacy skills needed to succeed academically. 

Resources for Determining Special Education Eligibility of English Learners (REL Northeast & Islands, 2021)

The resources provided on this page can be used by teachers and administrators working with English learners both to provide high-quality instruction and to build practices to better determine special education eligibility. 

Teacher Workforce

Automated Teacher Diversity District Tool (REL Mid-Atlantic, 2020)

This tool is designed to help state education agency staff support districts in identifying gaps in the diversity of their teacher workforces. The automated tool generates district-level reports that provide the racial/ethnic make-up of a district’s student and teacher populations and its three- and five-year teacher retention rates by race and ethnicity. The template can be used to prepare reports for any number of districts. Inputting the data could take as little as 30 minutes if the data are readily available. After gathering and entering the necessary data, the tool takes one to two minutes to generate district reports.

How to Grow Teacher Wellbeing in Your Schools (REL Pacific, 2020)

The social, emotional, and physical health of teachers is a shared responsibility and a critical component of student learning and overall community wellbeing. Check out this infographic to learn more about why teacher wellbeing matters and how to support it in your school.

Lessons From Stay Interviews of Early Career Teachers in Four Utah School Districts (REL West, 2024)

This resource is an overview of local teacher attrition rates and exit survey results as well as national survey data on teacher well-being and research on new teacher induction and mentoring as part of the Utah Early Career Teacher Retention (U-ECTR) partnership. The partnership is dedicated to understanding and addressing the root causes of early career attrition.

Literacy is a critical component for success at all levels of education from early childhood through adulthood. Since 2013, 38 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws or implemented new policies focused on evidence-based reading instruction—and the RELs have been here to support them all along the way. In this latest update to the RELs Make a Difference blog series, we’ll look at how two RELs are supporting statewide literacy goals, the implications for scaling these efforts statewide, and how they’re using other IES and Department of Education resources to help states learn what works. These REL partnerships aim is to create a ripple effect: better-trained coaches and teachers, improved teaching practices, and ultimately, higher academic achievement for EL students.

REL Southeast

Alabama Research Partnership on Improving English Learner Outcomes

The Alabama State Department of Education’s motto is Every Child. Every Chance. Every Day.  The state’s Framework for English Learner Success notes that the number of English learners (EL) in Alabama has increased significantly in recent years, and affirms the state’s commitment to “access to high-quality instruction based on research and data-informed policies, services, and practices” for EL students. REL Southeast is providing intensive training and strategic coaching on evidence-based teaching practices to support English learner  students in the state through a partnership with the Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) and multiple school districts.

“I liked that we studied the information first and then were given the opportunity to deliver it to the teachers.”
—ALSDE EL Regional Specialist

First, REL Southeast trained 12 ALSDE regional EL specialists and 13 district facilitators on the four key teaching strategies from the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) Practice Guide, Teaching Academic Content and Literacy to English Learners in Elementary and Middle Schools. REL Southeast built upon an accompanying Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) Facilitator’s Guide developed by REL Southwest to inform the monthly training.

In turn, the regional EL specialists and district facilitators delivered these trainings to school teams of three teachers and an instructional specialist or administrator. The REL assisted by providing evidence-based instructional and coaching practices to support the implementation of the practice guide for EL students in grades K through 8. One of the PLC teachers has volunteered to model these instructional practices in a video recording, which will be shared with local and national organizations to support other practitioners with implementation.

To build on the training and coaching, ALSDE asked REL Southeast to evaluate the High-Quality Instruction and Assessment (HQIA) for English Learners Protocol. Developed with support from the Region 7 Comprehensive Center, HQIA outlines five key teaching strategies designed to boost EL students' learning. The study will focus on how HQIA is being used in classrooms, how closely teachers are following it, and its impact on both teaching methods and student outcomes compared to schools not using HQIA.

South Carolina Partnership to Implement Professional Learning Community: Emergent Literacy

REL Southeast is supporting early childhood leaders and preschools implement evidence-based literacy practices through South Carolina’s Partnership to Implement Professional Learning: Emergent Literacy (PLC-EL). This partnership supports preschools’ use of  emergent literacy materials developed by REL Southeast in 2020. REL Southeast will coach partners in implementation, support a professional learning community to learn about barriers to implementation, and conduct an applied research study to evaluate the implementation and impact of the professional learning community on teacher practice and student outcomes.

“We have already heard from several facilitators how effective the PLC-EL model is for giving a safe place for strong conversations. This has been a tremendous and exciting project…we are hopeful to meet all the high expectations IES, the REL, REL Governing Board, and USDE have charged us with through this process.”
—Wendy Burgess, Team Lead, Office of Early Learning and Literacy, SCDE

As part of this project, REL Southeast is providing intensive coaching to staff at 7 preschool centers. At each preschool, a leader (like an executive director or principal) champions the full implementation of PLC-EL, a facilitator engages in coaching activities, and teachers participate in PLC-EL sessions. REL Southeast works with these site teams to execute all 12 PLC-EL sessions, support facilitators in their role as trainer and coach, and ensure the sustainability of PLC-EL practices. Simultaneously, REL Southeast supports school leaders and teachers in overcoming hurdles and applying emergent literacy practices in classrooms.

During coaching activities, REL Southeast facilitates continuous improvement cycles with the site teams to refine partnership activities and assess needs. The teams, with support from REL Southeast, will implement the PLC-EL, function as a community of practice, analyze implementation drivers, establish feedback loops, and contribute to the partnership’s research study.

But REL Southeast’s PLC-EL project isn’t just about making a difference in a few classrooms—it also aims to develop scalable practices that can be adopted by preschools across the state. REL Southeast’s forthcoming applied research study is focused on evaluating the impact of PLC-EL on teachers' knowledge and instructional practices and on children's print knowledge, phonological awareness, vocabulary, oral language skills, and school readiness. The study will investigate the conditions, facilitators, and barriers affecting the implementation of PLC-EL in prekindergarten sites, aiming to leverage practice-to-policy opportunities and inform broader implementation strategies, helping to bring effective literacy practices to more educators and students throughout South Carolina.

REL Northwest

Alaska Literacy Strategic Plan Partnership

“I loved our professional development. The breakout sessions were great. People were talking about it…the discussion was rich.”
—State Leader

As identified by Alaska’s Education Challenge, literacy is the top priority for Alaska’s Department of Education and Early Development (AK DEED). With support from REL Northwest, the Alaska Literacy Strategic Plan Partnership developed evaluation questions and identified data sources for measuring progress toward their Strategic Reading Plan progress. REL Northwest supported AK DEED to understand a range of reading assessment data and prepare data displays for the Alaska Science of Reading Symposium as they analyzed literacy and reading data from early childhood assessments, Performance Evaluation for Alaska’s Schools, the National Assessment of Student Progress, and a district survey focused on reading practices, curricula, and assessments. The REL also supported AK DEED in the development of data displays and related questions to help share, interpret, and discuss data with conference participants. REL Northwest also helped AK DEED revise their District Reading Survey and supported AK DEED staff members to analyze and interpret data from the survey and data from literacy screeners which are required statewide for kindergarten through grade 3 students. These supports are ultimately intended to support the professional development of Alaska’s educators in the service of improving student outcomes and sparking impactful conversations among state leaders about Alaska’s reading performance and innovative strategies to improve student outcomes.

Back to school season is a great time to establish practices that will set the tone for the entire school year. We asked experts from across the 10 Regional Educational Laboratories what school leaders should keep in mind as the year gets under way, and they had plenty to say. We’re sharing five of their recommendations below.

1. How are you encouraging good attendance? The early years of school, especially pre-kindergarten and kindergarten, are an important time to promote good attendance habits. Set the stage for school success by connecting with families and explaining why regular attendance matters. Regular attendance in the early grades helps students develop essential learning habits and skills and sets the foundation for future academic success. Use REL resources like the Go-Learn-Grow toolkit and the family engagement fact sheet to convey the importance of regular attendance to families. Talk with families about getting their kids to school on time, every day, and why it matters. These tools can help you establish a successful start to the school year and beyond.

Christine Ross and Laura Dyer, REL Mid-Atlantic

2. How are you promoting family engagement? Back-to-school time is often filled with opportunities to communicate and interact with families. As you start the new year, think about ways you can develop strong and inclusive family engagement practices. Research shows that family engagement has a host of benefits, including improving student achievement, attendance, and behavior. Using inclusive language is one strategy educators can use to build trusting relationships with families. While using inclusive language is valuable for building relationships with all families, it is especially critical for interacting with family members who may not feel at ease or welcome in schools, such as kinship caregivers and grandfamilies. Check out the REL Appalachia infographic on How Educators Can Use Inclusive Language with Kinship Caregivers and Grandfamiliesfor more information

Sarah Dec, co-lead of the Supporting Students, Grandfamilies, and Kinship Caregivers Community of Practice, REL Appalachia 

3. How are you supporting a sense of belonging? As you return to school, it's essential to foster a sense of belonging in your students and create an environment where each student can thrive. As highlighted in the REL Midwest handout, The Importance of Student Sense of Belonging, research shows that students who feel accepted, included, and supported are more likely to be engaged and perform well academically. To create this environment, prioritize building positive relationships with your students by recognizing and valuing their unique experiences and cultures. Incorporate culturally responsive practices into your teaching and create a classroom atmosphere where every student feels safe and valued. Remember, a strong sense of belonging can boost your students' motivation, emotional stability, and overall academic success.

Jaime Singer, training, coaching, and technical support lead, REL Midwest

4. How are you incorporating joy into rigorous instruction? To kick off the new school year in a positive way, purposefully elevate joy in evidence-based early literacy instruction. A good first step to achieve this goal is to select books that affirm children’s cultural, racial, linguistic, and other identities. Engaging children in interactive read-alouds with books that make them feel seen, heard, and loved promotes their pride in who they are, sense of belonging in school, and greater connection to the literacy activities centering the book. Second, integrate playful learning with evidence-based literacy approaches. For example, phonological awareness and phonics instruction that are game-like, incorporate singing, and include dancing, make them fun and therefore motivating and engaging. Read all about these approaches and more in the Joyful Reading and Creative Expression with Young Children: Planning Guide (2021) and the Joyful Reading and Writing with Young Children web resource collection.

Pamela Spycher, PhD, senior research associate, REL West

5. How are you building strong, sustainable support systems? The start of a new year is also an important moment to be sure that the systems and structures that schools have put in place to support students all year long are strong and vibrant. Multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) are commonly used in classrooms to ensure students receive high-quality academic support, and many districts are using an MTSS framework as a strategy to address student well-being. These systems allow schools to tailor resources based on student needs through the use of child support teams. To learn more about an MTSS approach to student well-being, including key considerations in creating child support teams, see the Meeting the Social, Emotional, and Mental Health Needs of All Students fact sheet.

Shai Fuxman, mental health and behavioral health expert, REL Northeast and Islands

The 10 Regional Educational Labs serve states, district, schools, and other education stakeholders across the nation. Find your lab and learn more about REL research and research-related supports at https://ies.ed.gov/rels. Principals, teachers, parents, policymakers, and anyone who is interested in learning more about what works for students can submit a question to the National Library of Education.

As you begin the new school year, consider how you can use the following evidence-based practices and resources to improve literacy and mathematics instruction in your school!

Evidence-Based Strategies for Improving Student Literacy in Grades PK-9

Learning to read, and then reading to learn, are critical both to student success—both in and out of the classroom. 

Set our youngest learners on the path to success

Caregivers and educators can support early literacy by:

• Intentionally planning activities to build children’s vocabulary and language;
• Building children’s knowledge of letters and sounds; and
• Using shared book reading to develop children’s language, knowledge of print features, and knowledge of the world.

Learn More

Learn more about these recommendations in the What Works Clearinghouse’s Preparing Young Children for School Practice Guide.

Use evidence-based literacy practices to support foundational literacy

Educators can do so by:

• Teaching students to decode works, analyze word parts, and write and recognize words; and
• Helping parents to become involved in their child’s literacy development, including incorporating activities into daily routines like grocery shopping or chores around the house. 

Learn More

Learn more about these recommendations in the What Works Clearinghouse’s Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten through Third Grade Practice Guide.

Also check out the Regional Educational Laboratories’ Teachers Guides to Supporting Family Involvement in Foundational Reading Skills. 

Provide struggling readers additional opportunities for practice

Evidence-based strategies include:

• Offering readers the chance to make sense of challenging (“stretch”) text that will expose them to complex ideas and information; and
• Providing purposeful fluency-building activities to help students read effortlessly, including reading with appropriate expression, pitch, tempo, and pauses (“prosody”).

Learn More

Learn more about these recommendations in the What Works Clearinghouse’s Providing Reading Interventions for Students in Grades 4-9 Practice Guide.

Evidence-Based Strategies for Teaching Mathematics in Grades PK-9

Evidence-based practices in teaching math can support every student in becoming more mathematically literate. In addition to promoting student achievement, proficiency in math can provide students the greatest possible opportunity for additional education and high-quality careers.

Set our youngest learners on the path to success

Caregivers and educators can support early math learning by: 

• Providing intentional instruction to build children’s understanding of mathematical ideas and skills, and
• Engaging children in conversations about mathematical ideas and support them in using mathematical language.

Learn More

Learn more about these recommendations in the What Works Clearinghouse’s Preparing Young Children for School Practice Guide.

Also check out the Regional Educational Laboratories’ Teaching Math to Young Children for Families and Caregivers.

Use evidence-based practice to support elementary school students who may be struggling to develop math skills

Educators can do so by:

• Using number lines to build students’ understanding of grade-level concepts underlying mathematical operations and to prepare them for advanced math; 
• Using well-chosen concrete and semi-concrete representations to support students’ learning of mathematical concepts and procedures; and
• Regularly including timed activities as one way to build fluency in mathematics. 

Learn More

Learn more about these recommendations in the What Works Clearinghouse’s Assisting Students Struggling with Mathematics: Intervention in the Elementary Grades Practice Guide.

Improve algebra knowledge in middle school and high school through evidence-based teaching strategies

Evidence-based strategies include:

• Teaching students to intentionally choose from alternative algebraic strategies when solving problems; 
• Teaching the students to use the structure of algebraic representations; and
• Using solved problems to engage students in analyzing algebraic reasoning and strategies.

Learn More

Learn more about these recommendations in the Teaching Strategies for Improving Algebra Knowledge in Middle and High School Students Practice Guide.

General Strategies to Improve Student Learning

Whether you’re teaching literacy, math,  or another subject, remember the following tips that can support effective instruction when applied in developmentally appropriate ways:

• Space learning over time.
• Interleave worked example solutions with problem-solving exercises.
• Combine graphics with verbal descriptions.
• Connect and integrate abstract and concrete representations of concepts.
• Use quizzes to re-expose students to key content and promote learning.
• Ask deep explanatory questions.

Learn More

Learn more about these recommendations in the What Works Clearinghouse’s Organizing Instruction and Study to Improve Student Learning Practice Guide.

Removing barriers to college access and success begins well before the first college application is submitted. It starts with high schools offering advanced courses, work-based learning (WBL), and career programs, giving students a clear roadmap toward higher education and career readiness. While recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics show that 73 percent of public high schools offer some type of advanced academic course, and 86 percent offer career and technical education (CTE), not all students, especially those from historically underserved backgrounds, have equal access to these resources and opportunities. Improving college access, enrollment, and completion for all students can help address the inequities we see in higher education and the workforce and facilitate equal opportunities for all students to achieve economic stability.

Many policymakers and educators are focused on ensuring that students are ready for college and careers when they graduate from high school. RELs work in partnership with states and districts to 1) conduct original high-quality research, 2) provide training, coaching, and technical support, and 3) disseminate high-quality research findings on the topic of college and career readiness.

In this fourth installation of our blog series, we share how two of IES’s Regional Educational Laboratories (RELs) are making a difference in college and career success.

REL Northeast & Islands: Preparing Students for Success after High School

REL Northeast & Islands is partnering with education leaders In Vermont, Rhode Island, and New York to support college and career readiness initiatives.

Facing an aging workforce and stagnant postsecondary enrollment, Vermont has launched a statewide initiative to offer students multiple pathways to achieve education and career success. With support from REL Northeast & Islands through the Partnership to Strengthen Flexible Pathways for College and Career Success, Vermont is assessing the quality and completeness of the data they currently collect about program access, participation, and success and exploring how that data can be used to identify inequities and barriers. REL Northeast & Islands supported a series of meetings that bring together Vermont Agency of Education staff from the divisions of Data and Analysis and Student Pathways and work-based learning coordinators from comprehensive high schools and regional Career and Technical Education Centers to identify and address opportunity gaps in access to and participation in these various pathways, particularly for students from historically underserved groups and those in rural locations. REL Northeast & Islands also supported partners as they consider developing policies and guidance to improve data collection about student CTE and WBL participation and success.

In Rhode Island, REL Northeast & Islands’ Partnership to Support Early College Opportunities is studying whether and how early college opportunities help bring the state closer to achieving its postsecondary enrollment goals. The REL Northeast & Islands team supported school and postsecondary leaders and counselors by conducting coaching sessions to increase school and district teams’ understanding of their early college data, setting goals for improvement, and supporting the use of Rhode Island Department of Education’s data dashboards. Through 2024, REL Northeast & Islands is also conducting an applied research study to investigate the cost-effectiveness of three state programs that help students earn college credits during high school: dual enrollment, concurrent enrollment, and advanced placement programs.  “Our Rhode Island partners are very interested in understanding the results of these programs and whether they work for all students,” explains REL research scientist and partnership co-lead Dr. Katherine Shields. “So in this study, we are looking at whether the effects of the programs differ for students who started high school academically proficient and those who did not.”

And in New York, REL Northeast & Islands just established a new partnership with state education leaders,  the Partnership to Support Equity in Early College Programs, to address a persistent decline in postsecondary enrollment and support equity in early college programs. A study with the New York Department of Education will help New York policymakers and education leaders better understand inequities in access and enrollment and outcomes experienced by participating students. 

REL West: Using Evidence-Based Strategies to Reengage and Support Adults with Some College but No Credential

In addition to identifying evidence to support college and career readiness through collaboration with K–12 agencies, the RELs are working with postsecondary institutions to extend this support. For example, to re-engage Californians who have some college experience but did not complete their credentials, REL West has established the California Adult College Completion Partnership, comprising six higher education institutions in northern California. Using a continuous improvement model, REL West is helping these institutions implement strategies to re-engage these students and encourage them to return to college and complete credentialing. The partnership identified strategies that fall under three main buckets: communications and outreach, reenrollment and onboarding, and student supports. REL West is providing tailored coaching support to help each of the six participating institutions identify, implement, and test at least one of these strategies.

“The work of the REL allowed us to refocus the efforts to identify and re-engage students at Shasta College who completed some courses but have no credentials. We were also able to add capacity to the efforts with other stakeholders on our campus. This resulted in an increase in enrollment by near completers. Also, involvement in the cohort has strengthened our partnerships with other colleges in the region, and we look forward to continuing our joint efforts after the completion of the project.”
—Kate Mahar, Associate Vice President and Strategic Initiatives at Shasta College and Executive Director of Shasta College Attainment and Innovation Lab for Equity (SCAILE)

How RELs are Contributing to the Research Base

RELs collaborate with school districts, state departments of education, and other education partners to help generate evidence and contribute to the research base through rigorous inquiry and data analysis. The two studies highlighted below focus on college and career readiness and both meet the What Works Clearinghouse standards with reservations, with at least one statistically significant finding and moderate evidence of effectiveness.

REL Central: The Impact of Career and Technical Education on Postsecondary Outcomes in Nebraska and South Dakota

Education leaders in Nebraska and South Dakota partnered with REL Central to examine how completing a sequence of career and technical education courses in high school affects students' rates of on-time high school graduation and their rates of postsecondary education enrollment and completion within two and five years.

REL Northeast & Islands: The Effects of Accelerated College Credit Programs on Educational Attainment in Rhode Island

This study examined participation in accelerated college credit programs dual enrollment, concurrent enrollment, and Advanced Placement courses in Rhode Island high schools to understand their effects on educational attainment. This video, What are the effects of taking college-level courses in high school?, shares findings from the report.

Learn More about the College and Career Work of the RELs

The examples shared here illustrate the varied support RELs can provide across data systems, access, and analysis, cost effectiveness, and support for research and development. In addition to the work highlighted in this blog, multiple RELs across the program are working hard to support college and career readiness and success in their regions. Learn more about this work by visiting:

REL Appalachia

Strengthening Students’ Preparation for College and Careers

Developing Resilient and Supportive Community Colleges

REL Central

Supporting Postsecondary and Workforce Readiness of Students in Kansas

REL Mid-Atlantic

Improving Post-High School Transitions for Students with Disabilities in Maryland

REL Midwest

Employability Skills Partnership

REL Northwest

Portland High School Graduation

REL Southeast

Diversifying the Teacher Pipeline with Historically Black Colleges and Universities

The Regional Educational Labs (REL) program, operated by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES), supports state education agencies, schools and school districts, and institutions of higher education nationwide in using data and evidence-based practice to improve opportunities and outcome for learners. Operating in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Territories and Freely Associated States of the Pacific region, the REL program brings together the expertise of local communities, top-tier education researchers, and education scientists at IES’s National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE) to address the most vexing problems of education policy and practice in states and regions—on demand and free of charge.

This blog was written by Laura Dyer, NCEE Knowledge Use Dissemination contract

The United States is facing a chronic absenteeism crisis. Over 14 million students nationwide during the 2021–22 school year were chronically absent. This means that they missed at least 10 percent of school days—equivalent to approximately 18 days in the year. Missing this much instructional time creates significant learning challenges for students and adversely affects student wellbeing. School systems across the nation are looking for ways to address this crisis and the accompanying problems it presents.

IES has created four handouts that discuss research findings and research-based tools from across IES that educators and policymakers can use to improve student attendance and engagement: 

• Text Messaging with Families to Support Student Attendance
• Using Data and Early Warning Systems to Improve Student Attendance and Engagement
• Partnering with Families to Support Student Attendance and Learning: Resources from the Regional Educational Laboratory Program
• Promoting a Positive School Climate and Safe Learning Conditions: Resources from the Regional Educational Laboratory Program

These resources from IES can help educators and policymakers consider different research-based approaches to improving student engagement and attendance. They include ways to partner with families, promote a positive and safe learning environment, use data and early warning systems, and apply cycles of evidence-based continuous improvement. Before selecting any particular strategy to address chronic absenteeism, we recommend all educators consult Applying a Cycle of Evidence-Based Continuous Improvement when Selecting Interventions and Project Components to Improve Attendance. Educators can also go to the REL program page on the IES website to learn more about the program and search for other REL products and resources.

We hope you find these resources helpful. Please send any feedback or questions you may have to ncee.feedback@ed.gov.

Text Messaging with Families to Support Student Attendance

Findings from IES-funded research suggest that text messaging can be effective in reducing rates of chronic absenteeism.

What is the text messaging practice?

As schools and districts work to decrease chronic absenteeism rates, text messaging has emerged as an evidence-based practice to increase engagement with families and support their efforts to get students to school regularly. It involves schools sending messages to parents or guardians informing them of their child’s attendance record and encouraging them to get the child back in school. The text messages can include many different messages, discussed below, but generally the approach is to let families know how many total days students have missed. Additionally, the texts often have a message about how important school attendance is and where families can turn to for support if there is an issue that the school should be aware of, such as chronic health challenges or transportation issues. These texts aim to engage families and have them partner with schools to increase attendance.

How easy is it for schools to adopt this practice?

Text messaging is a low-cost practice that districts can adopt to encourage family engagement. The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) at the U.S. Department of Education developed a toolkit that provides information on how districts can develop their own text messaging approach. The toolkit encourages districts to form an attendance team to determine the priorities of the text messaging approach and then to develop the system that can be automated and easily implemented. The toolkit provides guidance to districts on how to incorporate existing student information systems to develop the texts.

What are the different types of text messaging?

IES’s evaluation of the text messaging strategy involved different types of text messaging to determine if certain features improved attendance.[1] The “basic” texts involved a weekly message every Sunday to families about how important attendance is and different ways to overcome potential challenges to attendance. In addition, schools sent automated same-day texts when a child missed a day of school, which were personalized to include the student’s name and the total number of days the student had been absent that school year. These basic texts can be framed to emphasize the benefits of attending school (i.e., “Going to school every day can help [the child’s name] learn math and reading.”) or the consequences of missing school (i.e., “Children who miss 2 or more days a month starting in elementary school are less likely to graduate from high school.”)

The IES evaluation also included “intensified texts,” which were targeted to families of students who had already missed many school days, despite receiving the basic texts in the previous school semester. These texts either consisted of school staff reaching out directly to families to increase family engagement and to provide individualized support, or an automated text message asking families to set goals for their child to attend school every day in the upcoming school week.

How effective is the text messaging practice at improving attendance?

The evaluation study by IES found that, regardless of the type or framing of text messaging used by the district, the percent of students who were identified as chronically absent decreased by 12 to 18 percent when schools implemented the text messaging strategy.  On average, basic text messaging was sufficient to increase overall attendance in schools. Among students with a prior history of chronic absenteeism, intensified text messages further decreased the chronic absenteeism rate. Thus, schools might benefit by implementing a basic text messaging strategy for all students and targeting students with records of chronic absenteeism to receive the intensive texts. Since the effectiveness did not vary by framing or approach, districts and schools can identify a strategy that meshes with their school mission and approach.

Where can I learn more about how to implement text messaging?

The IES toolkit on using text messaging provides step-by-step information on how districts and schools can adopt and implement the text messaging strategy to support their families and students. The toolkit contains strategies for both the leadership team as well as the IT team developing the text messaging system using the student information system that the district already uses. This toolkit also contains many examples of different versions of texts that the district can employ, based on the age of students, how frequently the district decides to send text messages, and the framing the district decides to use.

Resources

Heppen, J.B., Kurki, A., & Brown, S. (2020). Can texting parents improve attendance in elementary school? A test of an adaptive message strategy (NCEE 2020-006). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance. Retrieved from https://ies.ed.gov/ncee

Kurki, A., Heppen, J.B., & Brown, S. (2021). How to text message parents to reduce chronic absence using an evidence-based approach (NCEE 2022-001). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance. Retrieved from https://ies.ed.gov/ncee

On March 5, 2024, the U.S. Department of Education convened state education agency (SEA) leaders and their teams to an event called “Meeting the Moment: How State Leaders are Using Innovation for Impact.” As part of this meeting, my colleagues and I presented IES initiatives that support the use of evidence-based practices in states and districts. Below are my remarks that introduce this important work.

Thank you – and good morning, everyone. It truly is a privilege to be with you today.

If you don’t know IES, we are the Department’s independent research, statistics, and evaluation office. Perhaps many of you know us better by two of our signature programs: the What Works Clearinghouse and the Regional Educational Labs.

I’m excited to be here to learn alongside each of you as you share the good work your states are doing.

In just a few minutes, we’re going to hear from my IES colleagues about work they’re doing, and resources they’re creating, on improving teaching and learning. I’m hopeful that you’ll see they can be used across many of the initiatives you’re pioneering.

As you might imagine, coming from an outfit named IES, what they’ll be sharing falls into the category of “evidence-based practices.” That is, practices that high-quality research has shown improved student outcomes in the past, or at the very least has suggested are likely to do so in the future.

Before they do, I want to talk briefly about evidence-based practice more generally. In this cone of silence that is a ballroom filled with 250 people, I’m going to offer one statement that might be a little provocative, and then I’m going to make an ask of each of you.

Here’s the provocative bit: Increasingly, I worry that “evidence-based practice” is becoming a buzzword. And that, like many buzzwords, people are translating it into “yada, yada, yada” when they hear the phrase. Or, worse, the phrase “evidence-based practice” is evoking skepticism such that people dismiss the concept when they hear it. Often, this is paired with concerns that the available evidence is misaligned to what educators and policymakers most need, or that it doesn’t feel like a fit to their context.  

Unfortunately, not leaning into high-quality evidence is, I think, a huge risk for us all.

It’s my absolute belief that, as a nation, we will not reach the goal of every student having the opportunity to achieve their full potential and then realizing that potential, and we will not ensure that every educator has the preparation and support to do their best work and then see that work done, without a sustained commitment to evidence-based practice. Without a commitment to supporting high-quality evidence use for the long-haul and a commitment to learn from that use by building high-quality evidence.

Absent a belief in, the use of, and efforts to sustain evidence-based practice, I do not believe we will “meet the moment” or “raise the bar” as the Secretary has just challenged us to do.  

This brings me to my ask of you. Here it is: use the high-quality evidence like that which my colleagues are about to show you to ground your initiatives, to support the professional development of the educators in your state, and to make smart policy. Indeed, I know many of you already are.

But as you do expect, dare I say demand (in a collegial way), more and better from the process of evidence building and use so that it is truly meeting your needs and the needs of the districts and communities you serve. You can do so in at least five ways:

• Expect that you should be a full partner in the process of identifying the issues around which you need more evidence;
• Expect that as we build new evidence we do so together, and with the authentic engagement of the communities that we hope to benefit;
• Expect that, together, we find ways to make meaning of what we’re learning, and then communicating those learnings, in ways that aren’t just “right” when viewed through the lens of rigorous research but also “rich” in terms of the depth of content and the nuance needed by those who we expect to use that evidence;
• Expect that we’re collaborating to place what we’ve learned into the hands of educators, policymakers, and those who support them ... and in ways they can most effectively use those learnings; and finally
• Expect that you will be able to get the assistance you need implementing and sustaining evidence-based practices—and, if you’re willing, get assistance building evidence about your own programs.

I believe unfailingly in the potential of evidence-based practice, and of our work together, to transform students’ lives. As a leader of evidence builders, let me say we will expect these same five things of ourselves in service of that belief becoming a reality. We would welcome accountability from you, as users of that evidence, as we move forward.

With that, let me cede the floor to my colleagues. Thank you again for the opportunity to be here.

Have questions about these remarks? Please email me at matthew.soldner@ed.gov.

ERIC’s selection policy guides the types of materials it catalogs. It gives the ERIC team guidelines to determine if a source is a good fit for the ERIC collection. On a periodic basis, the team reviews the selection policy to ensure it is transparent and accurate. We often find that we have developed working policies to supplement the official selection policy and use the review process to formalize our processes.

As part of the latest update, ERIC proposes four major changes: (1) improvements in providing public access to federally funded work, (2) periodically re-reviewing all sources, (3) re-prioritization of international content, and (4) changes to online submission. ERIC is asking the community to provide feedback on these changes to ensure the policy is clear and effective. To learn more about the ERIC Selection Policy, please access the draft policy and watch a recorded webinar explaining changes. Please submit all questions and feedback to ericrequests@ed.gov by March 11, 2024.

Embracing new public access policies

The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) recently released a new plan to improve public access to federally funded articles. This is part of a government-wide initiative to ensure that taxpayers can access the research that they funded. This policy expands upon the 2012 public access policy that required all IES funded research be available to the public via ERIC. There are several key elements of the policy, listed below, that will impact how federally funded research will be displayed in ERIC.

First, all work funded under this new policy will be available in a machine-readable format. This means that the text and figures in any work will be displayed as website text. This will enable users to access the article without downloading the PDF. Additionally, data scientists will be able to bulk download and use the full text for their analysis. It will also make ERIC easier to use on mobile and tablets.

Second, all work will be in ERIC shortly after becoming publicly available. Under the current public access policy, the full text becomes available 12 months after the official publication date. The new public access plan states that awardees must submit the full text to ERIC immediately after the article is made publicly available (that is, when it is released as an “online first” article). This means the public will get access to the full text approximately 18 months earlier than under the current policy.

Lastly, ERIC will be providing increased metadata for these articles. All awardees must have an ORCID iD and author affiliation linked in their records to provide transparency on who authored the research. There will be a DOI permalink to all articles to ensure that users can find the articles in perpetuity. We will change the way that we link to grant funding information to be transparent about what IES is funding. And lastly, all work will have a link to the underlying data. This will help users make connections about who funded the work and for what purposes.

To implement the new policy, ERIC is changing how we catalog grantee submissions. Currently ERIC has two entries for many articles: the journal version of the article and the grantee submission record. Going forward, we will catalog the full text article and with increased metadata under the journal’s source name. There will only be one accession number for the article. Procedurally, this means that we will be updating many articles after they are formally published in a journal and have complete metadata. Awardee articles in sources not regularly cataloged in ERIC will still be cataloged under the grantee submission source name.

Re-review process

The current selection policy for ERIC states that once a source is approved for ERIC, it will remain in ERIC as long as it continues to publish content. Historically, the majority of our sources continue to publish content that meets ERIC’s standards and mission and remains a good fit for ERIC. However, for other sources we have seen a dramatic change in scope, quality, or quantity of articles.

In this new selection policy, we will re-review all new sources three years after initial acceptance in ERIC. After the initial re-review, we will re-review all sources every 5 years to make sure all of our content continues to meet ERIC’s standards. These reviews will happen automatically, and publishers will only be notified if their source is not selected to go forward. Additional re-reviews may happen more frequently for situations such as a change in scope, a source name change, current content is not provided, or if there is a dramatic increase in journal frequency of publication or a dramatic increase in published journal content. If a source has been acquired by a new publisher, a re-review will automatically be conducted, and a new agreement established to continue cataloging in ERIC.

To ensure that review decisions are not arbitrary, all decisions will be reviewed by multiple individuals and publishers will be notified if their source is not selected to continue. We expect that these decisions will be final, but also know that there may be cases where the ERIC team does not have full information. We will consider additional information if an editor or publisher believed our decision was incorrect. If the source is not reinstated, then they are eligible to be re-reviewed after 36 months.

Re-thinking our approach to foreign content

In the almost 60 years of ERIC’s existence, ERIC has become a repository of education research from around the world. Over half of ERIC’s users are international and much of our content is published outside of the United States. While international content is valued by ERIC, there is a tension that ERIC is a digital library funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, an agency within the US Department of Education. IES’s mission is to provide scientific evidence on which to ground education practice and policy and to share this information in formats that are useful and accessible to educators, parents, policymakers, researchers, and the public across the United States. While ERIC has always had a large international audience, the primary mission of ERIC is to share information for a US-based audience.

ERIC has a limited budget to catalog content and there is more high-quality content that meets our selection standards than IES can afford to regularly catalog. As we are looking at how to prioritize our content, we need to focus on our mission. This means that we need to prioritize the needs of educators in the United States.

Going forward, to prioritize the cataloging of content relevant to US educators, ERIC is going to select international sources from Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries where English is the primary or most used language both within schools and within society – that is, Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Sources from these countries will go through the same ERIC review process. That is, we plan to catalog all content from these countries that meet our selection standards.

Additionally, ERIC will review sources from outside of these countries that are directly relevant to the work of education in the US, its territories and freely associated states, and military bases overseas. For example, if a publisher based in the Netherlands publishes a journal on early childhood education in the US, we review it against the selection standards and catalog it if it meets the standards. Similarly, if a source from Japan publishes a journal on comparative education policy, it will be selected if it meets the standards.

Lastly, ERIC is interested in sources to balance the collection in terms of geographic and topical diversity. This means that there may be international sources that meet ERIC’s standards but are not selected for ERIC because we either have too many sources on that topic or too many sources from that country.

So, what does that mean for our international users? First, ERIC will continue to be available to our international audience. Our website and metadata will continue to be free and open to use. We want to encourage international users to keep using ERIC. But users may see a decrease in the number of sources from countries outside of the US that only publish international content or limited comparative content.

Changing our approach to online submission

Under this new policy, ERIC proposes to no longer accept journal articles through online submission. We found that some journal editors would use the online submission tool to bypass the formal review process. We believe it is more valuable for our users to have journal articles cataloged with the appropriate metadata and source name. If a publisher or editor believes they are a good candidate for ERIC, we want to encourage them to reach out at ERICRequests@ed.gov and go through the formal review process.

ERIC will still accept other types of content through the online submission. Users can submit reports, white papers, conference papers, and other research meeting ERIC’s selection policy. These will continue to be cataloged in PDF format.

The ERIC team is excited about these changes and wants to hear any question, comments, or concerns. Please email any feedback to ericrequests@ed.gov by March 11, 2024.

Photo of a workshop REL Appalachia conducted as part of their Strengthening Students’ Preparation for College and Careers in Northeastern Tennessee partnership

The Regional Educational Labs (REL) program, operated by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES), supports state education agencies, schools and school districts, and institutions of higher education nationwide in using data and evidence-based practice to improve opportunities and outcomes for learners. Operating in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Territories and Freely Associated States of the Pacific region, the REL program brings together the expertise of local communities, top-tier education researchers, and education scientists at IES’s National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE) to address the most vexing problems of education policy and practice in states and regions—on demand and free of charge.

Data-driven decision-making can be a critical tool to address resource disparities, enhance student success, and promote equitable outcomes. Collecting and analyzing relevant data gives insights into student performance, attendance patterns, disciplinary actions, and more. Rather than relying solely on assumptions or "how we've always done things," educators can use these insights to more effectively tailor policy and practice to better meet the unique needs of their students and communities.

In this third installation of our blog series, we'll explore three case studies showcasing the significance of data-driven decision-making and highlighting the REL Program’s pivotal role in shaping the future of education.

REL Mid-Atlantic: Data-Driven Decision-Making to Improving School Accountability Measures in the Wake of COVID-19

The suspension of standardized testing and accountability measures during the pandemic posed challenges for schools and districts. The interruption in assessments meant there was no baseline data from the 2020-21 school year against which to compare future performance. The sudden shifts between in-person and remote learning, disruptions in curricula, and variations in student participation made it difficult to interpret school performance data and introduced additional instability to school performance indicators. This uncertainty made it more important than ever to ensure that accountability measures were as accurate and reliable as possible to avoid mislabeling schools and educators.

To address these challenges, Pennsylvania's Department of Education (PDE) turned to the expertise of REL Mid-Atlantic. The state recognized the need to reduce measurement error and increase the statistical reliability of performance measures, particularly for subgroups of students, who are critical in identifying schools for targeted support and improvement under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). REL Mid-Atlantic and PDE embarked on a pioneering effort to use Bayesian statistical methods to reduce random error and stabilize performance measures. One focus was the potential instability that small sizes of student subgroups introduced. By minimizing statistical fluctuations, the new approach aims to ensure that schools are not wrongly identified for improvement based on temporary fluctuations in data. This represents a significant advancement in educational accountability and can have far-reaching implications for how states evaluate school performance.

This innovative work is groundbreaking in multiple ways. It addresses an immediate need to ensure that schools are not unfairly labeled as underperforming due to the unpredictability of data during the pandemic. This helps to maintain the credibility of the accountability system. Moreover, this effort extends beyond the immediate crisis. By introducing more accurate and reliable accountability measures, educators can be more confident that performance evaluations are based on solid, consistent data. This, in turn, can lead to greater buy-in and cooperation from educators and stakeholders.

REL Appalachia: Strengthening Preparation for College and Careers in Northeastern Tennessee

Recently, educators from a consortium of districts in northeastern Tennessee report having experienced a wake-up call when they reflected on their own experience preparing for their own college and careers and compared it with feedback from interviews with current students. Educators learned that students are still facing the same challenges, like not receiving enough guidance on navigating the college application process or finding and applying for scholarships.

Since early 2022, district leaders and staff from the Niswonger Foundation have joined with REL Appalachia in the Strengthening Students Preparation for College and Careers partnership. Together, they reflect on districts’ college and career readiness data and identify improvements to programs and services that better prepare students for life after college. Educators have participated in coaching and technical assistance workshops led by REL Appalachia where they look at quantitative data such as their college enrollment and career technical education (CTE) attainment rates. They have supplemented these numbers with student voices through interviews to better understand the whole picture.

One key takeaway from the analysis of outcome data and student interviews was an increased awareness that everyone in their system has the potential to affect postsecondary trajectories. Partners are now considering what changes they can make to help foster social-emotional preparation for college. For example, one partner stated that these changes could be as simple as having counselors support lunch duty as an opportunity for them to build relationships with students.

With a better understanding of their data on college and career preparation, partners are now asking deeper questions about how they can improve their systems to better support students. In the coming years, REL Appalachia will help the partnership address research questions that will allow them to understand better how their programs and services are strengthening preparation for college and careers.

REL Northwest: Accelerating Literacy Outcomes in Montana Through Evidence and Data Use

Despite having a dedicated leadership team that had implemented multi-tiered systems of support to improve literacy, Laurel Public Schools in Montana faced a pressing challenge: only 50 percent of students in grades 3-8 were proficient in reading. For students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, this dropped to 25 percent. Moreover, achievement gaps persisted between White students and students from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, ranging from 10 to 35 percentage points. The district’s own data made it evident that a significant intervention was needed to uplift literacy instruction and outcomes in the district.

Laurel Public Schools and REL Northwest collaborated to address the immediate issue while creating a sustainable solution that would transform literacy instruction and student outcomes over the long term. Laurel wanted to take a close and critical eye to their existing multi-tiered systems of support in reading (MTSS-R) and revise their practices to align better with evidence-based methods to effectively tailor reading instruction and assessment practices. Their goal was to ensure that classroom instruction and interventions were appropriately differentiated for all learners, leading to improved reading achievement and reduced achievement disparities.

REL Northwest was pivotal in guiding the district toward using data effectively. In the first year of the project, REL Northwest worked with literacy leadership teams at Laurel to create a rubric that asked Laurel educators to reflect on evidence-based practices within their MTSS-R and describe practices in their district that are aligned with evidence-based practices and practices in need of improvement.

Using the data they collected, the literacy leadership teams identified previously undetected problems of practice. For example, while evidence-based targeted Tier 2 reading interventions and processes were in place, the data suggested that teachers skipped these targeted interventions and moved directly to Tier 3, referring struggling readers for special education. To support long-term improvement, the literacy leadership teams have begun work on action and monitoring plans as part of a “Plan-Do-Study-Act” continuous improvement cycle. 

The partnership between Laurel Public Schools and REL Northwest showcases how the partnership between RELs and dedicated state and local leaders can lead to educational transformation. It underscores the power of data as a catalyst for change and highlights the importance of evidence-based practices in driving educational excellence.

Looking Ahead

Data-driven decision-making can help states and districts deliver on their commitments to equity, evidence-based classroom practice, enhanced student outcomes, and informed policymaking. As these case studies demonstrate, the REL program can support these states and districts in effectively harnessing data to shape a brighter future for our students and the whole of our educational system.

This blog was written by Nicassia Belton (Nicassia.Belton@ed.gov), contracting officer’s representative with the REL Program at NCEE.

Torrence Williams, director of teacher advancement at the Associated Professional Educators of Louisiana, leads a professional learning module training for Louisiana’s New Teacher Experience program.

The Regional Educational Labs (REL) program, operated by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES), supports state education agencies, schools and school districts, and institutions of higher education nationwide in using data and evidence-based practice to improve opportunities and outcome for learners. Operating in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Territories and Freely Associated States of the Pacific region, the REL program brings together the expertise of local communities, top-tier education researchers, and education scientists at IES’s National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE) to address the most vexing problems of education policy and practice in states and regions—on demand and free of charge.

It's not exactly breaking news that many schools in our country struggle to fill vacancies in their teacher workforce. This past fall, IES’s National Center for Education Statistics surveyed public school leaders about staffing challenges as they began the 2022-23 school year. The statistics were sobering: 45 percent of schools reported having at least one vacant position more than one month into the school year, and more than 25 percent of schools reported multiple vacancies. Worryingly, our most underserved students were experiencing this crisis most acutely, with roughly 60 percent of schools in high-poverty neighborhoods or with a high-minority student body reporting at least one vacancy. While all of us anxiously await data on the 2023-24 school year—which should be available later this year—RELs and their state and local partners are working to strengthen all aspects of the teacher pipeline.

In the second of a four-part blog series, we highlight four REL research and development projects that address educator recruitment and retention. Each demonstrates how RELs are leveraging their distinct capacity for innovation, rigorous research, and authentic partnership to deliver locally focused and evidence-based supports to the regions, states, and communities they serve.

REL Northwest: Examining Strategies to Improve Teacher Recruitment and Retention in Rural Alaska

Like many rural school districts across the nation, Alaska’s Lower Kuskokwim School District (LKSD) is experiencing a persistent and pressing need to attract and retain educators. Near the start of the 2022-23 school year, 78 positions—nearly one-quarter of all teaching positions in the district—remained unfilled. New teachers were often recruited to the district from other countries such as the Philippines, leading to low retention rates and a constant churn of new educators. Faced with this persistent, high-stakes problem, leadership at LKSD decided to partner with REL Northwest to discover research-based solutions to their teacher recruitment and retention crisis.

REL Northwest is partnering with LKSD to identify evidence-based strategies and tools to continuously monitor and improve working conditions with the goal of increasing teacher retention. To do that, LKSD plans to implement the recommendation of strengthening teacher working conditions from the state's Teacher Retention and Recruitment Plan. As a first step in this partnership, REL Northwest staff reviewed and summarized research on working conditions and teacher retention to identify eight factors that may influence a teacher's decision to stay or leave.  

Lower Kuskokwim leaders decided to focus on activities to identify how changes related to three of those factors—supportive school leadership, available time for teachers, and community engagement—may improve working conditions. The first activity will adapt existing LKSD data sources and develop a research-informed tool to monitor teacher perceptions of school leadership and collect further data to inform the district’s action plan.

Staff also identified a school leadership responsibility unique to their district that may affect teacher trust: managing teacher housing. Housing is a major challenge, not only in remote villages without road access, but in many areas of the country. REL Northwest led partners through an activity to brainstorm how school leaders could improve housing and develop a theory of action for how those strategies would improve working conditions and promote retention. The strategies included establishing realistic housing expectations for new teachers, revising the process for leader evaluation of housing needs, and changing the budgeting process to make maintenance needs and upgrades easier. As a result of the work, district leaders are designing a program that allows teachers to apply for district funding to make simple housing upgrades, such as changes in lighting or painting.

REL Central: Strengthening the Teacher Pipeline in South Dakota to alleviate Teacher Shortages

Like many states, South Dakota is experiencing a teacher shortage that has worsened in recent years. Late last year, SDDOE partnered with REL Central to support one component of their response to this challenge: developing new pathways into teaching for candidates such as paraprofessionals and other South Dakota residents who have interest in entering the teacher workforce. Initially, the work focused on the design and implementation of a teacher apprenticeship program designed to support paraprofessionals as they acquire their teaching degrees and as they are mentored to become certified teachers.

In March, REL Central began work with SDDOE on a fast-turnaround project to support the development of a survey for paraprofessionals about their interest in the pilot apprenticeship program and the types of supports they seek from mentor teachers. Within a matter of weeks, the survey was developed and administered to paraprofessionals statewide. With survey data in hand indicating that hundreds of South Dakota paraprofessionals were interested in such a program, the pilot was expanded by SDDOE to support additional slots starting in fall 2023. In the coming months, REL Central will work with SDDOE to further refine this program by incorporating research evidence from other “Grow Your Own” teacher workforce programs on the components of effective mentoring and by helping the state to generate, collect, analyze, and use data from participants to inform further improvements to the pilot apprenticeship program.

REL Pacific: Strengthening the teacher workforce in Palau

The Republic of Palau, like many school systems, has experienced challenges in recruiting and retaining enough teachers to provide every student with a high-quality education. The geographic isolation of Palau compounds these challenges. Many local Palauan teachers do not have a four-year college degree or are teaching outside of their area of certification. As was the case in Alaska’s Lower Kuskokwim School District, one solution has been to bring in teachers from out of the country to fill vacancies; however, the turnover rate of these teachers is very high. The Palau Partnership to Support Teacher Effectiveness–– a collaboration with the Palau Ministry of Education (MOE), Palau Community College (PCC), six private schools, and REL Pacific ––is focused on building more sustainable solutions. 

The long-term goals of the partnership include Palau private schools adopting a teacher effectiveness measurement system to support, develop, and retain effective teachers; Palau private schools adopting a systemwide instructional coaching process for improving teacher effectiveness; and Palau MOE and PCC reviewing data on the effects of teacher education programs and making implementation adjustments so that their available resources may be used more effectively and efficiently. 

REL Pacific is supporting partner schools to realize their goals by drawing from resources on indicators of successful teacher recruitment and retention as well as best practices of effective teaching. REL Pacific is providing schools training and coaching on data-driven decision-making and plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycles in the context of the schools’ goals to improve literacy instruction through developing systemic supports for teachers. By incorporating ways of measuring best practices of effective teaching into the schools’ instructional coaching processes, each school will be better able to enact systemic change to address its specific teacher development and retention needs. Additionally, an applied research study is underway that will describe teacher pathways and certification patterns. The findings from this descriptive study will inform future efforts of Palau’s education community to address the new teacher certification requirements and overall educator shortage crisis.

REL Southwest: Partnering to support early career and aspiring teachers in Louisiana

Louisiana’s educator shortage is compounded with low retention rates for early-career teachers. Teachers with 2–5 years of experience left public schools in 2020 at a rate of 30 percent, compared with 17 percent of teachers with 6–10 years of experience. REL Southwest and the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) have formed the Supporting Early Career and Aspiring Teachers (SECAT) partnership to improve supports for novice and aspiring teachers. Through the SECAT partnership, REL Southwest aims to strengthen LDOE’s capacity to use evidence to refine new initiatives that support early career and aspiring teachers, such as the New Teacher Experience program and the Louisiana Pre-Educator Pathway, the state’s largest “Grow Your Own” program. This work builds from a previous partnership between REL Southwest and LDOE focused on exploring and evaluating the early impacts of Louisiana’s Believe and Prepare teacher residency program.  

The work of the SECAT partnership kicked off this past spring. Over the next five years, REL Southwest will work with LDOE and school systems in Louisiana to strengthen their capacity to generate and use evidence to refine existing programs for early career and aspiring teachers. In the first year of the partnership, REL Southwest and LDOE partners plan to focus on technical assistance that builds LDOE’s capacity for evaluating the New Teacher Experience. In future years of the partnership, REL Southwest will study LDOE’s efforts to support new and aspiring teachers. Along the way, REL Southwest will share important takeaways, resources, and policy implications related to teacher recruitment and retention learned through the partnership with Louisiana.

Stay tuned for part three of our “Making a Difference” series, focused on school accountability systems. As always, my (virtual) door is open if you have questions about the work highlighted in this blog, or anything else on REL Program. Just email me at chris.boccanfuso@ed.gov.