Stephanie Wilkerson

(434) 984-5540

About

Training, Coaching, and Technical Support task lead
Stephanie B. Wilkerson, PhD, is president of Magnolia Consulting, a woman-owned small business partner for REL Appalachia. Since 1998 she has provided research; evaluation; and training, coaching, and technical support (TCTS) across the REL Appalachia and Central regions. Her TCTS contributions to the REL program have included leading researcher-practitioner partnerships with school districts and state departments of education focused on teacher data use, multi-tiered systems of support, comprehensive school improvement, and mathematics coaching. She specializes in engaging district and state partners in co-designing evaluation plans, logic models, needs assessments, and measurement tools that promote the use of evidence in decision making for policy and practice. She has also led large-scale research studies of data use and systemic school improvement under the REL program in addition to directing over 30 curriculum efficacy evaluations measuring student learning outcomes in the areas of science, literacy, and mathematics. Having taught at both the preschool and postsecondary levels, she is passionate about the role research, evaluation and TCTS can play in dismantling barriers and increasing education opportunities and success for all learners.

Associated IES Content

About REL Appalachia

Regional Educational Lab (REL) Appalachia partners with key stakeholders in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia to develop evidence that can inform consequential decisions about policy, programs, and practice. Key stakeholders include organizations with decision-making authority and the ability to influence education policy and practice, such as state and local education agencies, school boards, institutes of higher education, and student, family, and community organizations.
resource Training Material

Branching Out: Using Decision Trees to Inform Education Decisions

Classification and Regression Tree (CART) analysis is a statistical modeling approach that uses quantitative data to predict future outcomes by generating decision trees. This guide introduces CART analysis as an approach that allows data analysts to generate actionable analytic results that can inform educators' decisions about the allocation of extra supports for students.
Dec 27, 2021
report Descriptive Study

How Nebraska Teachers Use and Perceive Summative, Interim, and Formative Data

Teachers have access to more data than ever before, including summative (state-level), interim (benchmark-level), and formative (classroom-level) data. Yet research on how often and why teachers use each type of data is scarce. The Nebraska Department of Education partnered with the Regional Educational Laboratory Central to conduct a study of teachers and principals in 353 Nebraska schools to learn about teachers' use and perceptions of summative, interim, and formative data and inform a sta...
Jan 01, 2021
Publication number:
REL 2021 054
report Descriptive Study

Assessing the Alignment between West Virginia's High School Career and Technical Education Programs and the Labor Market

To help students leave high school on a path toward success in the labor market, education policymakers and practitioners often focus on improving career and technical education (CTE) opportunities in high school. Understanding the alignment between high school CTE programs and the labor market is an important step in this process. To support CTE improvement efforts, this study quantitatively assessed the alignment between West Virginia's high school CTE programs and the labor market, with a ...
May 01, 2020
Publication number:
REL 2020–019
Blog

Improving MTSS/RTI Implementation Through Measurement

Most state education agencies (SEAs) and districts have a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) or response to intervention (RTI) framework to improve the quality of core instruction for all students and address the needs of students at risk for poor learning outcomes. To better understand states' approaches for assessing an MTSS/RTI implementation framework, Regional Educational Laboratory Appalachia (REL AP) researchers examined the tools 21 states were using as of May 2018. This blog share...
Date published:
Mar 24, 2020
report Descriptive Study

What Tools Have States Developed or Adapted to Assess Schools' Implementation of a Multi-Tiered System of Supports/Response to Intervention Framework?

Most states are using a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) or response to intervention (RTI) framework for improving the quality of instruction for all students and addressing the needs of students at risk for poor learning outcomes. Supporting educators in using tools to calibrate their MTSS/RTI implementation to the state's expected practices is one way states can help districts and schools acquire and use data to improve MTSS/RTI implementation. This report describes the features of 31...
Mar 01, 2020
Publication number:
REL 2020 017
Blog

Innovation Configuration Maps: A Valuable Journey and Destination

REL Appalachia and Jackson County School District constructed an Innovation Configuration (IC) map that serves as a tool for measuring teacher practice. Learn more about IC maps, how the partnership adapted their IC map to the Jackson County context, and tips for building your own.
Date published:
Aug 10, 2018
resource Other Resource

Using Data and Evidence to Facilitate Action: Training Materials on Developing a Research and Technical Assistance Agenda

These training materials include a PowerPoint presentation and handouts describing a landscape scan of research on the skills, structures, and supports that district and state leaders need to create a culture of data-driven decisionmaking. These training materials were originally presented to the REL Appalachia Cross-State Partnership on Using Data and Evidence to Facilitate Action as part of a process to refine their partnership research agenda and plan for future partnership activities. Spe...
Jun 22, 2018
report Descriptive Study

Guide to Using the Teacher Data Use Survey

The Teacher Data Use Survey can be used to query teachers, administrators, and instructional support staff about how teachers use data to support instruction, their attitudes toward data, and the supports that help teachers use data. This guide provides step-by-step instructions to help district and school planners implement the survey. The Teacher Data Use Survey offers schools and districts a way to rigorously gauge what data teachers use, how they use these data, and how they feel about th...
Oct 01, 2016