The Department's Learning Agenda Playbook puts evidence at the center of improving outcomes for students nationwide.
Among the many reasons to love fall is college football season. This past weekend, I was delighted to see my beloved Kansas State Wildcats win at home in the Little Apple. (That’s Manhattan, Kansas, for the uninitiated.) Although several factors contributed to the Wildcats’ victory, one element was clear: before the players set foot on the field, there was a plan. And, perhaps more importantly, there was a playbook that turned that plan into a reality.
Just as a great sports playbook guides a team to victory, a well-crafted strategic playbook can drive success in education. This week, the Department of Education’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE) and Institute of Education Sciences (IES) announced a playbook of their own. The new Learning Agenda Playbook (Playbook) is squarely focused on the issue that motivates every aspect of our work: improving outcomes for learners across the United States.
Designed with and for State Education Agencies (SEAs) in a process led by the National Comprehensive Center (NCC) and supported by both the Regional Educational Labs (RELs) and Regional Comprehensive Centers (RCCs), the Playbook outlines a six-step process for turning an SEA’s strategic plan into evidence-based action. That process should resonate with anyone who is familiar with commonly used improvement strategies.
The work begins with SEAs identifying their most pressing strategic priorities and surfacing related gaps in knowledge that—if filled—would support better policy and practice. Those gaps are translated into explicit learning questions, which taken together form the agency’s Learning Agenda. As questions from the Learning Agenda are answered, agencies use what they learn to shape their plans, be they adopting new evidence-based programs, strengthening existing activities, or sunsetting programs that aren’t yielding results for students. Throughout, the Playbook highlights the importance of engaging constituents in the learning process—from identifying gaps in knowledge and framing priority learning questions to communicating what has been learned and how learning can be translated into action. Importantly, the Playbook makes clear the learning process isn’t a “one and done.” It’s a cyclical process of continuous improvement.
Since its inception, I’ve found the Playbook work exciting. Why that is probably comes as no surprise.
First, the Playbook puts high-quality evidence center stage in educators’ and policymakers’ work to improve student learning outcomes. This reflects a core value of IES, and is perfectly aligned to our mission to encourage the use of rigorous evidence at a national scale.
Second, the Learning Agendas that result from the Playbook process are the perfect “North Star” for the activities of RELs and RCCs. With both programs poised to begin a new 5-year cycle with their SEA partners, Learning Agendas will bring clarity, utility, and urgency to their work. With a state’s learning questions at the fore, their REL and CC can develop a seamless plan that builds the rigorous, high-priority evidence that the state most needs and then moves that evidence to action through high-quality implementation supports.
Already a fan of the Playbook, I found a third reason to be bullish about the transformational potential of Learning Agendas last week. On Wednesday, I was privileged to lead a panel discussion among four state education leaders at the Department’s Stronger States, Stronger Outcomes convening. Each was a pilot participant in the project that developed the Playbook, and they had come together to share their own experience of the work thus far. With the caveat that there was almost surely some selection bias at play—they had volunteered, after all, to participate in the pilot—each credited the Learning Agenda Playbook with catalyzing important conversations within their SEA, elevating the role of data and research, and advancing their strategic priorities on behalf of students. Of course, they also gave us suggestions for improvement—but that was the whole point of the pilot. We continue to want their honest feedback to help us make the Playbook even better. But my excitement about this work grew with every word they shared with the audience that day. State education leaders don’t have time for fluff, flash, or fads—and that these four leaders found great value in the process left me convinced.
There is much more to be done to turn early wins into nationwide success. But each of us at IES, whether we work directly with the RELs and CCs or not, are committed to seeing that success come to fruition. We know that others, including partners in the research community, technical assistance providers, and philanthropy will be, too.
Do you want to become involved in this work? Have feedback on how we can make it even better? As always, please just email me. I can be reached at matthew.soldner@ed.gov.
