Addressing today's education challenges requires timely insights that decision makers can use. Through research-practice partnerships, our REL Mid-Atlantic teams are working alongside education leaders to use data, research, and evidence to inform policy, programs, and practice. Current partnerships span five priority areas:
- Strengthening teaching and learning.
- Building stronger educator pipelines.
- Creating supportive learning environments.
- Improving assessment and accountability systems.
- Supporting data systems and technology.
Here are examples of recent projects related to these topics.
Strengthening teaching and learning
- Developing the data infrastructure to support implementation of New Jersey’s Comprehensive Literacy State Development grant. Partner with the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) to develop the data infrastructure needed to track and improve state literacy grants focused on hiring and training literacy coaches, using high-quality instructional materials, engaging families in literacy, and implementing evidence-based literacy interventions. We’re working with NJDOE to create logic models for the grant programs, identify the types of grantee data needed to inform future decision-making, develop tools for collecting those data from grantees, interpret the data submitted by grantees, and co-develop an evaluation plan for the overall grant.
- Assessing the evidence on math coaching for the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) to inform the expansion of coaching statewide, with a focus on using train-the-trainer models to prepare and support math coaches.
- Studying the impact of a middle school computer science course on student outcomes with the Maryland Center for Computing Education and St. Mary’s Public Schools. Assess whether splitting a double block of math into one period of math and one period of computer science improved students’ computational thinking and programming skills, increased enrollment and performance in secondary computer science coursework, and impacted mathematics achievement. Read Building Evidence to Strengthen Computer Science Education to explore planning resources from this partnership.
- Supporting the development of a learning agenda for postsecondary career and technical education (CTE) in partnership with the Delaware Department of Education. Develop a learning agenda that improves the state’s ability to track postsecondary access to CTE, as well as participation and student outcomes. Insights will help Delaware’s leaders allocate resources and expand pathways that lead to future economic independence for all students.
- Identifying approaches to measuring access to specialized coursework across the District of Columbia. Support the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) in examining the relationship between specialized coursework and college and career readiness by identifying measures of students’ access to specialized coursework.
Building stronger educator pipelines
- Exploring the return on investment of registered teacher apprenticeship programs in New Jersey. Develop the capacity of New Jersey’s Office of Recruitment, Preparation, and Certification to measure the return on investment related to registered apprenticeship programs and to use those data to strengthen program implementation and fiscal sustainability.
- Developing an evaluation to inform the implementation and ongoing improvement of MSDE’s Grow Your Own Educators Program. Co-design an evaluation of the program with a focus on developing a logic model, drafting surveys, and preparing guidance for grantees’ performance measures.
Creating supportive learning environments
- Analyzing the school climate survey administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) to ensure it accurately and reliably measures students’ experiences. Build on a multi-year partnership with PDE by assessing the validity and reliability of its school climate survey for elementary schools. Past work includes creating a school climate index that summarizes the quality of a school’s learning environment and facilitates cross-school comparisons and conducting a validity and reliability study that led to an updated design for the state’s school climate survey.
- Strengthening the collection, reporting, and use of school discipline data in Delaware. Gather insights from local leaders to better understand current practices and challenges, and build the capacity of state, district, and school staff to interpret and use discipline data for continuous improvement.
Improving assessment and accountability systems
- Understanding practices to support the accessibility of kindergarten readiness assessments and appropriate accommodations. Partner with MSDE to summarize accommodation practices used by other states, synthesize common models, and build state capacity to collect feedback and interpret assessment data.
- Evaluating NJDOE’s approach to measuring growth in English language proficiency and schools’ contribution to that growth. Analyze how well the state’s current approach to measuring growth in students’ English language proficiency aligns with students’ English language proficiency growth trajectories. Evaluate the validity and reliability of the state’s school accountability measure for growth in English language proficiency. These findings will help the state make informed decisions about setting ambitious achievement standards and identifying students and schools that need support.
- Developing and piloting a tool to assess the use of evidence-based strategies in chronically low-performing schools in the District of Columbia. Co-develop a tool that assesses schools’ use of evidence-based strategies, their capacity to implement those strategies, and additional resources needed to continue that implementation.
Supporting data systems and technology
- Co-designing a survey with OSSE to understand how local education agencies are supporting the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in education. Partnered with OSSE to develop a survey that documents the steps taken by local education agencies to establish policies and provide guidance on the use of AI in education.
- Building data capacity to monitor implementation of a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) with District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS). Gather user feedback, conduct focus groups, and host collaborative working sessions to enhance DCPS’s MTSS data dashboards and reports.
- Developing dashboards that improve the transparency and usability of school and district data for families and communities in New Jersey. Partner with NJDOE to develop dashboards that communicate information on school district finances and to collect stakeholder feedback to improve the dashboards’ usability and usefulness.
Stay up to date
We’re looking forward to continuing this work with our partners and sharing additional resources in the coming months.
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Have a question, idea, or emerging priority? Email us at RELMidAtlantic@mathematica-mpr.com. We’re always interested in learning what’s top of mind for education leaders across the mid-Atlantic and how we can best support your work.
