With the current cycle of the REL program ending this month, the REL Northwest team is reflecting on all that we accomplished since 2017. Guided by our partnerships, we conducted studies, led trainings, provided coaching, developed products, and shared research on questions received from stakeholders in the field. Along with our stakeholders and partners, we faced the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic and rallied to help educators and students continue teaching and learning. Throughout it all, we kept focused on the mission of the REL program: helping our partners use data and evidence to improve student outcomes.
Below, we share a few highlights of our work over the past five years.
Strengthening Educator Workforces
One common priority for stakeholders across the Northwest region was recruiting and retaining high-quality educators. Whether studying how teachers reflect student needs in Idaho or exploring educator retention in Alaska or in Montana, REL Northwest helped partner states understand who is teaching students and how to strengthen this critical workforce.
Because our studies addressed questions posed by our partners, the findings contributed directly to important decisions about preparing and supporting educators. For example, the Washington State Professional Educator Standards Board modified some policies and requirements to better support and retain diverse teacher candidates. By focusing on our partners' priorities, we ensured that our research enhanced important, ongoing work in our region.
Adapting Through Uncertainty
In 2017, when the current REL cycle began, none of us anticipated the monumental shift that our education system would experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thankfully, our team and our partners across the Northwest were able to respond proactively to support students and educators. Flexibility from the Institute of Education Sciences allowed us to adapt existing projects to respect shifting priorities and capacity levels in our region.
We also generated new projects to help our stakeholders respond to unprecedented challenges with thoughtful analysis and sound evidence. For example, we helped education leaders in Alaska and Washington analyze data to determine if K-12 student enrollment changed during the pandemic. We disaggregated data by race/ethnicity, English learner status, and other demographic characteristics to see whether enrollment had changed significantly among certain student groups and to help identify relevant reengagement strategies. Additionally, our team created a new set of professional development modules that build on resources produced by the national REL network early in the pandemic. Our modules focus on preparing middle and high school teachers to support students' social and emotional learning and adapting remote teaching strategies for in-person and hybrid instruction. Throughout these projects, we aimed to build our partners' capacity to support students, with a focus on evidence and equity.
Building Capacity--and Appreciation--for Data-Informed Decisionmaking
Over the past five years, our team spent many hours in conference rooms and Zoom rooms, deep in conversation about data and evidence with our partners. We coached them on collecting the data they needed, analyzing the data they had, and using data to make decisions that support student outcomes. We aimed to not only help our partners complete the projects at hand but also build their capacity to use data-informed decisionmaking in the future.
One successful example of this kind of partnership was the Oregon Graduation and Postsecondary Success Alliance. We collaborated with alliance members through several stages of this work. We conducted a study on access to career and technical education and a study on improving accelerated learning programs in Oregon. Next, we developed data dashboards to enable stakeholders to examine the data in each study and trained them how to use the dashboards and study findings to guide future decisions, such as how to increase equitable access to learning opportunities. This partnership even laid a foundation for future data-informed decisionmaking: The state's department of education committed additional resources to maintain the dashboards and continue offering the trainings through 2024.
Meeting Our Partners Where They Are
We believe that people at every level of the education system--from classroom teachers to state education agency leaders--can use data and research to improve student outcomes. Over the past five years, REL Northwest has guided schools through analyzing career and technical education data, trained districts on best practices in social and emotional learning, and led a cross-state collaborative to explore equity in school discipline. Through these diverse projects, we demonstrated how data-driven approaches could change practice and policy in many settings and on many scales.
Based on our work together in this REL cycle, we are excited to watch how stakeholders in our region continue to find innovative ways to use data and research to support students in their communities. We remain grateful to our stakeholders in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington and in Tribal nations in the region who partner with the REL program to help students thrive.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Fiona Helsel is the director of REL Northwest and is responsible for overall project leadership and direction. Specializing in early childhood education, she conceptualizes and oversees work in this priority area for the Northwest region.
Jennifer Esswein is the deputy director of REL Northwest. Her work includes close collaboration with research alliances on school improvement and accountability in Alaska and the equitable distribution of effective educators in Idaho.
