Of the more than 1,300 studies identified as potentially addressing the effect of teacher professional development on student achievement in three key content areas, nine meet What Works Clearinghouse evidence standards, attesting to the paucity of rigorous studies that directly ... » more info

Issues & Answers

Clearly defining what rural means has tangible implications for public policies and practices in education, from establishing resource needs to achieving the goals of No Child Left Behind in rural areas. Six definitions of rural are commonly applied in different contexts.

Issues & Answers

In 2003, the U.S. Department of Education issued regulations allowing states to develop alternate standards and assessments for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities. This study reviews and summarizes alternate assessment policies and practices and their ... » more info

Issues & Answers

This study provides policymakers with a data-driven profile of the education environment along the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas, an area known as La Frontera.

Issues & Answers

This policy research document is intended for Texas policymakers to use when examining possible changes to the state assessment's alignment with the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The 2009 NAEP test is not yet in existence, so the purpose of this report is to give ... » more info

Issues & Answers

Recent findings from an expert panel of reading researchers noted that approximately 8 million adolescents struggle with literacy in middle and high school (Biancarosa and Snow 2006); the "most common problem is that they are not able to comprehend what they read" (p. 3). Before the ... » more info

NCEE/REL Evaluation Report

To increase the evidence base on remediation in early math, the 2006-2011 REL Southwest at Edvance Research conducted a rigorous experimental study of the impact of the Number Rockets small group tutoring program on grade 1 math achievement. Number Rockets is an early mathematics ... » more info

NCEE/REL Evaluation Report

REL Southwest received a request to review the report Avoidable Losses: High Stakes Accountability and the Dropout Crisis to assess the soundness of the study methodology and the appropriateness of the conclusions drawn in the report. The review by REL Southwest found that the ... » more info

Technical Brief

Formative assessments help educators target instructional practices to meet specific student needs and monitor and support student progress toward valued state learning outcomes. Policies and programs in the five Southwest Region states suggest a range of strategies to support the ... » more info

Issues & Answers

This study is an exploratory inquiry into the context and challenges of measuring investment in professional development in six Southwest Region school districts. The study estimated annual spending of approximately $150-$600 per pupil-or 2-9 percent of total spending. These figures ... » more info

Issues & Answers

This technical brief examines the current alignment between the New Mexico Standards Based Assessment (NMSBA) assessment standards and the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) mathematics framework. It looks at the extent to which current state assessment standards ... » more info

Technical Brief

This study of four national English language arts standards compares the content of three sets of standards with a benchmark set, the American Diploma Project (ADP), to see how closely the sets agree on what students should know in English language arts to prepare for college. The ... » more info

Issues & Answers

This study compares alignment of the ACT and the American Diploma Project (ADP) national college readiness standards sets with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for English language arts and reading (TEKS ELAR) standards for grades 9–12 and analyzes their cognitive ... » more info

Issues & Answers

This policy research document is intended for New Mexico policymakers to use when examining possible changes to the state assessment's alignment with the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The 2009 NAEP test is not yet in existence, so the purpose of this report is to ... » more info

Issues & Answers

This policy research document is intended for Arkansas policymakers to use when examining possible changes to the Arkansas state assessment's alignment with the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The 2009 NAEP test is not yet in existence, so the purpose of this report ... » more info

Issues & Answers

This policy research document is intended for Oklahoma policymakers to use when examining possible changes to the state assessment's alignment with the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The 2009 NAEP test is not yet in existence, so the purpose of this report is to ... » more info

Issues & Answers

This policy research document is intended for Louisiana policymakers to use when examining possible changes to the state assessment's alignment with the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The 2009 NAEP test is not yet in existence, so the purpose of this report is to ... » more info

Issues & Answers

This technical brief examines the current alignment between Oklahoma Core Curriculum Tests (OCCT) and the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) mathematics framework. It looks at the extent to which current state assessment standards cover the content on which 2009 ... » more info

Technical Brief

This technical brief examines the current alignment between the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (LEAP) and Graduation Exit Examination (GEE) mathematics assessment standards and the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) mathematics framework. It looks at the ... » more info

Technical Brief

This Technical Brief examines the current alignment between the Arkansas Comprehensive Testing, Assessment, and Accountability Program (ACTAAP) mathematics assessment standards and the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) mathematics framework. It looks at the extent ... » more info

Technical Brief

This Technical Brief examines the alignment between the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) mathematics assessment standards and the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) mathematics framework. It looks at the extent to which current state assessment ... » more info

Technical Brief

Many students graduate from high school unprepared for the rigorous reading required in entry-level college and career work. This 2006-2011 REL Southwest at Edvance Research Technical Brief, How prepared are subgroups of Texas students for college-level reading? Applying a ... » more info

Issues & Answers

Many students graduate from high school unprepared for the rigorous reading required in entry-level college and career work. This brief builds on a recent report (Wilkins et al. 2010) that used the Lexile measure (a method for measuring the reading difficulty of prose text and the ... » more info

Technical Brief

This study uses a measure of the on-track or off-track status of students at the end of grade 9 as an indicator of whether students in five Texas districts would graduate from high school in four years. In all five districts, on-time graduation rates were higher for students who were ... » more info

Issues & Answers

The 2006–2011 REL Southwest at Edvance conducted a large-scale, multidistrict randomized control trial to examine the effectiveness of a summer reading initiative for economically disadvantaged grade 3 students who scored below the 50th percentile nationally in reading. The ... » more info

NCEE/REL Evaluation Report

The purpose of this study was to review recent peer-reviewed studies in order to identify malleable factors measured in K–12 settings that are related to students' postsecondary STEM success, particularly for Hispanic students. Postsecondary STEM success was defined as enrollment ... » more info

What's Known

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the number of charter schools in New Orleans has rapidly expanded. During the 2012/13 school year—the period covered by this study, of the 85 public schools in New Orleans, 75 were chartered, enrolling more than 84 percent of all public school ... » more info

Making Connections

In partnership with the New Mexico Public Education Department, Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Southwest researchers conducted a statewide experiment in school year 2015/16 to test impacts of a checklist on the feedback conferences principals had with teachers after formal ... » more info

Making an Impact

Description: In June 2013, Texas Governor Rick Perry signed House Bill (HB) 5—the Foundation High School Program—into law, which changed high school graduation requirements for public school students in Texas. Prior to this, most students were required to complete ... » more info

What's Happening

This study examines the impact of providing parents with an informational brochure about the role of algebra II in college access on students’ grade 11 algebra II completion rates in Texas. One hundred nine schools, covering all 20 Educational Service Center regions in Texas, ... » more info

Making an Impact

The purpose of this study was to: examine differences in students' perceptions of their noncognitive skills and school environments by race/ethnicity, and explore whether students' perceptions of their noncognitive skills and school environments were related to three outcomes that have ... » more info

Making Connections

The purpose of this study was to examine the data from the 2014/15 pilot implementation of the Texas Teacher Evaluation and Support System (T-TESS) in order to understand certain properties of the T-TESS rubric, which consists of 16 dimensions classified within 4 domains of teacher ... » more info

Making Connections

New Mexico students who were in grade 9 in 2009/10 and were expected to graduate in 2013 were the first cohort to be required to meet increased math and science course requirements and to take a new graduation exam. The purpose of this study was to describe graduation exam performance ... » more info

What's Happening

This study sought to identify factors that predict positive STEM-related postsecondary outcomes for students in Texas, and to determine whether the association between predictive factors and outcomes differs between Hispanic and non-Hispanic White students. The research team linked ... » more info

Making Connections

The Professional Learning Communities Facilitator's Guide is designed to assist teams of educators in applying the evidence-based strategies presented in the Teaching Academic Content and Literacy to English ... » more info

Tools

This study examined the time it took for English learner students in Texas public schools to reach key educational outcomes for the first time, including attaining English proficiency and satisfactory performance on reading and mathematics state assessments. The study also estimated ... » more info

Making Connections

In an effort to promote college and career readiness, the state of New Mexico passed a law in 2008 requiring high school students to complete at least one unit of advanced coursework (for example, Advanced Placement [AP], gifted and talented, honors, and International Baccalaureate ... » more info

What's Happening

The purpose of this study was to explore advanced STEM course offerings in Texas high schools and advanced STEM course taking among high school students to investigate variation in availability and enrollment for different school contexts and student groups. Using statewide ... » more info

What's Happening

This study is an exploratory analysis of the enrollment rates of students with individualized education programs (IEPs) in the charter school and traditional school sectors. It also examines factors associated with variation in classification and enrollment rates of students with IEPs ... » more info

Making Connections

Making Connections

What's Happening

Making Connections

What's Happening

Applied Research Methods

What's Happening

Oklahoma offers state-funded prekindergarten (preK) to all 4-year-old children. The Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Southwest Early Childhood Education Research Partnership members in Oklahoma requested more comprehensive evidence on disparities in student participation in ... » more info

Descriptive Study

Arkansas has identified college and career readiness indicators for schools that can be used to monitor students' performance and to improve their postsecondary readiness and success. Using two cohorts of grade 6 students, this study examined the extent to which Arkansas’s middle ... » more info

Descriptive Study

Higher education stakeholders often have limited information about the extent to which their institutions serve students with different types of disabilities and the pipeline of students with disabilities from high school to college entry and completion. This study used longitudinal ... » more info

Descriptive Study

Louisiana's Believe and Prepare pilot program, supported by grants from the Louisiana Department of Education, aimed to prepare teacher candidates or in-service teachers through a residency with a mentor and a competency-based curriculum. To improve teacher preparation and teacher ... » more info

Descriptive Study

This study investigated the percentage of Round Rock Independent School District (ISD) graduates from 2012/13 through 2017/18 who completed one or more career and technical education (CTE) programs of study and attained outcomes after high school graduation including college ... » more info

Descriptive Study

This study examined the extent to which Texas high school graduates, particularly graduates in small districts and rural districts, met college, career, and military readiness (CCMR) accountability standards. The study also examined whether graduates who did not meet CCMR ... » more info

Descriptive Study

Education research-practice partnerships (RPPs) offer structures and processes for bridging research and practice and ultimately driving improvements for K-12 outcomes. To date, there is limited literature on how to assess the effectiveness of RPPs. Aligned to the most commonly cited ... » more info

Tools