Resource roundup: Back to school

By Joni Wackwitz
August 6, 2018

Gear up for a new school year with these curated resources from across the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Program and the What Works Clearinghouse. These research-based recommendations will help you support new teachers and leaders, improve instruction, identify students’ strengths and needs, and create a welcoming school environment.

Supporting new teachers and leaders

REL Northeast & Islands and Boston Public Schools recently partnered on a video, Data Coaching to Advance Teacher Mentoring in Boston Public Schools, that discusses how to improve data collection to advance the effectiveness of a district-led mentoring program for new teachers.
Our Ask A REL reference desk also recently compiled a bibliography of research on new teacher academies, with a focus on the academies’ relationship with first-year teacher retention and on which states, districts, and regional service agencies are providing these academies.
Last year, we partnered with the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders to produce Teacher Leadership: Self-Assessment and Readiness Tools, a suite of evidence-based self-assessment and readiness tools for teachers who are taking on or considering new leadership roles.

Using research-based strategies

Browse this collection of practice guides from the What Works Clearinghouse for recommendations on improving instruction and addressing classroom and school challenges. The recommendations are based on reviews of research, the experiences of practitioners, and the expert opinions of a panel of nationally recognized experts.
REL Southeast drew on six What Works Clearinghouse practice guides to develop the Rubric for Evaluating Reading/Language Arts Instructional Materials for Kindergarten to Grade 5. In addition, a recent REL Southeast report, The Relative Effectiveness of Two Approaches to Early Literacy Intervention in Grades K–2, compares two interventions for young struggling readers.
REL Northwest’s video Two Classroom Strategies to Reduce Students’ Math Anxiety, produced last year in partnership with Washington STEM, demonstrates two evidence-based strategies for supporting students who struggle with this common issue.
Our recent systematic review of the research identifies promising practices to increase the academic success of Black students. An infographic provides an overview of the findings.
Our Ask A REL reference desk has also rounded up research on effective strategies and programs for English learner students in grades 6–12, with a focus on reading, vocabulary, and writing.

Ensuring smooth transitions

Two REL webinars address how to support students’ transition to kindergarten: Preschool to Kindergarten: Successfully Navigating the Transition by REL Southwest, and Effective Components of Successful Early Learning-to-Kindergarten Transitions by REL Northwest.
Our recent webinar, Equipping Parents to Support Kindergarten Readiness, explores how child care providers can help parents prepare children for the nonacademic components of kindergarten. In addition, our Ask A REL reference desk recently examined the research on home visiting programs on supporting the transition to kindergarten.
A 2017 REL Southwest report, Understanding the Role of Noncognitive Skills and School Environments in Students’ Transitions to High School, describes the findings from a study examining how grade 9 students’ perceptions of their noncognitive skills and high school environments related to the students’ successful transition to grade 9 in New Mexico.

Identifying students’ strengths and needs

Our new video, Kindergarten Entry Assessments: What You Need to Know, describes the benefits of identifying students’ strengths and needs at the start of kindergarten. In addition, recent responses from our Ask A REL reference desk address developmental screening tools for identifying preschool students with potential delays and how to define and measure school readiness and use interventions to target students’ needs.
A 2016 REL Southeast report, Predicting Math Outcomes from a Reading Screening Assessment in Grades 3–8, explores the use of a reading screening assessment to identify students at risk for low achievement in mathematics as well as how to use the results to inform instruction.
A recent report from REL Southwest, Initial Spanish Proficiency and English Language Development Among Spanish-Speaking English Learner Students in New Mexico, indicates that English learner students’ initial kindergarten Spanish proficiency level can help identify students at risk of not achieving English proficiency and academic benchmarks by grades 4 and 5.
For the postsecondary level, REL Southeast’s 2016 report, A Guide to Developing and Evaluating a College Readiness Screener, describes core ideas to consider when developing a screening tool for estimating college readiness.