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Other Collaborations

Workshops and coaching icon

Upon request, REL Southwest provides more immediate assistance to state and local education agencies in our region through collaborations of shorter duration. These short-term partnerships may provide training, coaching, and analytic technical support, including data analysis.

To explore a collaboration with REL Southwest, please contact Lynn Mellor.

Training, Coaching, and Technical Support

  • New Mexico

    Teacher and Principal Evaluations for Schools Serving American Indians
    REL Southwest is supporting the design process of a teacher and principal evaluation system for schools that serve American Indian students—one large school in New Mexico with 100 percent American Indian student enrollment and two districts in Oklahoma with large American Indian student populations. With REL Southwest’s support, the partners are developing their teacher and principal evaluation systems that are research-informed and reflective of local school district priorities, particularly with respect to culturally relevant practices for their American Indian communities. The teams are working on developing definitions of effective teachers and principals in their local context, refining standards and developing rubrics describing levels of performance in alignment with the refined standards, selecting measures (for example, observation tools) that gather relevant data on performance quality, and are considering student outcomes measures that may be used in the evaluation systems. In addition, the team is developing guidebooks that describe the evaluation procedures and business rules. The short-term outcomes of this work will be the completion of the evaluation system designs ready to pilot, and REL Southwest anticipates the longer-term outcomes will include the adoption of principal and teacher evaluation systems that will promote effective teaching and school leadership that is responsive and appropriate to the local American Indian communities.
  • Oklahoma

    Evidence-Based Practices Coaching: Oklahoma State Department of Education
    Evidence-based practices (EBPs) are informed and supported by rigorous research that demonstrates consistent, positive impacts on student outcomes. As of the 2018/19 school year, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires that education leaders include EBPs in improvement plans for low-performing schools. Under ESSA, schools receiving federal funding must use EBPs for specific programs as indicated in Title I, Title II, and Title IV of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. To support ESSA compliance, this REL Southwest coaching project built the capacity of staff at the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) to identify and select EBPs and apply the knowledge to the OSDE school improvement process. The project included the co-development of a set of sessions and resources for OSDE, local education service providers, and districts and schools to highlight the alignment of ESSA requirements for EBPs with the Oklahoma 9 Essential Elements of Effective Schools. View archived resources.
    Oklahoma Evidence-Based Blended Learning Programs and Instructional Practices Training and Evidence Review
    In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many schools in Oklahoma adopted new models of instruction to provide a safe learning environment for students. These models included blended or hybrid models of learning, in which some instruction was delivered in a classroom while other instruction was delivered online. To inform these efforts, the Oklahoma Department of Education asked REL Southwest to provide training and conduct an evidence review on blended learning interventions that are effective at improving student academic achievement. In conducting the evidence review, REL Southwest reviewed more than 900 studies that had been compiled in the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) Studies of Distance Learning database. REL Southwest staff then screened the studies to identify those that met the following criteria: were conducted in the last 20 years in the United States; described an intervention that could be used for blended learning; included elementary, middle, or high school students; demonstrated statistically significant and positive findings; and included treatment and control groups. View archived resources.
    Strengthening Assessment Review Processes, Rubrics, and Reliability to Support the Implementation of the Reading Sufficiency Act
    The Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) requested support to conduct a review of high-quality, evidence-based measures for inclusion in an approved list of screening instruments for early literacy skills in kindergarten through grade 3 to support the implementation of the Reading Sufficiency Act (RSA). Specifically, OSDE wanted to increase its capacity to implement reliably a coding rubric to evaluate the quality (reliability and validity) of submitted RSA assessments and their evidence base (predictive validity) so as to finalize a list of approved measures to guide districts and schools. In this coaching project, REL Southwest and OSDE staff worked collaboratively to review and establish a rating rubric, review screening assessments submitted for consideration, and finalize a list of RSA screening instruments for review by the Oklahoma State Board of Education.