To explore the use of education technology in rural schools, Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Midwest is working with the Iowa Department of Education, Central Rivers Area Education Agency, and five rural Iowa school districts to form a networked improvement community (NIC). The NIC is focusing its initial work on identifying best practices to incorporate technology into instruction.

The NIC will use a continuous improvement process to identify the problem, create an intervention, iteratively test and refine the intervention, and share their findings. The NIC met this spring to identify main challenges to incorporating technology in education. This analysis identified two primary needs for schools and districts to improve technology integration—clearer expectations about how schools will use technology and professional development opportunities. In the fall, the NIC will develop a theory of action around one of those needs. In turn, the NIC will use the theory of action to develop an intervention, administer it, collect data, and reflect on the results.

REL Midwest has previous experience with NICs and continuous improvement research, which will inform the work of the Iowa NIC. During the 2015/16 school year, REL Midwest formed a NIC in Michigan, known as the Michigan Focus NIC, that tested an intervention to improve mathematics fluency. REL Midwest also formed a NIC in Minnesota to explore ways that the Minnesota Department of Education could enhance supports for the state’s Regional Centers of Excellence, which in turn support school improvement efforts.

To learn about the work of the Michigan Focus NIC and the Minnesota NIC, explore the following resources:

• Report—Establishing and sustaining networked improvement communities: Lessons from Michigan and Minnesota: This report offers guidance to researchers and educators as they work to establish and sustain NICs, based on REL Midwest’s experiences in two states in the 2012–17 contract. Researchers discovered several keys to successful NIC collaborations, including proactively reducing uncertainty, aligning the NIC work with members’ ongoing efforts, and incorporating opportunities to build capacity into the work.
• Podcast—We Are Better Together: Researchers & Educators Partner to Improve Students’ Math Skills: The latest podcast from REL Midwest highlights the Michigan Focus NIC project and includes interviews with staff from Wexford Montessori Academy, which participated in the NIC.
• Public TV Program—Strength in Numbers: Closing Achievement Gaps through Collaboration: This public television broadcast, produced with Detroit Public Television, raises awareness of the continuous improvement research process as a method to address achievement gaps. The broadcast connects research to practice by sharing the example of the Michigan Focus NIC and Wexford Montessori Academy.