This project is supporting educators in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) Public School System (PSS) in improving their data-driven decision making when assigning students to Tier 2 reading interventions, as well as identifying potential areas of improvement for Tier 1 literacy instruction. By the end of this project, CNMI PSS central office staff and principals will develop and launch a plan to address early literacy intervention, while building their knowledge of evidence-based data practices within a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) to support early literacy.

REL Pacific is working with national and state education leaders in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) to improve systemwide teacher planning and instruction by developing state-specific instructional models that can build a shared understanding of how learning works in their educational context and identify effective strategies teachers can use to support student learning. The goal of the project is to create instructional models for each state that elevate and sustain cultural practices and ways of knowing while achieving academic standards and dual-language policies that are currently in development across FSM.

This project supports efforts of the Yap Department of Education (YDOE) in the Federated States of Micronesia in improving the quality of Indigenous Yapese culture education in K–12 schools across Yap. The REL Pacific team is supporting YDOE as they update their Indigenous culture curricula and plan to train YDOE culture teachers about the new curricula.

This project is providing Guam teachers with training and coaching on evidence-based teaching strategies for mathematics. Through the professional learning sessions, REL Pacific is helping teachers build their capacity to apply recommendations from the What Works Clearinghouse Practice Guide Improving Mathematical Problem Solving in Grades 4 Through 8. The project is also helping principals and instructional coaches increase their capacity to support teachers as they implement the teaching strategies.

REL Pacific is working with private school leaders in Palau to create systems to develop, coach, and retain effective teachers. Private schools serve a large portion of the overall Palauan student population, so through training and coaching, REL Pacific is supporting private school leaders to identify meaningful indicators of effective teaching, collect data to measure each indicator, and use the data for decision-making and continuous improvement. The project goal is to help the schools develop structures that support the development and retention of a qualified, effective educator workforce well-positioned to improve student learning outcomes.

REL Pacific is developing a toolkit of resources for middle school (grades 6–8) teachers to help them incorporate recommendations from the What Works Clearinghouse Practice Guide Teaching Secondary Students to Write Effectively into their own classroom practices. The toolkit will include professional learning resources and activities for teams of teachers to use to explore the recommended instructional strategies and guide their lesson planning, as well as videos showing the strategies being used in actual classrooms. The project’s goal is to support teachers in strengthening their knowledge and use of evidence-based practices for teaching writing and, ultimately, increase their students’ efficacy as writers.

This coaching project is supporting the Hui schools to collaboratively engage in Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) inquiry cycles to test and refine the networked improvement community’s common working theory of improvement. Coaching topics include the identification of what to measure; reviewing existing instruments; planning data collection routines and building school-level data teams, processes, and structures; evaluating and refining practical measures; and planning for data discussions.