Regional Educational Lab (REL) Appalachia partners with key stakeholders in Kentucky to develop evidence that can inform consequential decisions about policy, programs, and practice. Key stakeholders include organizations with decision-making authority and the ability to influence education policy and practice, such as state and local education agencies, school boards, institutes of higher education, and student, family, and community organizations. RELs partner with these organizations on applied research and development; training, coaching and technical supports; and dissemination.
Partnerships and Projects
Professional Learning for Mathematics Coaches and Educators
Building the capacity of partners in Kentucky to design and evaluate professional learning that helps educators bolster students’ mathematics learning
Reducing Chronic Absenteeism in Kentucky
REL Appalachia is partnering with the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) to provide district and school leaders with training and coaching to deepen their knowledge and skills to improve student attendance and reduce chronic absenteeism. Educators will learn about and implement research-based strategies to improve school connectedness; engage with students, families, and communities in meaningful ways; and improve the quality of school life. Project activities will also seek to enhance educators’ capacity to collect and reflect on data to identify priorities and understand the effects of implementing evidence-based strategies to improve student attendance.
Rural Educator Workforce Community of Practice
REL Appalachia’s Rural Educator Workforce Community of Practice (CoP) brings together people from across the REL’s four-state region with different roles in education — particularly those who work with or in rural schools — to collaborate on solutions for strengthening the rural educator workforce. The CoP is designed to connect people with shared challenges and complementary expertise, providing a space to exchange ideas, surface promising strategies, and learn from one another. REL Appalachia works with CoP members to identify evidence-based strategies to support the rural educator workforce as well as to determine what supports state and local education leaders and education preparation providers need to implement these strategies and generate new knowledge in their local contexts.
Supporting Students, Grandfamilies, and Kinship Caregivers Community of Practice (Historical)
This Community of Practice brought leaders across the REL Appalachia four-state region together to collaborate on understanding the state of available research, sharing of ideas, practices, and information to support students and families, and the increasingly common experiences of grandfamilies and kinship care.
Identifying Practices to Boost Early Literacy and Numeracy in Kentucky (Historical)
The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) seeks to help schools increase their grade 3 reading and mathematics proficiency rates to set students up for long-term success in school. To pursue this objective, REL AP partnered with KDE to use data to identify schools with better-than-predicted grade 3 reading or math scores or better-than-predicted gains over time. With REL AP support, KDE investigated the factors that drove these schools to outperform predictions to inform school improvement efforts across Kentucky.
Building Safe, Caring, and Trauma-Sensitive Schools (Historical)
Supported regional and district leaders in western Kentucky to develop and implement
a training series for school-based educators on effective practices to support students
and educators experiencing trauma.
Regional Educational Lab (REL) Appalachia partners with key stakeholders in Tennessee to develop evidence that can inform consequential decisions about policy, programs, and practice. Key stakeholders include organizations with decision-making authority and the ability to influence education policy and practice, such as state and local education agencies, school boards, institutes of higher education, and student, family, and community organizations. RELs partner with these organizations on applied research and development; training, coaching and technical supports; and dissemination.
Partnerships and Projects
Strengthening Students’ Preparation for College and Careers
Supporting northeastern Tennessee district and school leaders in their monitoring and use of data to improve students’ college and career preparation.
Assessing and Improving the Usability of the Tennessee Educator Survey’s Dissemination Products to Inform State Educator Workforce Decisions
In response to ongoing challenges with teacher recruitment and retention, REL Appalachia is partnering with the Tennessee Department of Education and the Tennessee Education Research Alliance to strengthen superintendents’ use of the Tennessee Educator Survey data dashboard. REL Appalachia staff will gather feedback from district superintendents and identify strategies to enhance the clarity, accessibility, and usefulness of the dashboard, with the goal of supporting more effective decision-making related to educator recruitment, retention, and support across Tennessee.
Evaluation Planning for an Online Alternative Teacher Licensure and Certification Program in Tennessee
This training, coaching, and technical support project supports the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC), Hamilton County Schools (HCS), and the Tennessee Department of Education in developing a comprehensive evaluation framework for the UTC-HCS alternative teacher certification pathway. The UTC-HCS program was designed to address persistent teacher shortages in Tennessee by preparing nontraditional candidates for teacher licensure through a flexible alternative certification pathway. Through a series of collaborative working sessions, REL Appalachia staff will support partners in developing a logic model, identifying implementation and outcome measures, prioritizing evaluation questions, and planning for data collection and reporting. The project is intended to build partners’ capacity to use data and evidence to support continuous improvement of the program, inform future impact evaluation efforts, and identify conditions necessary for expanding alternative certification pathways across Tennessee.
Rural Educator Workforce Community of Practice
REL Appalachia’s Rural Educator Workforce Community of Practice (CoP) brings together people from across the REL’s four-state region with different roles in education — particularly those who work with or in rural schools — to collaborate on solutions for strengthening the rural educator workforce. The CoP is designed to connect people with shared challenges and complementary expertise, providing a space to exchange ideas, surface promising strategies, and learn from one another. REL Appalachia works with CoP members to identify evidence-based strategies to support the rural educator workforce as well as to determine what supports state and local education leaders and education preparation providers need to implement these strategies and generate new knowledge in their local contexts.
Supporting Students, Grandfamilies, and Kinship Caregivers Community of Practice (Historical)
This Community of Practice brought leaders across the REL Appalachia four-state region together to collaborate on understanding the state of available research, sharing of ideas, practices, and information to support students and families, and the increasingly common experiences of grandfamilies and kinship care.
Research-Based Practices for Effective Remote Learning (Historical)
Educators across the country are working to discover the most effective methods for delivering online instruction to students in grades K–12. To support these efforts, REL Appalachia partnered with education leaders in eastern Tennessee to develop a series of train-the-trainer workshops.
Early Literacy Partnership (Historical)
Children who struggle with reading in the early elementary grades often continue to fall behind. Tennessee state leadership is facing this challenge by establishing a state-wide response to instruction and intervention (RTI2) framework that focuses on intervening early to prevent reading problems from escalating. REL AP worked with partners at the Tennessee Department of Education to build educators' capacity to implement the RTI2 framework so that all students can gain the literacy skills they need.
Cross-State Collaborative to Support Schools in the Opioid Crisis (Historical)
Students who are exposed to family and community opioid abuse face acute and chronic stress and trauma, including unmet basic needs (e.g., lack of sleep or food, unstable housing circumstances), as well as a range of psychological difficulties. These challenges often interrupt school functioning, and stakeholders in Appalachia report that schools need more resources and strategies to effectively support these student needs. REL AP partnered with stakeholders from state and local education agencies, community-based organizations, and universities in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia to form a collaborative focused on addressing trauma-related consequences of the opioid epidemic in schools.
Regional Educational Lab (REL) Appalachia partners with key stakeholders in Virginia to develop evidence that can inform consequential decisions about policy, programs, and practice. Key stakeholders include organizations with decision-making authority and the ability to influence education policy and practice, such as state and local education agencies, school boards, institutes of higher education, and student, family, and community organizations. RELs partner with these organizations on applied research and development; training, coaching and technical supports; and dissemination.
Partnerships and Projects
A Community of Practice on the Rural Educator Workforce
REL Appalachia’s Rural Educator Workforce Community of Practice (CoP) brings together people from across the REL’s four-state region with different roles in education — particularly those who work with or in rural schools — to collaborate on solutions for strengthening the rural educator workforce. The CoP is designed to connect people with shared challenges and complementary expertise, providing a space to exchange ideas, surface promising strategies, and learn from one another. REL Appalachia works with CoP members to identify evidence-based strategies to support the rural educator workforce as well as to determine what supports state and local education leaders and education preparation providers need to implement these strategies and generate new knowledge in their local contexts.
Developing Resilient and Supportive Community Colleges (Historical)
This partnership supported the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) to create a culture of care to improve retention, course completion, and degree and certificate completion for the nearly 200,000 students enrolled in 23 community colleges statewide.
Supporting Students, Grandfamilies, and Kinship Caregivers Community of Practice (Historical)
This Community of Practice brought leaders across the REL Appalachia four-state region together to collaborate on understanding the state of available research, sharing of ideas, practices, and information to support students and families, and the increasingly common experiences of grandfamilies and kinship care.
Student Success in Mathematics Partnership (Historical)
Mastery of algebra I is a critical milestone on the path toward graduating from high school with the skills needed for college and careers. REL AP and our partners in Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, Staunton, Waynesboro, and Winchester worked on improving students' mathematics outcomes by grade 9—particularly students of diverse socioeconomic and ethnic/racial backgrounds—so that they are prepared for the higher level math and science courses needed to graduate from high school and transition successfully to college and careers.
Improving Postsecondary Transitions Partnership (Historical)
Stakeholders across Kentucky and Virginia are interested in strategies that encourage and support students' successful transition from high school to postsecondary education programs and careers, particularly for rural students and other historically underserved populations. REL AP worked with a core group of state leaders in Virginia and local partners in eastern Kentucky to fill knowledge and information gaps and provide support to help the policymakers and practitioners use evidence to strengthen students' transition to college and careers.
REL Appalachia is collaborating with the West Virginia Department of Education and West Virginia University to strengthen state and local leaders’ use of data to inform teacher recruitment and retention strategies. REL Appalachia staff and the partners are co-designing an interactive data dashboard that integrates teacher survey data with federal and geospatial data on schools and school communities. The dashboard will be publicly accessible and designed to help education leaders across West Virginia better understand local factors contributing to teacher shortages, especially among remote rural schools. A webinar will build interest holders’ capacity to use the dashboard to inform decision-making and to develop targeted strategies to improve teacher recruitment, placement, and retention across West Virginia’s rural schools.
Partnerships and Projects
School Innovation through the Empowerment Collaborative
This partnership supports West Virginia educators to strengthen implementation of the Empowerment Collaborative, a multi-faceted middle school reform initiative that aims to improve school-community relationships and strengthen work-based learning.
Using Data to Address Challenges to Teacher Recruitment and Retention in Rural Schools
REL Appalachia is collaborating with the West Virginia Department of Education and West Virginia University to strengthen state and local leaders’ use of data to inform teacher recruitment and retention strategies. REL Appalachia staff and the partners are co-designing an interactive data dashboard that integrates teacher survey data with federal and geospatial data on schools and school communities. The dashboard will be publicly accessible and designed to help education leaders across West Virginia better understand local factors contributing to teacher shortages, especially among remote rural schools. A webinar will build interest holders’ capacity to use the dashboard to inform decision-making and to develop targeted strategies to improve teacher recruitment, placement, and retention across West Virginia’s rural schools.
Predicting Effects of SNAP and Medicaid Work Requirements on Federal Funding to Districts
In West Virginia, declining student enrollment as well as recent changes in SNAP and Medicaid eligibility requirements have the potential to reduce school funding from federal programs such as the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), which support the state’s most disadvantaged students. To address this need, REL Appalachia is supporting the West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) to leverage publicly available data — including from the American Community Survey and Common Core of Data — to predict which districts are most likely to experience reduced school funding. Findings from these analyses will help WVDE target support to districts most likely to be affected.
Rural Educator Workforce Community of Practice
REL Appalachia is collaborating with the West Virginia Department of Education and West Virginia University to strengthen state and local leaders’ use of data to inform teacher recruitment and retention strategies. REL Appalachia staff and the partners are co-designing an interactive data dashboard that integrates teacher survey data with federal and geospatial data on schools and school communities. The dashboard will be publicly accessible and designed to help education leaders across West Virginia better understand local factors contributing to teacher shortages, especially among remote rural schools. A webinar will build interest holders’ capacity to use the dashboard to inform decision-making and to develop targeted strategies to improve teacher recruitment, placement, and retention across West Virginia’s rural schools.
Strengthening Mathematical Mindsets (Historical)
Partnered with district and school staff in West Virginia to increase mathematics achievement by promoting positive mathematics attitudes and supporting the development of mathematical habits of mind.
Supporting Students, Grandfamilies, and Kinship Caregivers Community of Practice (Historical)
This Community of Practice brought leaders across the REL Appalachia four-state region together to collaborate on understanding the state of available research, sharing of ideas, practices, and information to support students and families, and the increasingly common experiences of grand families and kinship care.
Cross-State Partnership on Using Data and Evidence to Facilitate Action (Historical)
Stakeholders across the Appalachia region have reported that they are data rich and information poor–and they are motivated to change that reality. The Cross-State Partnership on Using Data and Evidence to Facilitate Action was designed to bolster state agencies' ability to present data in ways to produce useful insights that local stakeholders and others can use in developing and monitoring policy and practice
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Featured report
Descriptive Study
Examining Implementation and Outcomes of the Project On-Track High-Dosage Tutoring Pr...
School districts in northeastern Tennessee have had persistently low proficiency rates in grade 3 English language arts, which were exa...
Publication number:
REL 2024 005