All Resources (by latest date)
Webinar: Writing and Writing Instruction Improve Reading: What We Have Learned from Research
Research and Best Practices
The Center on Instruction hosted a webinar on April 21, 2011, featuring Dr. Steve Graham, co-author of "Writing to Read", a meta-analysis that examines the influence of writing on reading skills. He presented an overview of the findings and described implications for practice. He also provided specific examples of how writing facilitates reading and reading development. The archived WebEx file can be accessed here. The PowerPoint presentation used during the webinar and a synopsis of the report is available for download below, and the full.....
Find What Works
Research and Best Practices
Looking for a better way to find curricula, products, and practices that meet your school or district's needs? Check out the new and improved What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) search feature, Find What Works. This powerful tool makes it easy to find out what rigorous research says about the effectiveness of more than 100 widely used education interventions. You can search for interventions by grade level, subject, delivery method, and other.....
The Complex Ecology of Response to Intervention
Research and Best Practices
This document contains papers presented by the National Center on Response to Intervention at a structured poster session, “The Complex Ecology of Response to Intervention,” at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) 2010 Annual Meeting in Denver, CO. The topics covered include 1. information on the overall RTI framework, 2. screening and progress monitoring within RTI, 3. delivery of instructional interventions within a RTI system, 4. SLD identification and RTI, 5. implementation of RTI across states, and 6. RTI as.....
Updated Progress Monitoring Tools Chart (National Center on RTI)
Research and Best Practices
The National Center on Response to Intervention announces the updated release of the Progress Monitoring Tools Chart! This chart represents the results of the third annual review of progress monitoring tools by the Center’s Technical Review Committee (TRC).
The chart provides ratings on the technical adequacy of progress monitoring tools used within an RTI context. The tools were rated against standards of general outcome measures, or mastery measures. Additional information on how to implement the tools can be found on the chart as well......
New Updates to the National High School Center's Early Warning System (EWS) Tool v2.0 and Technical Manual
Research and Best Practices
The National High School Center recently released an updated version of the tool and technical manual to better support users as they strive to identify and address issues that lead to students dropping out of school. The updated tool includes a new Export Data feature, and the updated Technical Manual includes several additional instructions, hints, and cautions to help you use the tool. More details on the new tool and Technical Manual are below, along with instructions on how you can easlily transfer your existing data into the new tool......
COI Webinar Series: Using DWW Resources to Support SIG Grantees in Adolescent Literacy
Research and Best Practices
The Center on Instruction has released a series of five webinar modules designed to provide key adolescent literacy principles and practices to support the federally funded School Improvement Grants (SIG). The webinar modules introduce the Center on Instruction (COI) and Doing What Works (DWW) websites' tools and resources and address 1) school leadership, 2) research overview, 3) explicit vocabulary instruction in middle and high school, 4) text discussion, and 5) intensive interventions for struggling readers. Also included for each module.....
Conversations with Practioners: SUPPORTING STATE-LEVEL COLLABORATION AMONG GENERAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATORS
Research and Best Practices
About this document
This booklet has three main parts:
• What is collaboration?
• Recommendations for supporting state-level
collaboration
• Building capacity for collaboration
Part one compares collaboration to other forms of
active partnership (cooperation and coordination) and
encourages readers to consider which type of
partnership is most appropriate for their situation.
Part two describes seven recommendations for
fostering collaboration at the state level and illustrates
them with examples of “collaboration in.....
Synopsis of "Writing to Read: Evidence for How Writing Can Improve Reading"
Research and Best Practices
This synopsis of Graham and Hebert's meta-analysis presents an overview of their findings and describes implications for practice. It is intended to serve as a first step that will encourage further exploration of the "Writing to Read" document. The authors describe a range of instructional practices that have demonstrated a positive effect on reading outcomes and provide guidance on how teachers can use writing instruction to strengthen students' reading performance.
This resource pertains to the following categories:
Literacy.....
Turning Around Chronically Low-Performing Schools: IES Practice Guide
Alaskan Resources
This guide presents “specific and coherent evidence-based recommendations for use by educators aiming to quickly and dramatically improve student achievement in low-performing schools.. . .[A] superintendent, a principal, or a site-based decision-making council can use this practice guide to help plan and execute school turnaround strategies."
Principal Effectiveness: A New Principalship to Drive Student Achievement, Teacher Effectiveness, and School Turnarounds
Research and Best Practices
Lessons learned from school leaders making breakthrough gains in student achievement and teacher effectiveness. Includes policy recommendations for school turnarounds and key insights from The Urban Excellence FrameworkTM.
Building a District Turnaround Office
Alaskan Resources
from Mass Insight Education School Turnaround Group
This publication provides districts with a fundamentally different organizational structure through which to execute school turnaround. The District Turnaround Office (DTO) is a new internal unit within a Local Education Agency (LEA) that manages and coordinates all district turnaround efforts. The DTO streamlines support from multiple offices, rather than creating additional bureaucracy, and ensures that low-performing schools are prioritized not only in talk but in action. This.....
School Improvement Grants: Take 2
Alaskan Resources
From Mass Insight Education School Turnaround Group
This publication provides local and state officials with a framework to revise the Round 2 School Improvement Grant (SIG) process. SIG, both in the level of its funding and the boldness of its requirements, is an unprecedented attempt to alter the fate of students in low-performing schools nationwide. There has never before been an opportunity to dedicate this much national energy and resources to the turnaround of failing schools. However, while SIG may be a huge opportunity for.....
Evaluating School Turnaround
Alaskan Resources
from Mass Insight Education School Turnaround Group
This main publication provides a framework for evaluation in the context of turnaround and differentiates between leading and lagging indicators of improvement. It outlines a process for setting school goals, collecting aligned data, and using data to inform decision-making.
Eight Elements of High School Improvement: A Mapping Framework
Research and Best Practices
from National High School Center at the American Institutes for Research betterhighschools.org
This document offers descriptions of the eight elements of high school improvement:
• Rigorous Curriculum and Instruction
• Teacher Effectiveness and Professional Growth
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Organization and Structure
• Assessment and Accountability
• Student and Family Involvement
• Effective Leadership
• Sustainability
The Quality Imperative: A State Guide to Achieving the Promise of Extended Learning Opportunities
Alaskan Resources
Extended learning opportunities (ELOs) provide safe, structured learning environments for students outside the traditional school day. ELOs include afterschool and summer learning programs as well as before-school, evening, and weekend programs.
Summer Learning Opportunities in High Poverty Schools
Research and Best Practices
This report profiles five summer Extended Learning Opportunities programs that have contributed to improved student achievement in high-poverty schools.
Coaching for School Improvement: A Guide for Coaches and Their Supervisors (CII)
Research and Best Practices
A Guide for Coaches and Their Supervisors offers tools, tips, and strategies for coaches working with school improvement teams. The guide also offers examples and recommendations for coaches working with teams who are using the online Indistar® tool created by CII.
http://www.centerii.org/restructuring/
The Impact of Enhancing Students’ Social and Emotional Learning: A Meta-Analysis of School-Based Universal Interventions
Research and Best Practices
This article presents findings from a meta-analysis of 213 school-based, universal social and emotional learning (SEL) programs involving 270,034 [K-12] students. Compared to controls, SEL participants demonstrated significantly improved social and emotional skills, attitudes, behavior, and academic performance that reflected an 11-percentile-point gain in achievement. School teaching staff successfully conducted SEL programs.
Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor & Schellinger(2011, February)
Child Development, 82(1), 405-432.
Progress Monitoring for Elementary Mathematics (COI)
Research and Best Practices
This PowerPoint presentation from the November 2006 Math Summit: Providing Evidence-Based Practices and Implications of NCTM Focal Points provides an overview of progress monitoring systems that can be used to track student growth in elementary mathematics.
A Comprehensive K-3 Reading Assessment Plan: Guidance for School Leaders (COI)
Research and Best Practices
Because scientific studies have repeatedly demonstrated the value of regularly assessing reading progress, a comprehensive assessment plan is a critical element of an effective school-level plan for preventing reading difficulties. This guide from the Center on Instruction provides valuable information for school leaders. While the general principles, such as the early identification of students who are struggling in learning to read, are all based on scientific findings, the detailed recommendations for implementation derive from practical.....
Assessments to Guide Adolescent Literacy Instruction (COI)
Research and Best Practices
This guide from the Center on Instruction is a companion volume to two other COI publications: Academic Literacy Instruction for Adolescents and Improving Literacy Instruction in Middle and High Schools: A Guide for Principals. It provides information about the key elements of a comprehensive assessment plan to improve literacy instruction for adolescents and provides examples of assessments and assessment systems currently in use or under development to improve literacy instruction for students in grades 4-12.
Reviews of Research on Saxon Math for High School Students (What Works Clearinghouse)
Research and Best Practices
The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) has released a new report this week that reviews the research on Saxon Math for high school students.
Saxon Math is a textbook series covering grades K–12 based on incremental development and continual review of mathematical concepts to give students time to learn and practice concepts throughout the year. The program is built on the premise that students learn best when instruction is incremental and explicit, previously learned concepts are continually reviewed, and assessment is frequent and.....
US Dept. of Ed releases SIG Monitoring document
Alaskan Resources
The U.S. Department of Education (US ED) has just released a document that spells out the monitoring indicators US ED will use to determine the degree of implementation of the SIG program and activities administered by state education agencies (SEAs) and describes the monitoring process. Included in the document are SEA-, school district- and, school building-level questions and protocols in areas of application process, program implementation, fiscal stability and well-being, technical assistance, monitoring practices and procedures, and.....
The National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) Website
Research and Best Practices
The National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) conducts and communicates research to support high quality, effective, early childhood education for all young children. Such education enhances their physical, cognitive, and social development, and subsequent success in school and later life.
The Institute offers independent research-based advice and technical assistance to policy makers, journalists, researchers, and educators.
The Institute's research program aims to:
* Provide a vision of early education excellence.....
