Research and Best Practices
This two part rubric and worksheet is for use by individuals responsible for monitoring (1) district-level capacity to support response to intervention (RTI implementation and (2) district-wide fidelity of RTI implementation.
Curriculum Resources
eLearning Module from EED: Alaska Steps Toward Educational Progress and Partnership (STEPP)
This course is for school and district staff participating in Alaska STEPP. The course is organized into 17 chapters. The first chapter is an overview of the purpose and process of Alaska STEPP. The remaining 16 chapters outline other specific details in navigating STEPP and applying it to the School and District Improvement process.
1. To access this course, you must first login as a user at www.eed.state.ak.us/ELearning/
2. After successfully logging in, you will see a Welcome page. On the right hand side of the page is a link for.....
Find What Works

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.....
Reviews of Research on Saxon Math for High School Students (What Works Clearinghouse)
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.....
Docs.Teach.org (National Archives teaching resources)
The National Archives has launched a new online tool for teaching with documents. Not only does DocsTeach.org welcome educators to explore thousands of documents in a variety of media from the holdings of the National Archives, but it also allows teachers to combine these materials using clever tools to create engaging activities. Teachers can create lessons from scratch, adapt lessons from others, or let their students create the lessons, and a single suite of tools can be applied to a range of subjects and skill levels. FOR MORE.....
Alaska State System of Support (SSOS) Operations Manual 2011-2012
Alaska State System of Support (SSOS) Operations Manual,
Building Local Capacity, 2011-2012
The Alaska SSOS's mission is to support districts as they build their capacity to implement sustainable school improvement strategies with fidelity. Authority for developing and implementing a system of support for districts and schools comes from both State and Federal law. This document provides an overview of the SSOS program and resources that are available to districts and schools in Alaska.
Explicit vocabulary instruction and strategies that help students become independent vocabulary learners
Teachers should provide explicit vocabulary instruction both as part of reading and language arts classes and as part of content area classes such as science and social studies. Learning specialized vocabularies contributes to the success of reading among adolescent students. By giving students explicit instruction in vocabulary, content area teachers help them learn the meaning of new words and strengthen their independent skills in constructing the meaning of text.
CTE and Possible Links to Dropping Out (National Research Center for Career and Tech Ed)
If participation in career and technical education has some relationship to dropping out of high school, we need to understand the nature of this relationship better. Research in this area can have implications for our conceptual understanding of what helps students find attachment to high school. Additionally, research in this area could have policy or practical implications for secondary education, as decisions are made about where dollars should be invested and how curriculum should be organized.
After considering simple descriptive.....
NRCCTE Report on the Efficacy of Dual Enrollment
Dual enrollment programs enable high school students to enroll in college courses and earn college credit. Once limited to high-achieving students, such programs are increasingly seen as a means to support the postsecondary preparation of average-achieving students. Moreover, though dual enrollment programs typically have been reserved for academically-focused students, increasing numbers of career and technical education (CTE) programs are providing such opportunities to their students.
Despite the popularity and growth of dual.....
The Math-in-CTE model (National Research Center for CTE)
The Math-in-CTE model is a curriculum integration model designed to enhance mathematics that is embedded in career and technical education (CTE) content. It is a process that provides the opportunity for math and CTE teacher teams to work together in communities of practice and to identify where math intersects with CTE concepts and applications. This process leads to the creation of math-enhanced CTE lessons that follow a seven-element pedagogic framework. Premised on five core principles, the research-based Math-in-CTE model has been shown.....
Systematic Reviews of Research: Postsecondary Transitions - Identifying Effective Models and Practices
This systematic review of the literature on transition programs for youth to postsecondary education sought to identify models or programs of transition, establish a definition of successful transition, discover how models or programs are evaluated, and examine the impact of such transition programs, specifically those that aim to facilitate transition from an educational system to another educational system, to program completion, or to specific career-related employment for disadvantaged youth.
Intervention Report on Connected Mathematics Project: Grades 6-8
A new intervention report released this week looks at the research on the Connected Mathematics Project (CMP). This curriculum is designed for students in grades 6–8. Each grade level of the curriculum is a full-year program and covers numbers, algebra, geometry/measurement, probability, and statistics. The curriculum uses an investigative approach, and students utilize interactive problems and everyday situations to learn math concepts.
The WWC review found that CMP has no discernible effects on mathematics achievement. This rating is.....
Health and PE Lesson Plan Library (MCREL)
Lesson Plan Library - Health and Physical Education
These lesson plans and activities are organized under topics. Click the found next to the topic to see the related knowledge and skill statements from Content Knowledge, 4th edition.
RTI - Response to Intervention
Response to intervention (RTI) integrates assessment and intervention within a multi-level prevention system to maximize student achievement and to reduce behavior problems. With RTI, schools identify students at risk for poor learning outcomes, monitor student progress, provide evidence-based interventions and adjust the intensity and nature of those interventions depending on a student’s responsiveness, and identify students with learning disabilities or other disabilities.
Colorin Colorado - A bilingual site for families and educators of English language learners
Colorín Colorado is a free web-based service that provides information, activities and advice for educators and families of English language learners (ELLs).
Research note:
The information on Colorín Colorado is based on a combination of direct research, expert opinion, and best practices. The field of teaching English language learners is highly complex and quickly evolving. While research is underway, the need for accessible information and practical classroom strategies continues to grow. As research becomes more definitive, the.....


