The Race to the Top and the School Improvement Grant programs provide resources to States to implement significant interventions to turn around their persistently lowest achieving schools. Implementation of school turnaround is a complex effort; States, local educational agencies (LEAs) and schools often engage outside experts and providers of…

Implementation of school turnaround strategies under School Improvement Grant and Race to the Top programs has provided States with a unique opportunity to rethink how to govern effectively and to organize their efforts to improve their lowest achieving schools. States have had to consider such issues as whether to provide support directly to…

Race to the Top States offer a wide range of supports for local educational agency (LEA) implementation of one of four school intervention models. Some States allocate resources on a regional basis, while others coordinate resources at the State level. Certain States also use data tools to measure district needs, capacity and progress on key…

This brief provides a snapshot of the rules governing classroom observations used in teacher evaluations in selected Race to the Top grantees. The information was collected in response to a technical assistance request to the Reform Support Network (RSN) from Georgia, where education leaders charged with designing that State's teacher evaluation…

The goal of this publication is to provide a snapshot of some of the publicly available resources describing efforts across Race to the Top States to ensure that turnaround schools have effective leaders. It is based on a review of Race to the Top State Annual Performance Reports, including State reports of Year 1 accomplishments and second year…

This guide describes emerging social media practices among State education agencies and other governmental organizations and suggests key steps and considerations for those interested in using social media to advance education reform.

This publication provides a snapshot of the rules for including student growth data in evaluations of teacher performance in selected Race to the Top grantees. The information was collected in response to a technical assistance request to the Reform Support Network (RSN) from the Georgia Department of Education, where education leaders charged…