As colleges focus more on centering equity in their structures, processes, and policies on campus, they are re-examining operations inside and outside the classroom. They are looking to better serve and support traditional community college students in creative and innovative ways. Deconstructing the semester structure changes how classes are…

School improvement plans (SIPs) have become a central feature of schooling. Educational leaders experience tension between balancing compliance with accountability demands and continuous improvement, and neither of these lenses is centered in the social justice necessary for closing opportunity gaps. We propose a new rubric for assessing the…

While research has generated abundant insight into effective professional learning methods, the field continues to suffer from a lack of systemic approaches. In response, a group of national professional learning leaders recently developed a framework that links proven professional learning methods to the strategic priorities of higher education…

Since 2010, the Institute for Personalized Learning (I4PL), a division of Cooperative Educational Service Agency (CESA) 1, has been collaborating with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction to inform the state's work with the Innovation Lab Network (ILN) managed by the Council of Chief State School Officers. ILN is a network of states that…

The advent of new technologies and increased access to robust connectivity is reshaping the K-12 landscape for teaching and learning. School districts nationwide are leveraging digital instructional materials and resources to deliver transformative and impactful personalized learning opportunities for students and to enhance the administrative…

In this paper, I present a design case of the problem-identification process prior to the initiation of a Networked Improvement Community (NIC). A NIC is a type of research-practice partnership (RPP) that brings together researchers and practitioners to tackle complex problems of practice, and in doing so, proposes a social reorganization of the…

Policy, systems, and environmental change are now widely accepted as critical to sustaining improvements in community health. Evidence suggests that such systems-level change is most effective when driven by community-based partnerships. Yet, after more than three decades of building community-based partnership work, health inequities have…

The SWIFT Center (Schoolwide Integrated Framework for Transformation) is an initiative to bring about educational equity district by district until all students excel, including students with the most profound needs. As the national technical assistance center to build schoolwide inclusive practices to improve academic and behavioral outcomes for…

These two qualitative descriptive case studies investigated supports and barriers to integrating Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as an instructional methodology in language arts and social studies departments at an urban and a suburban high school in Wisconsin. Integrated Comprehensive Systems (ICS) implementation was determined through the…

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.

Many U.S. public school systems now face three large demographic shifts: rising poverty, the growing number of students from immigrant families, and increasing populations of students of color. Yet, we know little about how district policymakers react to these important changes or indeed the factors that consistently shape their policymaking.…

The University of Wisconsin-Stout, recipient of the Baldrige National Quality Award in 2001, developed a planning system that has evolved into a comprehensive and collaborative process for visioning, developing and implementing goals, and tracking university performance. This chapter describes the tactics that have contributed greatly to the…

This policy analysis explains the need for a system approach to educator talent management. The report analyzes how state policies in the Midwest support the development of effective teachers and leaders throughout their career. The report focuses on state policies in teacher preparation including certification and licensure, recruitment and…

In response both to a growing national grumbling about the need for educational accountability and to a felt need to better define and focus on district priorities, the Madison Public Schools adopted a mangement by objectives (MBO) program in 1970. It is on the basis of three years' experience with this program that this book has been written. The…

This report describes phase VI of the Equity Staff Development project, an ongoing project to achieve equity and diversity at Wisconsin technical colleges by creating an institutional climate supporting achievement by all students. Among the project's major activities and outcomes are the following: the existing train-the-trainer format of peer…