The Race to the Top (RTTT) program incentivized states to use innovation for systemwide improvement of student outcomes, but little is known about how RTTT-funded innovation was sustained after the RTTT program ended. This mixed-methods study examined state and district approaches to sustaining an international innovation called "lesson…

The Early Childhood Directors Leadership Institute (ECDLI) project addressed a need for effective professional development with a series of Institutes using the Program Administration Scale (PAS), the Program Management Inventory (PMI), and the Plan-Do-Study-Act model, over a 3-year period. Each of the 100 participating program directors in the…

This document is from a featured presentation at the 2018 annual conference of the Science Teachers Association of Texas (STAT). The public schools are a fundamental element of our democratic society, and they have been the pathway to opportunity and a better life for generations of Americans. But at present, the American public school system is…

Rapid adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), the Race to the Top (RTTT) competition, and backlash around these policies created widespread uncertainty among state educational agencies (SEAs). SEAs may have not had a clear direction about how to support standards implementation in a new context, and therefore, may have looked to their…

Driven by Race to the Top funding and quickly designed and deployed in 2010-2011, a new teacher evaluation policy in Tennessee altered principals' supervisory practices regarding their use of time for observation and reporting, their interaction with teachers, and the methods for giving teachers performance ratings. In addition, student test score…

North Carolina's Race to the Top (RttT) grant earmarked approximately $17.5 million to "increase the number of principals qualified to lead transformational change in low-performing schools in both rural and urban areas" (NCDPI, 2010, p.10). To accomplish this, the state established three Regional Leadership Academies (RLAs)…

The aim of the current study is to assess school leaders' perceptions and practices in the context of a new policy that emphasizes teacher evaluation. The study draws from survey data of 606 K-12 school leaders in the USA in a state implementing a new teacher evaluation model under Race to the Top. Findings illustrate that school leaders spent…

We reviewed and synthesized 35 peer-reviewed empirical studies published between 2014-2018 that investigated district leaders', principals', and/or teachers' interpretations of and experiences with Race to the Top teacher evaluation systems. We analyzed evidence of how educators' prior experiences, beliefs, values, organizational contexts, and…

The Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) grants program, sponsored by the U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services, aimed to improve children's access to high quality early care and education. RTT-ELC awarded more than $1 billion over three rounds of grants to help states develop and implement systems that rate…

Set in a collective bargaining state in the Northeastern U.S., this exploratory case study investigated how a sample of 12 public school principals interpreted new teacher evaluation processes required by Race to the Top (RTTT). Principals reported that the RTTT evaluation system disrupted established routines and contractual guidelines for…

The past three decades in mathematics education policy and research have seen a considerable focus on algebra and its place in secondary schools. Access to and success in the first high school course, most often termed Algebra I, has been framed as a civil rights issue, a harbinger of college success, and a lynchpin to global competitiveness.…

Instructional coaching initiatives, primarily aimed at enhancing teachers' professional development, have become a popular avenue of school reform in districts across the United States. However, the precise role that instructional coaches should play in these reforms has largely remained ambiguous and unspecified. Further, not much is known about…

This paper examines the effect of a federally supported school turnaround program in North Carolina elementary and middle schools. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find that the turnaround program did not improve, and may have reduced, average school-level passing rates in math and reading. One potential contributor to that finding…

Research across the decades has confirmed that effective school leadership is associated with better outcomes for students and schools. A high-quality school leader affects dozens of teachers and hundreds or thousands of students. It is a pivotal role. From 2011 to 2016, The Wallace Foundation, through its Principal Pipeline Initiative (PPI),…

The purpose of this study was to examine and compare key elements of the actions that states in the USA and Australia took to implement the Common Core State Standards or Phase One of the Australian Curriculum, and what processes and products they used to facilitate implementation of these innovations. A rubric adapted from a diagnostic tool,…