In today's educational landscape, state and local educational agencies (SEAs and LEAs) often experience challenges connecting large-scale accountability data with actual school improvement initiatives. These challenges tend to be rooted in incoherent design and use of data systems for continuous improvement. As we aim to support SEAs in…

Most districts help teachers use data to improve student learning, often supporting this effort with federal funds. But many teachers feel unprepared to use student data to inform their instruction -- referred to as data-driven instruction (DDI) -- and there is little evidence of whether it improves student achievement. This report assesses an…

The Professional Learning Reimagined Framework, developed by the West Virginia Board of Education (WVBE) and the West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE), provides a model for coordinated, cohesive professional learning and leadership processes and opportunities for West Virginia counties. A wealth of research has proven that the methods…

The focus on improving children's readiness for kindergarten has intensified globally. While most studies examine this issue prior to children entering kindergarten, little is known about how education stakeholders make sense of readiness once children enter kindergarten. This article addresses this gap by examining how a range of stakeholders…

Classroom-based physical activity (CBPA) is an emerging strategy for increasing youth physical activity, as well as improving academic achievement and on-task behavior. This paper describes the rationale, development, implementation, and evaluation of a professional development training designed for classroom and physical education teachers to…

The Learning School initiative completed its pilot testing in June 2016, with 28 schools, called catalyst schools, taking part. Catalyst schools were located in all eight regional education service agencies (RESAs) and were supported by RESA staff in implementing the Learning School approach. Five schools had been part of the program for 2 years…

The following profiles address how the state departments of education are helping educators prepare for and implement their states' new college- and career-readiness standards and aligned assessments, through professional learning. SREB researchers examined each state's major professional development efforts around its new standards in order to…

The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) provides professional development to teachers in the instructional strategies of the Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) and the Mathematics Design Collaborative (MDC). This professional development provides time for teachers to receive out-of-class guided instruction in planning assignments that engage…

The West Virginia Higher Education Report Card 2013 is the sixth in a revised series of accountability reports. Both the Higher Education Policy Commission and the Community and Technical College System are required by state code to report on system-wide progress toward achieving state postsecondary education objectives. This report continues to…

Federal education funding has often been overlooked by districts in search of sources of support for prevention. This guide is intended to help school districts take advantage of those funds by identifying K-12 grant programs in the U.S. Department of Education (ED) that could be used to implement prevention efforts in elementary and secondary…

Implementation of college- and career-readiness standards is some of the most important work currently underway in states to improve student achievement and public education overall. SREB examined the efforts of 14 states--including 11 SREB states--to support implementation of new college- and career-readiness standards. The goal of the research…

ICF International's white paper explores how implementation of social and emotional learning (SEL) has the potential to prepare students for workforce success and positively influence student engagement and academic performance while reducing dropout rates. Self-improvement and leadership development sections of bookstores are replete with texts…

This essay examines the current general education curriculum (gec) structure at a large institution where the gec program has been remodeled often to meet student needs. Assessment of this structure has been limited. Faculty and adviser perceptions of the gec's role in the larger curriculum, strengths, areas for improvement, and impact on student…

West Virginia Code §18B-1D-8 statutorily mandates the "West Virginia Higher Education Report Card." This annual accountability report provides year-end higher education statistics for both of the state's higher education systems, the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission (Commission) and West Virginia Council for Community and…

Implementation of college- and career-readiness standards is some of the most important work currently underway in states to improve public education and student achievement. This report provides a summary of findings from SREB's research into the efforts of 15 states--12 in the Southern Educational Research Board (SREB) region--to support…