Instructional coaches support teacher professional improvement and subsequent student learning through their instructional leadership; however, individual interpretations of district-wide instructional goals influence the work each instructional coach carries out at different school sites. This leads to a lack of systemic focus to ensure the work…

The 42 school districts participating in the state of Washington's Inclusionary Practices Project achieved a significant 12.8% increase in inclusion in the least restrictive environment (LRE 1, or in general education for 80-100% of the school day) over four years, surpassing the state average increase of 6.8%. Katie Novak and Helene Paroff…

This article focuses on the co-operation between the Swedish National Agency for Education and school actors at the municipal level, examined from the latter's perspective, within the context of a state-initiated school improvement programme, namely Co-operation for the Best School Possible (CBS). Co-operation between different levels of the…

The academic success of historically and systematically excluded (HSE) students, including Black, Brown, Indigenous, low-income, multilingual learners, and students with learning differences, remains impacted by social position and identity factors. Despite numerous education reform efforts, equity in education continues to be a pressing challenge…

Across the country, district-community teams are tackling pressing and complex educational challenges with Inclusive Innovation, an education R&D model that starts with centering the needs of those most impacted by these challenges. This paper shares the stories, solutions, outcomes, and learnings from years of deep collaboration in the words…

Purpose: Many researchers partner with schools but may be unfamiliar with practices for initiating contact and sustaining relationships with school leaders. Partnering with schools requires significant effort from the researcher to nurture communication and trust. This can pose challenges for researchers who are new to the field, have relocated to…

Purpose: School leaders rely on a number of collaborative policy tools to address fiscal and governance issues. While prior research has examined the dynamics and implications of research-practice and public-private partnerships, this study addresses a third form of collaboration: interdistrict cooperative agreements. Method: We develop a unique…

This case study explores a county-wide initiative to improve school attendance through a successful network collaboration among organizations within Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. The network was a collaboration between nonprofit, for-profit, governmental, and educational leaders who sought to raise awareness about the effects of chronic…

COVID-19 requires educational leaders to collectively make sense of their inclusive practices. This qualitative study explores how COVID-19 crisis shaped Israeli superintendents' and principals' role in fostering school sense-making processes during a reform based on Amendment No. 11 to the Special Education Law. Data were collected with 22 Jewish…

Education researchers claim collaboration between school district leaders and principals is one of the key factors in successful school districts. Collaboration creates alignment and coherence throughout the organization. Factors that foster this collaboration are limited throughout education literature. This qualitative study explored factors…

Purpose: As school districts evolve in their ability to actively support schools and educators, they must simultaneously contend with external policies that create additional demands on time and resources. This includes accountability policies aimed at increasing district and school capacity. This study uses Malen and Rice's (2004) dual dimensions…

The COVID-19 pandemic, along with historical inequities, resulted in a widening of the achievement gap between underserved populations and more advantaged students. In response to this issue, California took action by allocating additional funds to public school districts for out-of-school-time services through the Expanded Learning Opportunities…

Using a zone of mediation framework, we explore how one school district designed a community-based accountability system (CBAS) reflecting community stakeholders' values, priorities, and goals. We collected rich data sets from a document analysis, focus group, and individual interviews. Our findings indicated a strong dissatisfaction with…

In Colorado, a grassroots accountability and continuous improvement network is uniting far-flung rural school districts--with members as many as 400 miles apart--in a collaborative effort to address the unique needs of Colorado's rural students. As in other states, Colorado rural districts must deal with funding disparities, isolation, education…

This qualitative descriptive study aimed to explore how culturally diverse parents describe collaboration, such as communications, culture-sharing, and decision-making, with early childhood special education teams in one school district in the Pacific Northwest. The study was theoretically founded on Bronfenbrenner's bioecological systems theory…