Most teachers have limited flexibility in terms of their schedules, their opportunities for professional learning and collaboration, and how they use their time. However, recent data suggests that rethinking teacher time could be important to improving teacher recruitment and retention. How can districts and schools provide teachers more…

In 2015, the U.S. Congress passed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) that included provisions to support gifted and talented learners. The U.S. Department of Education's Consolidated State Plan template only required states to directly address the inclusion of gifted education under Title II, Part A: Supporting Effective Instruction (Section…

The spread of COVID-19 has caused major disruptions in the higher education space, and colleges and universities faced difficult decisions on how to reopen their campuses. At Indiana University Bloomington, student exposure to other students was reduced by leveraging the existing academic calendar and strategically managing course enrollment…

As one of the national leaders in innovative public education strategies focused on future talent development, Indiana is positioned to create a sustainable, collaborative strategy for K-12 Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) instruction, curriculum, and career exploration and exposure. To provide a comprehensive, coordinated,…

An innovative system-building initiative known as the STEM Learning Ecosystems Community of Practice (SLECoP) is transforming U.S. STEM education through cross-sector partnerships between schools, afterschool and summer programs, libraries, museums, and businesses, among others. Although logic models exist to describe how SLEs can make positive…

A century on from the height of John Dewey's educational writings and the reputation of the Gary Schools Plan as a model of progressive education, the paper reappraises two key matters: the relationship between John Dewey and William Wirt, the first superintendent of the Gary Schools in Gary Indiana, and the coherence between John Dewey's…

This article describes a professional learning plan created in the Fort Wayne Community Schools (Indiana, USA) for principals working and learning together on the RISE Indiana Teacher Effectiveness Rubric. This training plan ensures that principals are observing instructional practice in the same way and in agreement with the district's instrument…

Current research on computer technology integration in K-12 school classrooms indicates that student learning outcomes remain flat despite heavy investment. Examining school leadership conceptions about technology integration might reveal a way to reverse this trend. This study adapts a survey instrument from Brush and Bannon and applies it to…

This article provides information about an Indiana regional quantitative research study conducted in 2016 as part of a comprehensive national study designed to promote reflections about contemporary teaching-learning practices using a discrepancy survey instrument. This Indiana case study contained data about the differences between the desired…

This publication outlines the fundamental principles and process of Strategic School Design. Through more than a decade of research and practice in the area of school resource use, we have found that high-performing schools are responding to the changing context in education by using people, time, technology, and money in ways that look…

Dynamic planning, an approach to steadily put in motion some aspects of a strategic plan, even while the rest of the planning is in progress, has been used successfully over the past five years for implementing the IUPUI Academic Plan. The eleven major strategic initiatives that underlie the academic plan have enhanced the research, teaching, and…

In 2008, the U.S. Department of Education (the Department) launched a differentiated accountability pilot to allow states to distinguish between those schools identified for improvement in need of substantial help and those closer to meeting achievement goals. In July 2008 and January 2009, the Department approved waivers to give nine states the…

This report provides six mini-case studies of higher education policy reforms enacted in other states, exploring the important role that state policy leadership played in developing, promoting, and implementing these policies aimed at improving higher education outcomes, and discussing the relevance of each reform effort for California. This…

This report describes the use of Lead Turnaround Partners (LTPs) in the current School Improvement Grant (SIG) program and provides the results of document review, surveys, and interviews with eight State Education Agencies and seven Lead Turnaround Partner organizations. The study focuses on the implementation of the transformation and turnaround…

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) uses a suite of assessment tools to guide and reinforce a cycle of activities that creates an institutional culture of planning and decision making based on evidence. This cycle includes institutional planning (goal setting), implementation of plans, assessment of outcomes, use of findings…