The EdResearch for Action "Design Principles Series" focuses on a single program or practice that has been proven to have positive effects on student outcomes. Authors -- leading experts from across the field of education research -- look across many high-quality studies of similar programs to identify the components and conditions that…

U.S. in-service PK-12 teachers have less time for professional learning (PL) but their needs for applicable professional development (PD) have increased (Birch & Lewis, 2020) and teachers, both new to the field and veterans, are looking to reskill and upskill their knowledge and teaching abilities (Bayar, 2014; Birch & Lewis, 2020; Leung,…

The problem addressed in this study was that professional learning experiences offered to teachers are not designed and implemented by considering theories of human learning or theories of adult learning, with equity goals in mind for teachers and students (for teachers' professional growth and enhanced students' outcomes), and with context…

The provisions in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) include (1) the requirement for states to periodically review resource allocation in local education agencies (LEAs) serving a significant number of schools identified for comprehensive support and improvement (CSI),…

This Action Research study aimed to determine how to promote awareness of and to share successful sustainability practices in public education. Cycle 1 research was to investigate school districts that have successfully implemented sustainability practices to reduce their school carbon footprint. The Cycle 2 Action Step was designed to address the…

Culturally-relevant computing has been discussed as a way to promote K-12 Computer Science education and address ongoing challenges related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. What is not well understood about the practice of culturally-relevant computing, however, is how to bring together existing cultural frameworks and Computer Science…

The following resource is an impact story of how NCSI built the capacity of Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) to design a state system of support to begin addressing the special education teacher shortage. The resource provides context for the intensive technical assistance focusing on improvement science, provides qualitative and…

The geoscience community has begun to grapple with the whiteness of the community and the harm and erasure of Indigenous communities done by earth and environmental scientists. We have come to understand that to recruit and retain Indigenous students, geoscience education needs to be culturally responsive by explicitly centering Indigenous…

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…

When a researcher tests an educational program, product, or policy in a randomized controlled trial and detects a significant effect on an outcome, the intervention is usually classified as something that "works." When expected effects are not found, there is seldom an orderly and transparent analysis of plausible reasons why.…

While providing counseling services, school counselors may experience compassion fatigue and need opportunities for support and supervision. To address the ethical imperative of self-care and provide space for school counselors to connect and renew, one district offered a retreat experience designed to renew school counselors who support K-12…

Purpose: This study examines a university-based professional learning program, the University School Systems Program (USSP), designed to strengthen district- and school-level leadership for improvement. The program has a record of success in improving student outcomes in participating schools, yet little is known about how the program design may…

Policy development is fundamentally a process of negotiation. Legislation or other regulatory guidance often requires the support of a range of stakeholders to actually become policy. The resulting policy is therefore a compilation of interests, all partially represented in a final product that sufficiently satisfies enough key stakeholders to…

Digital technology and social media are rapidly changing the way that citizens consume, create, and share information. Many learners spend significant time each day online, yet they have never received training on how to engage meaningfully with the information they encounter. The country's civic present and future depend on our ability to…

In this thought experiment, we explore how to make access to individualized instruction and academic mentoring more equitable by taking tutoring to scale as a permanent feature of the U.S. public education system. We first synthesize the tutoring and mentoring literature and characterize the landscape of existing tutoring programs. We then outline…