Innovation in education is vital for responding to emerging challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and for building progress on longstanding challenges in schools. The infusion of substantial, highly flexible pots of federal relief dollars created an opportunity to pilot new programs and initiatives. Many states and districts opted to invest…

The five states in the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Northwest Region have many rural schools that have been designated as in need of improvement. And all five states had rural schools in the first cohort of federal School Improvement Grant (SIG) recipients. To address school improvement, the majority of those schools implemented the…

This brief summarizes the findings from a study that surveyed principals of rural schools nationwide that were designated as in need of improvement and that used the transformation model under the federal School Improvement Grant (SIG) program. It provides information about the use of SIG funds in rural areas and is designed to help state leaders…

This report summarizes the findings and recommendations of Individualized Learning Plan (ILP) research and technical assistance activities that were completed between 2007 and 2013. The purpose of these activities was to investigate whether ILPs should be considered a promising practice for youth with and without disabilities and to identify…

With middle-income jobs in decline, entrepreneurship offers an increasingly promising pathway out of poverty; but few low-income New Yorkers are currently taking this route to economic self-sufficiency. This report provides the most comprehensive examination of low-income entrepreneurship in New York. The report documents current self-employment…

The authors review the relationship of technical assistance agencies with both the sponsor and clients, as well as the general reasons for technical assistance. Technical assistance efforts usually involve a three-party relationship--the funding agency, the client system, and technical assistance coordinator. Technical assistance systems in…

A study was conducted to describe the population of alternative models for comprehensive school reform in the region served by Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL). The study addressed the questions of whether schools that did not propose to adopt widely known or implemented reform models were able to design a reform process…

As a result of an evaluation of Title IV programs commissioned by the Utah State Office of Education, this manual addresses the needs of government agencies in providing technical assistance, such as proposal and report preparation or budget management, to local education agencies. Emphasis falls on the funding of technical assistance services,…

The Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired provides outreach services for students with visual impairments throughout the state. Outreach services staff serve families and agencies by providing on-site consultation, workshop presentations, resource and referral, and technology loan services. (JDD)

This document contains the fourth of five volumes reporting the activities and results of a career education evaluation project conducted to accomplish the following two objectives; (1) to improve the quality of evaluations by career education projects funded by the United States Office of Career Education (OCE) through the provision of technical…

Describes an enrollment-forecasting process in which technical experts and local community stakeholders worked together to produce cost-effective, yet fairly accurate data. The large Oregon district employing the process gained insights to guide its attendance-zone and facilities-planning decisions and to garner community support. (MLH)

The Documentation and Technical Assistance Project (DTA) was created, in part, to test a premise related to educational problem-solving. It was hypothesized that knowledge gained through on-site documentation of school level problem solving practices could be transformed for utilization (linkage) by other schools and communities to improve the…

The pupil appraisal process in Louisiana special education services features resource teams from eight universities throughout the state working through interagency agreements between the universities and the State Department of Education. The university teams provide technical assistance, annual compliance reviews, and inservice workshops on…

This booklet was designed as a guide for administrators involved in the school desegregation process in Illinois. The following information is provided: a list of requirements for the elimination and prevention of school segregation and racial discrimination under Illinois' School Code; a model for local districts to use in implementing…

Illustrates the web of relationships among state education agencies, regional educational service agencies (RESAs), state legislatures, state boards of education, and school districts through case studies of two RESA systems. Also compares the "active" and "quiet" approaches taken by the respective states and identifies policy…