The AIM process is a strategic planning process for school districts to create Comprehensive Health and Wellness Plans (CHWPs) aligned with the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child model. The purpose of this study is to describe results of this process as it was implemented with 21 rural school districts. An 81-item survey was completed by…

The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) has been a leader in the field of social and emotional learning (SEL) for over two decades. CASEL collaborates with thought leaders to equip educators, policymakers, and researchers with the knowledge and resources to make evidence-based SEL an integral part of equitable…

Our classrooms haven't kept pace with innovation. The Ford Model T represented breakthrough technology in its day--more than 100 years ago--but it wouldn't serve us well today. Likewise, our traditional classroom model from the same era doesn't work well for far too many students and teachers. In fact, as a result of this outdated model, it is…

Many school districts utilize a strategic plan to implement their district vision to accomplish goals important to their students, stakeholders, and community at-large. Often, however, school districts use student outcome data as the main success indicator of their strategic plan. This summative approach fails to capture interim successes, cannot…

In turnaround schools, traditional approaches to school improvement (and some say, even the recent seven billion dollar federal investment in school improvement) aren't enough -- but why? Schools that successfully achieve turnaround "do school" differently to break cycles of underperformance and maximize learning for all students, and…

Collaboration among Tribes, state educational agencies (SEAs), and local educational agencies (LEAs) is essential for supporting Native students and their education. This infographic highlights the importance of Native education and provides resources, examples, and funding opportunities to enhance collaboration.

Many professionals in the early childhood field are inspired by community-driven initiatives that hold great promise for transforming outcomes for the youngest children and their families. However, most collective impact efforts are mobilized in large urban areas, where early childhood professionals and civic leaders take the lead. New Mexico has…

The decision on how to protect the children and youth while at schools is a serious conversation with varying agreements on the best practices. Some feel that school personnel should not be trained nor expected to be able to react to an armed person while others believe that training of school personnel and allowing them to be armed will deter…

The United States Federal Government believes that "technology can be a powerful tool for transforming learning" (U.S. Department of Education, 2017, p. 1). The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the beliefs and actions of high school principals regarding technology integration using Bolman and Deal's 4 Frames (Structural,…

The Oakland Unified Schools District's (OUSD) strategic plan commits to ensuring that "every student is able to attend a quality school in their neighborhood (OUSD, 2015)." To operationalize this goal, a growing number of OUSD schools are supported to implement community school strategies. This brief describes organizational outcomes,…

More and more districts--and several states--are adopting funding models like student-based budgeting (also called weighted student funding or fair student funding) to increase equity and promote principal autonomy. Giving school leaders new resources and new flexibility is a good first step, but it doesn't automatically lead to improved student…

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore how the post-adoption experiences of elementary school leaders influence their use of student achievement data in making educational decisions, after the implementation of a student information system (SIS). The participants consisted of K-5 elementary principals and assistant…

This brief draws on interviews with school principals, community school managers (CSMs), and district leaders in two community schools and focused on school improvement efforts based on Oakland Unified School District's (OUSD) full-service community schools model (FSCS). New Highland RISE Community Elementary School (RISE Community) and Elmhurst…

Describing the variation in test scores between and within school districts is critical for: (1) for policy-related and descriptive work that investigates the sorting of students among districts and the differential effectiveness of those districts; and (2) for methodological work planning future experiments or interventions. Intraclass…

Everyone agrees that school in the fall cannot look the same as it did before the pandemic. Education leaders must organize people, time, and money to make up for learning losses, help students reconnect with schooling, support students' increased social and emotional needs, respond to physical distancing and sanitation requirements, and provide…