State education agencies (SEAs) play a unique and essential role in supporting schools and school districts as they develop prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery protocols for their emergency operations plans (EOPs). With input from a broad array of stakeholders and experts, SEAs are positioned to aid schools and school…

The Maine Department of Education (MDOE) leveraged the U.S. Department of Education's Rethink K-12 Education Models grant to provide significant funding to districts to support innovative solutions to persistent problems of practice--particularly those heightened by the pandemic. MDOE's grant began in fall 2020. It prioritized innovations focused…

Special education professionals serve as facilitators of Individualized Education Program (IEP) team meetings. This study explores how facilitators see their IEP meeting roles and probes further into how IEP facilitators envision an ideal IEP meeting in school districts with rural schools. Findings indicate that facilitators see their roles in…

Education research is too often based on gaps in published research or the niche interests of researchers, rather than the priority challenges faced by schools and districts. As a result, the education studies that researchers design and publish are often not applicable to schools' most pressing needs. To spur future research to address the…

According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA's) research on historical flood risk, 98 percent of U.S. counties have been impacted by a flooding event. Not only do flood events occur in and impact all regions of the United States, but they are also costly. Therefore, it is in the interest of communities for education…

Although varying among and within the states, the percentage of students with 504 plans is steadily and significantly increasing as a national average. Although the professional literature addresses the legal standards for eligibility for 504 plans, it has not provided up-to-date information to practitioners as to the legal standard for the…

School preparedness is strengthened by prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery activities (also known as the five preparedness mission areas). This fact sheet describes what prevention is, how prevention is connected to the other preparedness missions, what prevention efforts planning teams may want to consider, and how…

This article describes a learning partnership between district or county leaders and school leaders to create a system of principal professional learning that came to life in principal learning communities across a district or multiple-district region. For more than a decade, Learning Forward has engaged with district-level leaders as learning…

This publication serves as a technical paper or How-To-Guide through a detailed description of the intentional step-by-step process Kentucky's executive leaders, educators, and stakeholders used to co-create a Mathematics Usable Innovation. The How-To-Guide includes italicized links to resources: Kentucky Examples, activities and research on the…

In this practice brief, we describe several current examples of approaches that are aimed at improving outcomes for students entering high school. Additionally, we present strategies to disrupt the negative trajectory for students with EBD, who seldom receive coordinated, individualized supports during the critical transition from middle to high…

Every child is unique and learns in different ways. Some children are identified as needing special education services to support his or her learning at school. Parents can play a major role in shaping the services a child receives. This guidebook has been written for parents, guardians, and surrogate parents of a child (ages 3 to 21 or…

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 New York State Department of Education (NYSED) has been supporting selected districts in the planning and implementation of PreK-3rd Grade systems. NYSED is supporting the use of the Framework for Planning, Implementing, and Evaluating PreK-3rd Grade Approaches developed by Kauerz and Coffman (2013). Recognizing the ultimate goal of PreK-3rd…

Within the SWIFT framework, the Inclusive Policy Structure and Practice domain addresses the need for a supportive, reciprocal partnership between the school and its district or local educational agency. Therefore, intentional and effective policy decision-making processes are integral to SWIFT implementation. Such processes create opportunities…

The Schoolwide Integrated Framework for Transformation (SWIFT) employs six technical assistance (TA) practices that support an initial transformation process while simultaneously building system capacity to sustain and scale up equity-based inclusion in additional schools and districts over time. This paper explains these individual practices and…