REL Midwest REL Midwest: An Overview Matt Dawson Director, REL Midwest July 2012

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Research Alliances Alliance NameGoal Beating the Odds Research Alliance Develop policy or other levers to improve outcomes of persistently low-performing schools College & Career Success Research Alliance Develop the capacity to design and implement evidence-based policies and programs that support college access, college completion, and workforce success Dropout Prevention Research Alliance To answer the overall question of "What are effective district-level programs and services to reduce dropout rates in high-need schools?" Early Childhood Education Research Alliance Understanding and improving the quality of early childhood education programs Leadership for School Improvement Research Alliance Develop capacity to use data to design and implement evidence-based school leadership policies and programs Rural Research Alliance Develop the capacity to design and implement evidence-based policy analyses and research programs that support rural education State Data Directors Research Alliance Conducting high-quality research and evaluation focused on priority topics, and helping policymakers and practitioners incorporate data- based inquiry practices into their ongoing decision making Teacher Effectiveness Research Alliance Provide research and technical assistance for the purposes of evaluating and conceivably scaling up effective teaching practices Urban Research Alliance Generate a series of content-based projects focused on the unique needs of urban districts aligned with REL Midwest priority topics Virtual Education Research Alliance To understand what kinds of supports states can provide to virtual teachers to improve the performance of online teachers and, secondarily, to improve student achievement

Examples of Year 1 TA  MURA: District is partnering with Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Midwest to develop a system for monitoring implementation fidelity of Tier 2 interventions that is capable of providing formative feedback to district and school personnel who are implementing these interventions  Dropout Prevention: Examining predictors of high school dropout; workshops to implement an early warning system tool  College and Career Success: Literature review; data catalog and gap analysis  Leadership for School Improvement: Literature review; survey development; data catalog and gap analysis; report of “baseline” PLC/coaching practices 4

5 Examples of Year 1 Research and Evaluation  Beating the Odds: Examining MDE’s identification approaches, with the goal of providing information that will assist MDE in the revision of these approaches, if appropriate  College and Career Success: Identifying predictors of college readiness among measures collected in the state longitudinal data system.  MURA: Study examining the relationship between student, teacher, and parent survey measures and school productivity in order to provide evidence on the utility of surveys as a component of principal evaluation.  Early Childhood Education: Documents the distribution of ratings in ECE settings in Michigan with the TQRIS as currently implemented and proposes a series of sensitivity analyses that examine whether and how ratings of quality would change, given changes in the calculation or scoring structure of Michigan’s TQRIS

6 Matt Dawson P: (630) REL Midwest 1120 East Diehl Road, Suite 200 Naperville, IL General Information: