REL Southeast Director’s Email—2023 Partnership Highlights

Note the item about the Florida Virtual School below.

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REL Southeast Director’s Email

January 2023 Greetings from the REL Southeast, In the past year, the REL Southeast has continued its pivotal role in advancing education across Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and South Carolina. Throughout the year, REL Southeast has actively engaged with educators, policymakers, and stakeholders, conducting rigorous research studies, offering technical assistance, and disseminating evidence-based practices to address critical educational challenges. Collaborating closely with state education agencies and districts, REL Southeast focused on boosting literacy, math, and science education, supporting school improvement initiatives, enhancing educator effectiveness, and fostering data-driven decision-making. Amidst its efforts, REL Southeast has strived to empower educators with valuable resources and knowledge, aiming to drive positive changes and improve student outcomes within the southeastern United States. REL Southeast invites educators, families, and administrators to explore a highlight from each of our collaborative partnerships. We hope you find these materials informative and useful, and as always, thank you for helping to improve educational outcomes for every student in our region. With gratitude, Dr. Nicole Patton Terry Director, REL Southeast South Carolina Partnership to Implement Professional Learning Community: Emergent Literacy The Partnership to Implement Professional Learning Community: Emergent Literacy (PLC-EL) at preschool sites in South Carolina completed all four modules of the PLC-EL. The final session occurred in-person and in addition to providing training on the final module, it served as a capstone and celebration to reflect on implementation of the PLC-EL at the preschool sites overall and for site facilitators and leaders to plan for sustainability. Click here to learn more about the partnership. Alabama Research Partnership on Improving English Learner Outcomes REL Southeast implemented a train-the-trainer model for the WWC Practice Guide, Teaching Academic Content and Literacy to English Learners in Elementary and Middle Schools, and the companion PLC Facilitator’s Guide with twelve regional EL coaches and district trainers who co-delivered these trainings to school PLCs. Click here to learn more about the partnership. Mississippi Adolescent Literacy Partnership REL Southeast staff filmed English, social studies, and science teachers incorporating evidence-based literacy practices into their instruction in Laurel, Mississippi elementary, middle, and high schools. Video clips will be included in the Professional Learning Community: Grades 4-12 Content Area Literacy tool REL Southeast is developing in conjunction with the partnership. Click here to learn more about the partnership. Florida Virtual School Partnership The FLVS/REL Southeast Partnership kicked off their new collaborative project on engaging families in K-5 math and literacy with a session at the Florida Virtual School Annual Professional Development Conference in Orlando on September 19. This session focused on ideas for adapting activities in REL Appalachia’s Community Math Night Facilitator’s Toolkit to the virtual school context. The new project, Overcome the Overwhelm: Engaging Virtual School Families in Reading and Math through Strategic Sharing of Digital Resources, will run through June of 2026. Click here to learn more about the partnership.

North Carolina Competency-Based Education Partnership During 2023, the quarterly partnership meetings centered around distinct pillars of their Competency-based Education (CBE) Mastery Framework: Structure, Culture, Teaching, and Learning. National experts were welcomed to each meeting to share their relevant research on the respective topics. In the last quarter, students from Morgan Elementary and the Northeast Academy for Aerospace and Advanced Technologies were invited to share their experiences of learning within a CBE environment. Click here to learn more about the partnership.

School Climate and Literacy for Georgia Through the SCAL4GA partnership, the Georgia Department of Education conducted analyses to better understand the relationship between school climate and literacy outcomes. The results of the analyses showed that in Georgia the School Climate Star Rating was positively related to literacy scores. Additionally, the results showed that among the star rating dimensions, the School Climate surveys had the strongest relationship to literacy. After completion, REL Southeast and its core partners developed an infographic that described the project and its results. Click here to learn more about the partnership. Florida Panhandle K-5 Literacy Partnership REL Southeast recently completed training for Florida Panhandle literacy coaches on Recommendation 2 of the Assisting Students Struggling with Reading: Response to Intervention (RtI) and Multi-Tier Intervention in the Primary Grades practice guide: Provide time for differentiated reading instruction for all students based on assessments of students’ current reading level. Click here to learn more about the partnership. Diversifying the Teacher Pipeline with Historically Black Colleges and Universities In November 2023, REL Southeast convened partners for the second session of a series of activities to increase research and dissemination to enhance and diversify the teacher pipeline and workforce in Mississippi. In the in-person session, Partnerships Matter: Increasing Research Productivity and Rigorous Relevant Research, faculty and administrators from Jackson State University College of Education and Human Development discussed essential components of building, strengthening, and sustaining collaborative research partnerships to support evidence use in education. Click here to learn more about the partnership. You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website or provided your information at a REL Southeast sponsored event. Our mailing address is: REL Southeast at Florida State University 2010 Levy Avenue Suite 100 Tallahassee, FL 32310

REL Southeast Director’s Email—April 2023

Note that competency-based education or CBE is often used as a rationale for increase corporate ed tech involvement in schooling.  In fact, those of us who have been around for a while remember the transition that iNACOL/Aurora Institute went through when they reached what many of us saw as the near maximum level of expanding the corporate involvement directly in online and blended learning, and they transitioned more towards the personalized learning and CBE to open up new avenues for their corporate clients.

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REL Southeast Director’s Email

April 2023 Greetings from the REL Southeast, Competency-based education (CBE) is an approach to teaching and learning that focuses on mastery of specific skills and knowledge rather than traditional measures of academic progress such as time spent in a classroom or grades earned on tests. CBE can help support student achievement by providing a personalized, clear, and flexible approach that promotes real-world application. Social and emotional learning (SEL) helps students develop the necessary skills to succeed in a CBE environment by focusing on building social and emotional competencies including self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. These skills help students develop their ability to communicate effectively, manage their emotions, build positive relationships, and make responsible choices.1 This month, REL Southeast would like to encourage practitioners to learn more about CBE and SEL by exploring resources the Institute of Education Sciences has produced around these topics. We hope you find these materials informative and useful, and as always, thank you for helping to improve educational outcomes for every student in our region. With gratitude, Dr. Nicole Patton Terry Director, REL Southeast 1 Kendziora, K., & Yoder, N. (2016). When Districts Support and Integrate Social and Emotional Learning (SEL): Findings from an Ongoing Evaluation of Districtwide Implementation of SEL. Education Policy Center at American Institutes for Research. http://educationpolicy.air.org/ North Carolina Competency-Based Education Partnership This blog post from REL Southeast defines CBE as a personalized learning model and describes the work being conducted by the North Carolina Competency-Based Education Partnership around the topic. Click here to read the blog. Competency-Based Education Framework Series   CBE Defined In this video, we share the North Carolina Research Alliance’s definition of Competency-Based Education (CBE) and an overview of the CBE Mastery Framework. The video also identifies the benefits of CBE over the traditional model, including increased flexibility, improved engagement of students, more authentic assessments and grades, and student ownership of the learning process. This video will appeal to anyone who is interested in getting a general understanding for what CBE is and the benefits of the model. Click here to watch the video. CBE Structure This video highlights the role of administrators at the state, district, and school levels in putting elements in place that allow for CBE implementation. State, district, and school administrators tend to have the most control over the structure elements that cultivate and promote CBE, from employing an appropriate learning management system to creating a conducive school schedule. This video also features administrators who are implementing CBE. Click here to watch the video. CBE Culture School leaders play a key role in setting the vision and creating the culture within a school. This video features school principals who have shifted their school’s grading practices from a traditional letter-grade system to a CBE mastery-based grading protocol to understand how key cultural elements were addressed. Click here to watch the video. CBE Learning A foundational concept of CBE is a student-centered approach to learning. This video contains conversations with students at various grade levels who have taken ownership of their learning and begun to advocate for their learning within a CBE classroom. Click here to watch the video. CBE Teaching Instruction in a CBE environment focuses on each student’s ability, learning style, and learning pace and shifts from teaching to facilitating. This video focuses on the elements contained within the teaching dimension, including teachers as facilitators or coaches, personalized learning, tools and resources for teaching, content expertise, curriculum design, and assessment design and use. Click here to watch the video. Competency-Based Education Mastery Framework The CBE Mastery Framework defines key components within an authentic CBE environment across the dimensions of Structure, Culture, Teaching, and Learning. Click here to explore the framework. A Review of Instruments for Measuring Social and Emotional Learning Skills Among Secondary School Students This resource, developed by the Regional Education Laboratory Northeast & Islands in collaboration with its Social and Emotional Learning Alliance, presents social and emotional learning instruments and the reliability and validity information available for those instruments. Specifically, this resource indicates whether psychometric information was available for reliability and seven components of validity–content, substantive, structural, external, generalizability, consequential, and fairness. Click here to explore the tool. A Review of the Literature on Social and Emotional Learning for Students Ages 3–8: Characteristics of Effective Social and Emotional Learning Programs This four-part series of related reports examines what is known about social and emotional learning (SEL) programs for students ages 3-8. The report series addresses four issues raised by the REL Mid-Atlantic Early Childhood Education Research Alliance: characteristics of effective SEL programs (part 1), implementation strategies and state and district policies that support SEL programming (part 2), teacher and classroom strategies that contribute to social and emotional learning (part 3), and outcomes of social and emotional learning among different student populations and settings (part 4) and identifies key components of effective SEL programs and offers guidance on selecting programs. Click here to explore the series.

You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website or provided your information at a REL Southeast sponsored event. Our mailing address is: REL Southeast at Florida State University 2010 Levy Avenue Suite 100 Tallahassee, FL 32310

REL Southeast Director’s Email—February 2023

No K-12 distance, online, and/or blended learning items in this REL newsletter, but the webinars below may be of interest to some folks.

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REL Southeast Director’s Email

February 2023 Greetings from the REL Southeast, Researchers at the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights have established that racial and ethnic minorities, children from low-income backgrounds, and children who are not proficient in English, oftentimes do not have the same educational opportunities as their counterparts who are White, from higher income backgrounds, and are proficient in English. These contrasting opportunities and resulting experiences have contributed to significant racial, economic, and English language achievement gaps,1 which may have been worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic.2, 3 RELs play an important role in addressing disparities in student achievement, both by contributing to research on how experiences within the country’s education system differ by context and student group, thereby impacting outcomes, and by identifying potential solutions to prevent inequities and promote student success. This month, we’d like to share several resources that approach educational equity from a variety of stakeholder perspectives. We hope you find these materials informative and useful, and as always, thank you for helping to improve educational outcomes for every student in our region. With gratitude, Dr. Nicole Patton Terry Director, REL Southeast 1 Hussar, B., Zhang, J., Hein, S., Wang, K., Roberts, A., Cui, J., Smith, M., Bullock Mann, F., Barmer, A., and Dilig, R. (2020). The Condition of education 2020 (NCES 2020-144). U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2020144. 2 Dorn, E., Hancock, B., Sarakatsannis, J., & Viruleg, E. (2020). COVID-19 and learning loss – disparities grow and students need help. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/covid-19-and-learning-loss-disparities-grow-and-students-need-help. 3 Ibid. Creating Culturally Affirming Spaces Webinar Series In this two-part series, presenters and practitioners discussed the practical knowledge and leadership skills necessary to begin creating culturally affirming spaces to make schools more safe and supportive environments for culturally, linguistically, and gender-diverse students. Webinar 1: Creating Culturally Affirming Spaces: School and Classroom Practices The first webinar expanded knowledge and provided practical, evidence-based examples of systems, policies, and practices that are culturally affirming—what they are and what they are not—to inform instruction, school climate-related practices, and everyday decisions that shape the academic and social-emotional well-being of students and their families. Click here to watch the archived webinar and explore resources. Webinar 2: Creating Culturally Affirming Spaces: A Systems Orientation The second webinar expanded on how culturally responsive strategies can be used to support academic and social and emotional development, and participants learned about evidence-based systemic leadership approaches and strategies for implementing culturally affirming environments. Click here to watch the archived webinar and explore resources. Career and Technical Education (CTE) Data in Oregon: Using CTE Data to Identify Equity Gaps in Oregon and Strategies for Closing Equity Gaps in CTE In collaboration with the Oregon Graduation and Postsecondary Success Alliance, REL Northwest held a series of trainings to support district leaders and CTE instructors in Oregon by increasing their understanding of CTE participation, concentration, and persistence rates of students in their districts, with a focus on special populations of students as defined in the reauthorization of the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V). Click here to watch the presentation and explore resources. Advancing Equity: Five Districts Focus on Improving Outcomes of Black and Latinx Students This blog post from REL West discusses the Equity in Action project, created to increase the safety, well-being, and engagement of Black and Latinx students and their families. The post details the project’s origins, outlines project activities, and notes positive takeaways. Click here to read the blog post. Culturally Responsive Assessment: Goals, Challenges, and Implications This infographic outlines key components of a culturally responsive pedagogy, including cultural sensitivity, relevancy, responsiveness, and sustainability, and presents considerations for designing and selecting culturally responsive assessments. Click here to explore the infographic. Improving and Diversifying the Teacher Pipeline This webinar highlighted research takeaways and actionable strategies to help states and teacher preparation programs to build stronger, more diverse teacher pipelines. REL Midwest shared key findings from the study Understanding the Teacher Pipeline for Indiana’s K–12 Public Schools. Presenters from state education agencies and teacher preparation programs reflected on the study findings, barriers to entering and completing educator preparation programs, strategies to improve equity, and strategies to support different affinity groups. Click here to watch the presentation and explore resources. Actionable district strategies to build a diverse teacher workforce and foster educational equity This blog post from REL Midwest discusses their Racine Unified School District in Wisconsin partnership project aimed at promoting strategies that can improve a district’s capacity to hire and retain Black teachers. The post details the project’s coaching activities and describes three best practices for implementing a cycle of continuous improvement. Click here to read the blog post.

You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website or provided your information at a REL Southeast sponsored event. Our mailing address is: REL Southeast at Florida State University 2010 Levy Avenue Suite 100 Tallahassee, FL 32310

REL Southeast Director’s Email—January 2023

No K-12 distance, online, and/or blended learning items in this REL newsletter.

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REL Southeast Director’s Email

January 2023 Greetings from the REL Southeast, Today’s global information economy requires that students possess more advanced literacy skills than previous generations. However, improvements in the literacy development of older students have not kept pace with the increasing demands for literacy in the workplace or postsecondary educational settings. Data from the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in reading reports that only 31 percent of eighth-grade students were able to perform at or above the NAEP Proficient level on the reading assessment, 3 percentage points lower than 2019 scores. To improve reading ability, students must refine and build upon their reading skills, and teachers of adolescents who struggle with reading should help them acquire more advanced skills. The REL Southeast has and continues to work with states, districts, and schools to support educators and help them achieve this goal. This month, we’d like to share resources regarding adolescent literacy that were designed specifically for classroom teachers, school leaders, and even parents and caregivers. We hope you find these materials informative and useful, and as always, thank you for helping to improve educational outcomes for every student in our region. With gratitude, Dr. Nicole Patton Terry Director, REL Southeast Improving Literacy in Mississippi –The Journey Continues  The Mississippi success story of improving the literacy skills of students in the early grades is widely known and well-documented. The state continues to focus on strong literacy instruction in grades K-3 but is also turning their attention to the next leg of their journey to improve the skills of ALL students, which is to address instruction in grades 4 and up. In this recent blog post, you’ll learn about the REL Southeast’s Mississippi Adolescent Literacy Partnership and the work they’re doing around the state to improve adolescent literacy skills and provide training to literacy intervention teachers. Click here to read the blog. Explore the Practice Guides discussed in the blog Teaching Secondary Students to Write Effectively Improving Adolescent Literacy: Effective Classroom and Intervention Practices Guide and Checklists for a School Leader’s Walkthrough during Literacy Instruction in Grades 4-12 This tool was developed to assist school leaders in observing specific research-based practices during literacy instruction in grade 4-12 classrooms and students’ independent use or application of those practices. The tool aims to help school leaders conduct brief and frequent walkthroughs throughout the school year. Click here to explore the tool. Literacy Tips for Parents of Adolescents This infographic provides several evidence-informed activities that parents can initiate at home to help ensure successful literacy outcomes for their adolescent students. Click here to explore the infographic.

You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website or provided your information at a REL Southeast sponsored event. Our mailing address is: REL Southeast at Florida State University 2010 Levy Avenue Suite 100 Tallahassee, FL 32310

REL Southeast Director’s Email—December, 2022

The NAEP information at the top of this REL newsletter is interesting.

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REL Southeast Director’s Email

December 2022 Greetings from the REL Southeast, As we enter the final month of 2022, the effects of an almost three year-long pandemic on student performance are sharpening into focus. This October, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)—often referred to as the Nation’s Report Card—was released and provided a sobering look at average math and reading scores across the nation. We also invite you to read IES director Mark Schneider’s recent blog article which provides more context about the NAEP scores. As Director Schneider noted, these scores represent the largest declines in NAEP history. However, declines were evident before the pandemic, especially for students who were already struggling with reading and math in school. Though troubling, there was also evidence to suggest student performance is moving in the right direction as typical classroom and school practices resume. So, it is important we remain steadfast in our efforts to support student learning and achievement in school. The NAEP scores suggest that many children are in of need additional support with math, and conversations with our partners across the region agree. Therefore, this month we’d like to share several resources that educators and families can use to support math development and instruction. We hope you find these materials informative and useful, and as always, thank you for helping to improve educational outcomes for every student in our region. With gratitude, Dr. Nicole Patton Terry Director, REL Southeast Teaching Math to Young Children This What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) practice guide provides five recommendations for teaching math to children in preschool, prekindergarten, and kindergarten. Each recommendation includes implementation steps and solutions for common roadblocks. The recommendations also summarize and rate supporting evidence. This guide is geared toward teachers, administrators, and other educators who want to build a strong foundation for later math learning. Click here to explore the practice guide. REL Central videos on WWC practice guide Teaching Math to Young Children This series of REL Central videos focus on actionable strategies to increase the quality of math instruction in the early years by providing recommendations that address implementation steps and common roadblocks experienced by early learners. Dr. Douglas Clements presents these brief discussions using the five recommendations in the What Works Clearinghouse practice guide Teaching Math to Young Children. Click here to explore the videos. Teaching Math to Young Children for Families and Caregivers These family and caregiver resources and activities, organized by math topics such as counting or shapes, include research-based and easy-to-follow steps to help you support your child’s math skills during a typical day. Click here to explore the resources. Assisting Students Struggling with Mathematics: Intervention in the Elementary Grades This WWC practice guide provides evidence-based practices that can help teachers tailor their instructional approaches and/or their mathematics intervention programs to meet the needs of their students. Click here to explore the practice guide. Using number lines to teach number concepts in the elementary grades This infographic, developed by the REL Southeast, presents important number principles included in the contemporary state standards for which the number line can be useful tool to build understanding. Click here to explore the infographic. Improving Mathematical Problem Solving for Students in Grades 4 Through 8 This WWC practice guide provides five recommendations for improving students’ mathematical problem solving in grades 4 through 8. This guide is geared toward teachers, math coaches, other educators, and curriculum developers who want to improve the mathematical problem solving of students. Click here to explore the practice guide. Professional Learning Community: Improving Mathematical Problem Solving for Students in Grades 4 Through 8 The REL Southeast developed this facilitator’s guide on the topic of mathematical problem solving for use in professional learning community (PLC) settings. The facilitator’s guide is a set of professional development materials designed to supplement the What Works Clearinghouse practice guide, Improving Mathematical Problem Solving in Grades 4 Through 8. Click here to explore the PLC. Click here to explore an infographic about the PLC. Using the Practice Guide to Improve Mathematical Problem Solving in Grades 4 Through 8 In this recorded webinar, REL Northeast & Islands presented an overview of the practice guide approach, including how this approach produces credible, evidence-based, and useful recommendations that can be applied in practice. Also discussed was how the practice guide can be used to guide the professional development of mathematics teachers using examples. Finally, a mathematics teacher and coach shared their experiences and discussed how educators in leadership positions can support teachers as they use these practices. Click here to watch the video. Supporting Mathematical Problem Solving at Home This REL Northeast & Islands guide helps families and caregivers carry out recommended practices described in the What Works Clearinghouse educator’s practice guide, Improving Mathematical Problem Solving in Grades 4 Through 8. Click here to explore the guide. Teaching Strategies for Improving Algebra Knowledge in Middle and High School Students This WWC practice guide provides three recommendations for teaching algebra to students in middle school and high school. Each recommendation includes implementation steps and solutions for common roadblocks. This guide is geared toward teachers, administrators, and other educators who want to improve their students’ algebra knowledge. Click here to explore the practice guide. Foundational Knowledge and Skills for Success in Algebra I This REL Central infographic presents the results from a study in which educators from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education partnered with REL Central to investigate the specific foundational knowledge and skills that are associated with achievement in Algebra I. Click here to explore the infographic. Ingredients for a Successful Algebra Program in Middle School In this recorded webinar, REL Central presenters review research on how Algebra I in a middle school is situated within a broader course sequence and teacher characteristics associated with student achievement in middle school Algebra I. Click here to watch the video. Professional Learning Models to Support Student Success in Mathematics The REL Appalachia Student Success in Mathematics partnership (SSMP) focused on supporting teachers in using evidence-based mathematics instruction in their classrooms, with goal of increasing students’ readiness for algebra I and opening doors for future high school, postsecondary, and workforce success. To support this goal, the partnership launched the Professional Learning Models for Success in Mathematics project to assist the SSMP divisions in designing and carrying out evidenced-based professional development to improve mathematics teaching and learning. Click here to explore the models.

You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website or provided your information at a REL Southeast sponsored event. Our mailing address is: REL Southeast at Florida State University 2010 Levy Avenue Suite 100 Tallahassee, FL 32310