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Regional Educational Lab (REL) Southwest partners with key stakeholders in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas to develop evidence that can inform consequential decisions about policy, programs, and practice. Key stakeholders include organizations with decision-making authority and the ability to influence education policy and practice, such as state and local education agencies, school boards, institutes of higher education, and student, family, and community organizations. RELs partner with these organizations on applied research and development; training, coaching and technical supports; and dissemination. Click here to learn more about the REL Program.
PARTNERSHIPS
OUR TEAM
REL Southwest is led by the American Institutes for Research (AIR) with support from the following partners:
GOVERNING BOARD
The REL Governing Board helps REL Southwest prioritize the education needs of the region, provides strategic guidance on REL work to maximize local effectiveness, and leverages members’ regional networks to amplify and disseminate REL products. REL Southwest Governing Board members represent diverse expertise and experience.
REL Southwest is partnering with Texas school districts to develop a toolkit to support grade 6–8 educators and administrators in addressing gaps in reading achievement exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The toolkit will build educators’ and administrators’ knowledge of and ability to implement recommendations in the What Works Clearinghouse practice guide Providing Reading Interventions for Students in Grades 4–9 to meet the needs of students reading below grade level. Components will include online professional learning modules to build knowledge, professional learning communities to deepen understanding and facilitate peer collaboration, tools to assess teacher practice and implementation, and resources for institutionalizing support for the toolkit.
As part of the Arkansas Initiative for Instructional Materials (AIIM), Arkansas educators receive high-quality professional learning (HQPL) to help ensure all students in the state have equitable access to high-quality instructional materials (HQIM), grade-level instruction, and responsive practices leading to opportunities to reach college, career, and life goals. Through a series of virtual coaching sessions, REL Southwest is building the capacity of Arkansas Department of Education staff to develop a survey to track how well districts are integrating HQIM and to develop a plan for administering the survey annually to conduct a formative evaluation of AIIM. Coaching topics will include best practices in formative evaluation, how to design a survey to collect data on the implementation of HQPL and HQIM, and how to use data for program improvement.
REL Southwest facilitated an Ask An Expert presentation by Dr. Scott Solberg, a professor with the Boston University Center for Future Readiness, to support the statewide rollout of the Effective Advising Framework in Texas. Dr. Solberg discussed personal career and academic plans, also known as personalized learning plans, including key features and practices, the evidence base, a sample curriculum, related state initiatives, and lessons learned.
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