The Congressionally mandated Regional Educational Laboratories (RELs) supported the work of state and local education agencies in their efforts to bolster student achievement and prepare students for college and careers. RELs partnered with education leaders on the ground, using rigorous research and analysis to develop effective, data-driven approaches that address their most pressing educational challenges. Mathematica, along with our partners in REL Central and REL Mid-Atlantic, worked closely with state and district leaders across 11 states and the District of Columbia to advance this mission. The cancellation of the contracts abruptly shut down REL support for a wide range of evidence-based work that was requested by state and local education leaders in the service of their own efforts to improve education in their communities.
RELs are Congressionally mandated and locally focused.
RELs served state and local education agencies, schools, and educators—from rural to urban, in all 50 states, territories, and the District of Columbia. They supported agencies by understanding their local needs and providing unbiased, objective evidence on what works to address those needs and improve student achievement. With a nationwide crisis in reading and math achievement, the stakes are high. When administrators, teachers, and families sought solutions to pressing educational problems, they benefited from having access to their local REL for research, data analysis, and evidence-based solutions.
The RELs helped extend taxpayer investments by bringing education research to practice in schools and districts across the nation.
The RELs translated independent, rigorous research into cost-effective resources for schools and districts. By tapping information from the best available education research, the RELs extended the reach and value of public investments and worked directly with states to determine whether research findings might apply to their districts and how instruction could be adapted for their districts. The RELS also developed resources, including toolkits (based on practice guides grounded in the evidence) to help teachers implement evidence-based practices. This support helped educators cut through the noise to quickly and efficiently implement practices most likely to improve outcomes. The ten toolkits that were under development would have been widely distributed to educators across the nation and would have helped states and districts avoid the time and costs associated with building their own materials from scratch.
We were proud to work with state and local educators on priority education needs.
We deeply appreciated the opportunity to collaborate with state and local education leaders on the work they identified as the highest priorities for supporting student achievement in their regions. Some of the highlights of this work include the following:
- Enhancing math instruction: Several REL Central partnerships and projects were focused on providing all students with opportunities to succeed in math. For example, in North Dakota, the REL helped educators improve their differentiated math instruction using technology to better meet individual student needs. And in Nebraska, REL Central and its partners developed a toolkit to support evidence-based algebra instruction in middle and high school.
- Improving writing instruction: REL Mid-Atlantic developed a toolkit to help teachers use evidence-based practices for writing instruction in grades 2 through 4. With our support, schools in New Jersey were in the midst of piloting the toolkit and its activities and practices to improve the quality of students’ writing. Contract cancellation has suddenly and unexpectedly left those schools without support.
- Positioning students for success after high school: In Maryland, REL Mid-Atlantic was working with state and local agencies and local school systems to better prepare high school students with disabilities to transition to adult life in the community. The partnership was bridging data silos and reducing systemic inefficiencies that often create barriers for effectively integrating pre-employment and training services and vocational rehabilitation supports for students and their families. By harnessing the power of data, this work was helping students with disabilities reach their education, employment, and community participation goals.
- Reducing teacher shortages: Many states face challenges in finding, hiring, developing, and retaining teachers, particularly in rural districts. To address these challenges, REL Central worked with states, school districts, and universities in South Dakota and Wyoming to expand the teacher pipeline by improving teacher apprenticeship programs, which show promise for easing their teacher shortages.
All of these efforts—and more—helped drive innovative and cost-effective education programming, and took on the toughest challenges facing educators, schools, and students. We are honored to have had a role in providing a critical network of support for schools and districts, but the cancellation of contracts facilitating the REL partnerships abruptly ended the important work that was in progress. Across the nation, states, districts, and schools will feel the absence of this work. We hope the objective, evidence-based work of the RELs resumes quickly, and we stand ready to continue supporting state and local education leaders as they remain focused on improving education in their communities.