Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Northeast & Islands at EDC

Challenge

Research is critical to finding out what works in education, but it takes collaboration with the real changemakers—policymakers, administrators, and teachers—to improve learning opportunities and outcomes for students. This approach ensures that federally funded research produces relevant findings that address urgent and emergent needs in education.

EDC fostered collaboration among teachers, education leaders, policymakers, and researchers in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Vermont through REL Northeast & Islands at EDC. Working with partners in the region, the REL Northeast & Islands team designed and conducted research, coaching, and tools focused on pressing educational priorities for states, districts, and schools. EDC also supported research for REL Midwest and REL Appalachia.

Key Activities

As 1 of 10 federally funded RELs across the country, REL Northeast & Islands at EDC addressed education challenges in its region as follows:

• Partnered with practitioners and policymakers to identify high-leverage needs in education and share evidence-based strategies and interventions to address them
• Conducted and supported objective, rigorous research and evaluation based on regional needs
• Built the capacity of educators and policymakers to use research to make evidence-based decisions
• Designed and delivered training and coaching to build educators’ capacity to improve student outcomes, strengthen systems, and sustain change
• Provided analytic support that helped educators and policymakers use data to make decisions
• Disseminated evidence and research findings through clearly written, actionable, and usable resources for practitioners and policymakers, such as this fact sheet on educational assessment
• Communicated evidence-based practices with families and caregivers, such as this fact sheet on play-based learning
• Designed and shared tools, such as this continuous improvement toolkit and logic models, to help state education agencies, districts, and schools gather data to inform decision-making
• Developed toolkits and trainings to inform teachers’ professional practice and improve student outcomes, including this course on creating and using performance assessments
• Provided resources to support schools and districts in responding to urgent needs
• Presented study findings to teachers, education leaders, state boards of education, and state legislatures

Our Impact

• REL Northeast & Islands’ work reached educators, policymakers, and researchers nationwide, as well as 395,000 teachers and 5.2 million students in the region.
• The REL’s research partnership convenings, workshops, and research-to-practice and virtual coaching events have engaged over 10,000 educators, policymakers, and researchers.
• Staff produced more than 60 research studies and policy tools.