As a partner with the Regional Education Laboratory (REL)-Appalachia, CTL designs and conducts professional development events throughout the multi-state region, designed to help schools apply research findings to school improvement.  The source for these "bridging events" is the series of practice guides from IES (Institute for Education Sciences), a division of the US Department of Education charged with promoting gold standard research and applying evidenced-based solutions to school improvement. 

The practice guides are developed by panels of educational researchers and include an analysis of findings across multiple studies on a given topic, posted on the What Works Clearinghouse website: http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/.  Recent practice guides include:

• Turning Around Chronically Low-Performing Schools
• Helping Students Navigate the Path to College:  What High Schools Can Do
• Assisting Students Struggling with Mathematics:  Response to Intervention (RTU) for Elementary and Middle Schools
• Using Student Achievement Data to Support Instructional Decision Making
• Imporving Reading comprehension in Kindergarten through 3rd Grade
• Developing Effective Fractions Instruction in Kindergarten through 8th Grade

CTL led several bridging events on behalf of the REL-Appalachia in 2010-11:

Kentucky Bridging Event:  Achieving School Turnaround held Fall 2010 and involving more than 20 school leadership teams.  All-day session helped school and district leaders understand and apply recommendations sfrom the research in four areas:  Strong leadership that signals dramatic change; a focus on instructional improvement; achieving quick wins; and building a committed staff.  Exemplary principals from three schools achieving turnaround shared how they addressed the research recommendations in practice.  Event was followed up by a series of webinars and video clips to give participants visual images of practice.  Ongoing posts are available at the Achieving School Turnaround blog.

Tennessee Bridging Event:  Part of a longer conference on school improvement organized by the Tennessee Department of Education, the bridging event held Fall 2010 involved schools not making AYP, whose leadership teams attended sessions to learn about the research recommendations and to hear from exemplary principals who had made progress on school turnaround using one or more of the research recommendations.  CTL followed up by interviewing and producing videos of Tennessee exemplary principals, See CTL's Achieving School Turaround videos >

Northern Kentucky Bridging Event:  RTI Mathematics was the focus of this half-day bridging event in Spring 2011 for the Northern Kentucky Council of Partners.  Attending mathematics resource teachers were engaged in activities designed to help them apply the practice guide research rindings to support teachers working with students who struggle with mathematics.

Kentucky Association of School Administrators (KASA) Bridging Event:  Held Summer 2011, this half-day event served as the culmination of a year-long study of school improvement, research and practice, by school leadership teams organized and supported by KASA.  Content focused on the four IES Practice Guide recommendations, in the context of previous learning and existing school improvement plans.

Tennessee Reconvening:  The Second Collaborative Forum for High Priority Schools--Sharing Effective/Promising Practices and Research:  In August 2011 on behalf of the REL-Appalachia, CTL led sessions designed to provide context and meaning for schools new to the conference, and for returning leadership teams, a deeper understanding of how to apply IES research recommendations to school turnaround.

Upcoming Bridging Events and Materials:

Kentucky Reconvening: Relevant Research and Promising Practices for School Turnaround:  Scheduled for November 2, 2011 at CTL in Louisville, for school/leadership teams that participated previously.  Read more and register here >

The Achieving School Turnaround Toolkit:  Currently in development by CTL, this online resource will be completed late Fall 2011.  It will make available all content from previous turnaround events, including bridging events and webinars, and will provide a framework to help school leaders effectively apply reserach findings to their sites in purposeful and informed ways.

For more information on the Bridging Events or Achieving School Turnaround Toolkit, contact:
Dr. Deborah Walker
502.895.9500 x328