As 2023 has come to a close and we have ushered in a new year, the REL West team is reflecting on our current work and the accomplishments realized last year. We are well into implementing work from each of our partnerships and have seen many successes from our coaching and technical assistance work. We are also well underway with planning several of our applied research projects that will provide valuable evidence to the field in the areas of literacy, college completion, and teacher retention.

Cultivating Partnerships With a Common Goal

In 2023, REL West continued to build and cultivate partnerships with education practitioners and policymakers committed to using evidence-based practices to improve educational outcomes for students and create opportunities for them to succeed. During this last year, we remained true to REL West’s purpose to generate rigorous applied research and provide content expertise in education policy and practice to improve access, opportunity, and outcomes for all students. We also continued our commitment to ensure our work helps to create equitable opportunities and outcomes for underserved student groups.

In the course of our efforts, a handful of crucial content areas have come to the forefront as we’ve collaborated with partners and engaged in “needs sensing” discussions with individuals across our region. Teacher retention, early literacy, chronic absenteeism, and the pursuit of equitable opportunities have emerged as key focus areas guiding our work. As we move forward, we remain dedicated to actively involving local education leaders in our endeavors. These individuals play an essential role in helping us gain a deep understanding of the unique needs and context within each of the four states comprising our region. Their insights and expertise enable us to tailor our initiatives to best address the specific challenges and opportunities present in each community we serve.

Highlights of Our Work

In all eight of our partnerships, we emphasized the importance of logic models to guide our work effectively. These models helped identify short-, middle-, and long-term outcomes, helping our partners align their strategies with activities that would lead to measurable results. Our partners found this approach invaluable, as it provided a clear roadmap to achieving their educational goals.

Here are some highlights of our work in four of our eight partnerships:

• In Maricopa County, Arizona, we are working with the Maricopa County School Superintendent’s Office (MCSS) to increase the retention of effective teachers. The Teacher Retention in Maricopa County partnership is working to refine and study MCSS’ Stay Interview process, a retention improvement strategy whereby school leaders strategically identify teachers and invite them to participate in structured one-on-one conversations to strengthen relationships and highlight improvement areas. The information collected from Stay Interviews is then used to identify evidence-based retention strategies best suited for that context. Better understanding the extent to which this process can improve workplace conditions related to teacher retention can help Maricopa County and participating districts address teacher attrition. This partnership is helping to build capacity within MCSS to better understand teacher needs, monitor teacher mobility, and use data to refine and implement evidence-based interventions through the use of a more refined and standardized Stay Interview strategy.?
• Similarly, in Utah, REL West is working with the Utah State Board of Education (USBE) on a project in Utah called the Utah Early Career Teacher Retention Partnership which is focused on engaging a set of local education agencies in Utah to understand and address the root causes of early career teacher attrition through data collection, analysis, and applied research. Through coaching projects to analyze data as well as to understand evidence-based teacher retention strategies, REL West is helping the Utah State Board of Education to realize higher retention rates among early career teachers. The initial work in the partnership has focused on shorter-term outcomes, including work to increase the partners’ knowledge and capacity to conduct root cause analyses based on available data as well as capacity to analyze and use local regional teacher workforce, hiring, and mobility data to inform evidence-based retention strategies.
• In one of our most active partnerships with Washoe County School District (WCSD) in Nevada, REL West has been working with district leadership to reduce chronic absence by strengthening multi-tiered system of supports. As many other districts experienced, WCSD had a significant increase in chronic absences during the pandemic which disproportionately disrupted learning for some historically underserved student groups. Through the Reducing Chronic Absence in Washoe County School District by Strengthening Multi-Tiered System of Supports partnership, REL West has provided training and coaching on evidence-based practices as well as analysis of data on chronically absent students, which has led to increased district and school staff capacity to use data and evidence about chronic absence interventions as well as to use research to guide and support schools in selecting Tier 2 evidence-based interventions.
• Through our California College Adult College Completion Partnership, REL West has helped our partners understand and use evidence-based research strategies to support individuals who are reengaging in postsecondary education to complete their college degree. Through coaching projects on using evidence-based strategies and an applied research project that will begin next year, the six partner institutions are beginning to identify and implement structural changes that will lead to greater opportunities for individuals to complete a college degree.

To learn more about these and other partnerships, please visit
https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/rel/region/about/west.

Looking Ahead

2023 was a year filled with purpose, progress, and partnerships. We look forward to building on these achievements as we enter 2024 with renewed dedication to improving educational outcomes, increasing access, and fostering opportunities for all students. Together, we can continue to make a difference in the lives of learners across our region and beyond.