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Home REL Mid-Atlantic New Professional Development Opportunity for Districts Interested in Helping Teachers Use Evidence-Based Writing Instruction Practices
New Professional Development Opportunity for Districts Interested in Helping Teachers Use Evidence-Based Writing Instruction Practices
Is your school district interested in being an early adopter of a new writing toolkit?
Now recruiting districts for the 2024/25 school year!
Fill out this form or contact, Allison McKie (AMcKie@mathematica-mpr.com), Study Director, for more information.
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) is inviting at least one school district in Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, or Pennsylvania to implement a new professional development toolkit that helps teachers in grades 2 through 4 use evidence-based writing instruction practices. The Toolkit to Support Evidence-Based Writing Instruction in Grades 2 Through 4 is a comprehensive resource that can help teachers learn how to implement effective strategies that improve students' writing quality. By partnering with ED in an upcoming study, the district(s) will provide critical evidence on understanding how the Toolkit affects both teacher and student outcomes.
The Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Mid-Atlantic, administered by Mathematica, was selected to lead the study.
The study will take place during the 2024/25 school year.
Which districts are eligible to participate?
We're looking to partner with at least one district that can commit to all of the following:
- Having multiple elementary schools that would participate in the study.
- Implementing the Toolkit through professional learning communities (PLCs).
- Having literacy coaches or other staff who can support PLCs focused on writing instruction.
- Randomly assigning schools to two groups so that some schools implement the Toolkit while others continue to provide their typical professional development resources.
The partner district(s) will implement the Toolkit during the first half of the 2024/25 school year with support from the Toolkit developers at the REL Mid-Atlantic. The partner district(s) and the participating schools and teachers will be compensated for coordinating with the study team on data collection activities.
What will teachers and school leaders learn from using the Toolkit?
What did an instructional coach say about the Toolkit?
"As the facilitator of the sessions, I found the materials helpful, well organized, and user friendly. It allowed our teachers to reflect on their own practices and implement new strategies into their writing instruction. The activities were useful and applied directly to work in the classroom."
Teachers will learn strategies to help them carry out evidence-based recommendations. The Toolkit offers resources and activities that can help teachers provide daily time for students to write, teach students the writing process, and create an engaged community of writers.
School leaders will learn how to support teachers in using the Toolkit and evidence-based writing practices and how they can sustain and institutionalize writing practices over time.
How will participating in this study benefit my district or school?
Collaborating with the REL Mid-Atlantic to evaluate the Toolkit will provide the partner district(s) with several benefits:
- Early access to the Toolkit for a set of schools within the district.
- Training and implementation support from the Toolkit development team.
- An opportunity to provide critical evidence and feedback to improve this free set of resources that will support elementary writing instruction nationwide.
- Compensation for participation will be provided to the district(s), schools, and teachers.
What data is the study collecting?
In all 16 schools, teachers in grades 2–4 will carry out the following activities once in fall 2024 and again in spring 2025:
- Complete a short survey on preparation and practices in teaching writing.
- Complete a brief log of instructional activities.
- Collect student writing samples.
In 8 treatment schools, PLC facilitators will complete an evaluation form after every PLC session and complete an evaluation form after all PLC sessions are complete.
In 8 treatment schools, teachers will complete a short survey focused on the writing Toolkit.
Learn more
Most districts and schools prioritize literacy as a key initiative, which this Toolkit closely aligns with. As the graphic shows, when students' writing improves, the benefits carry across other subjects including reading, math, and science.
Completing all PLC sessions will take eight hours over eight sessions, which will take place over a three- to four-month period. The Toolkit also includes activities to complete between PLC sessions to help teachers practice the strategies discussed in the sessions, as well as self-reflection and goal-setting tools. In total, the independent activities will take about five hours to complete.
During fall of the 2024/25 school year, the study team will randomly assign 16 elementary schools participating in the study to one of two groups. In one group, PLCs will meet twice per month to review each of the three learning modules in the Toolkit. In addition to bimonthly meetings, teachers will complete independent preparation work and independent follow-up work to complete the Toolkit. In the other group, schools will implement their usual professional development supports. The study team will examine the impact of the Toolkit on teachers' instructional practices and students' writing outcomes. Following the study in spring 2025, the schools that continued normal professional development supports will be able to access the Toolkit.
The Toolkit builds on ED's What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) practice guide Teaching Elementary School Students to Be Effective Writers. The WWC analyzes research on educational interventions to determine whether the research meets its high standards of evidence. The WWC then compiles research that meets these standards into practice guides to help educators use evidence-based teaching strategies. Learn more about the WWC.