Driving Improvement in Academic Effectiveness and Student Outcomes

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) has awarded several essential contracts to Westat to advance learning effectiveness for students and strengthen relationships between schools and communities. “Westat is dedicated to providing the information needed to ensure every student has the opportunity to succeed,” said Deborah Jonas, PhD, Vice President and Practice Director for Education Studies. “The evidence and data we gather and the support we provide in using the resulting information informs decisionmakers, fosters continuous improvement, drives educational excellence, and contributes to the development of future leaders.”

Exploring Effective Strategies for English Learner Success

Westat leads a research team examining potential study designs that would provide:

• Rigorous evidence on the effectiveness of programs or strategies that help English learners succeed
• Information to federal policymakers about the implementation and/or outcomes of federal policy related to English learners

Eric Isenberg, PhD, leads the team exploring dual-language immersion programs, teacher professional development, family engagement programs, and the implications of expanded accountability provisions for English learners under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The team will create a design report that lays the groundwork for future studies conducted for the Institute of Education Sciences (IES).

Providing Technical Assistance for a Cradle-to-Career Initiative

The Promise Neighborhoods program supports grantees who build strong relationships between schools and communities. Lori Nathanson, PhD, leads Westat’s multitiered technical assistance to provide universal offerings, such as products and webinars, targeted courses and communities of practice, and one-to-one support for grantees. Promise Neighborhoods’ data-driven approach focuses on 10 key indicators, showing improvement in outcomes like school readiness, academic proficiency, and high school graduation rates. The Promise Neighborhoods website documents trends that can identify successes to sustain and areas for improvement. Grantees use these outcome and program data to set growth targets, make funding decisions, and adjust their cradle-to-career programming. For more details, see Making the Case for Promise Neighborhoods (PDF).

Reviewing Regional Education Laboratories (RELs) Support

IES selected Westat to evaluate the 2022 cycle of the REL program. It consists of 10 regional labs that partner with educators and policymakers to design and carry out change-oriented, rigorous, and high-leverage research, technical support, and dissemination activities that support consequential decisions about education policies, programs, and practices. 

This evaluation examines how RELs implemented changes to this program cycle, including partnerships that are narrowly focused on a high-leverage topic, increased focus on REL accountability and continuous improvement, and more explicit attention to disadvantaged learners.

“By employing systematic and objective methods, we aim to deliver insights that will inform future REL cycles to drive improvements in student outcomes,” noted Lauren Decker-Woodrow, PhD, the project director for this study.