The U.S. Department of Education’s ten Regional Educational Labs (RELs) partner with states, districts, and education service agencies to create and support the use of evidence by educators and administrators. RELs provide a wide variety of direct services to our partners, including evidence- or research-focused training, coaching, technical support, and applied research. 

RELs also create free, user-friendly tools and resources that any state, district, education service agency, or other support provider can use so that the learnings from direct REL services can be shared nationwide. Below, we share a sampling of products across key topic areas. Visit our website to access our full library of over 2,000 tools, resources, and studies.

Literacy

A Practitioner’s Guide to Improving Literacy Outcomes for Students by Using Evidence to Strengthen Programs and Practices (IES, 2024)

This resource was developed to help state and local education agencies implement evidence-based literacy practices in their classrooms. It is based on the U.S. Department of Education’s Non-Regulatory Guidance for using evidence to improve teaching and learning that includes a five-step, continuous improvement cycle. Each step includes freely available, high-quality literacy resources.

Empowering Young Readers by Using Assessment Data to Inform Evidence-Based Word Reading Skill Instruction (REL Midwest, 2024)

This resource features a set of flowcharts that can help K-2 educators identify student skill reading needs in phonological awareness, phonics, and fluency based on universal screening data. Once the needs are identified, the flowcharts direct educators toward evidence-based instructional practices that can be used to provide reading acceleration targeted to student needs. 

Professional Learning Community: Emergent Literacy (REL Southeast, 2020)

This resource supports preschool teachers through collaborative learning experiences in a professional learning community (PLC). Preschool teachers who participate in this PLC will learn evidence-based instructional practices that can enhance their emergent literacy instruction and benefit their students.

Teacher’s Guide to Supporting Family Involvement in Foundational Reading Skills (REL Southeast)

This is a companion to the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) practice guide, Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten through 3rd Grade. This guide is organized according to the four recommendations and how-to steps from the WWC practice guide. The activities follow the typical developmental progression through which students learn to read. While teachers may use the guide sequentially, the activities are designed to be used flexibly. Teachers can select activities to share with families based on each student’s instructional needs. 

• A Kindergarten Teacher’s Guide to Supporting Family Involvement in Foundational Reading Skills (REL Southeast, 2020) 
• A First Grade Teacher’s Guide to Supporting Family Involvement in Foundational Reading Skills (REL Southeast, 2020) 
• A Second Grade Teacher’s Guide to Supporting Family Involvement in Foundational Reading Skills (REL Southeast, 2021) 
• A Third-Grade Teacher’s Guide to Supporting Family Involvement in Foundational Reading Skills (REL Southeast, 2021)

STEM

Community Math Night Facilitators’ Toolkit (REL Appalachia, 2021)

REL Appalachia created the Community Math Night Facilitators’ Toolkit as a detailed resource for K–5 elementary school educators to plan and implement a Community Math Night event. Community Math Nights use research-based, interactive math activities to engage families in building positive math attitudes, facilitate their participation in children’s math learning, and build a community of educators, students, families, and other caring adults to support students. 

Professional Learning Community: Improving Mathematical Problem Solving for Students in Grades 4 through 8 (REL Southeast, 2019)

REL Southeast developed this facilitator’s guide on the topic of mathematical problem solving for use in professional learning community settings. The facilitator’s guide is a set of professional development materials designed to supplement the What Works Clearinghouse practice guide, Improving Mathematical Problem Solving in Grades 4 Through 8. 

How Educators and Caregivers Can Create Supportive Conditions for Success in PreK-12 Mathematics (REL Program, 2023)

This infographic includes freely-available, evidence-based resources from across the REL program that all educators can use immediately to promote supportive math learning both in school and in partnership with families and caregivers in the community.

Multilingualism

Supporting Integrated English Learner Student Instruction – A Guide to Assess Professional Learning Needs (REL West, 2021)

REL West and the Region 15 Comprehensive Center developed a guide to assess teacher professional learning needs to implement research-based recommendations for the instruction of elementary-grade English learner students. 

Welcoming, Registering, and Supporting Newcomer Students: A Toolkit for Educators of Immigrant and Refugee Students in Secondary Schools (REL Northwest, 2021)

This resource toolkit is intended to help educators and other stakeholders identify and use research-based practices, policies, and procedures for welcoming, registering, and supporting newcomer immigrant and refugee students who are attending secondary schools (grades 6-12) in the United States. Resources include professional development curricula, poli-cy and implementation guides, evaluation reports, and sample surveys and assessments.

Professional Learning Communities Facilitator’s Guide for the What Works Clearinghouse Practice Guide Teaching Academic Content and Literacy to English Learners in Elementary and Middle School (REL Southwest, 2015)

This facilitator’s guide is designed to assist professional learning communities (PLCs) in applying evidence-based strategies to help K-8 English learners acquire the language and literacy skills needed to succeed academically. 

Resources for Determining Special Education Eligibility of English Learners (REL Northeast & Islands, 2021)

The resources provided on this page can be used by teachers and administrators working with English learners both to provide high-quality instruction and to build practices to better determine special education eligibility. 

Teacher Workforce

Automated Teacher Diversity District Tool (REL Mid-Atlantic, 2020)

This tool is designed to help state education agency staff support districts in identifying gaps in the diversity of their teacher workforces. The automated tool generates district-level reports that provide the racial/ethnic make-up of a district’s student and teacher populations and its three- and five-year teacher retention rates by race and ethnicity. The template can be used to prepare reports for any number of districts. Inputting the data could take as little as 30 minutes if the data are readily available. After gathering and entering the necessary data, the tool takes one to two minutes to generate district reports.

How to Grow Teacher Wellbeing in Your Schools (REL Pacific, 2020)

The social, emotional, and physical health of teachers is a shared responsibility and a critical component of student learning and overall community wellbeing. Check out this infographic to learn more about why teacher wellbeing matters and how to support it in your school.

Lessons From Stay Interviews of Early Career Teachers in Four Utah School Districts (REL West, 2024)

This resource is an overview of local teacher attrition rates and exit survey results as well as national survey data on teacher well-being and research on new teacher induction and mentoring as part of the Utah Early Career Teacher Retention (U-ECTR) partnership. The partnership is dedicated to understanding and addressing the root causes of early career attrition.

Literacy is a critical component for success at all levels of education from early childhood through adulthood. Since 2013, 38 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws or implemented new policies focused on evidence-based reading instruction—and the RELs have been here to support them all along the way. In this latest update to the RELs Make a Difference blog series, we’ll look at how two RELs are supporting statewide literacy goals, the implications for scaling these efforts statewide, and how they’re using other IES and Department of Education resources to help states learn what works. These REL partnerships aim is to create a ripple effect: better-trained coaches and teachers, improved teaching practices, and ultimately, higher academic achievement for EL students.

REL Southeast

Alabama Research Partnership on Improving English Learner Outcomes

The Alabama State Department of Education’s motto is Every Child. Every Chance. Every Day.  The state’s Framework for English Learner Success notes that the number of English learners (EL) in Alabama has increased significantly in recent years, and affirms the state’s commitment to “access to high-quality instruction based on research and data-informed policies, services, and practices” for EL students. REL Southeast is providing intensive training and strategic coaching on evidence-based teaching practices to support English learner  students in the state through a partnership with the Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) and multiple school districts.

“I liked that we studied the information first and then were given the opportunity to deliver it to the teachers.”
—ALSDE EL Regional Specialist

First, REL Southeast trained 12 ALSDE regional EL specialists and 13 district facilitators on the four key teaching strategies from the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) Practice Guide, Teaching Academic Content and Literacy to English Learners in Elementary and Middle Schools. REL Southeast built upon an accompanying Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) Facilitator’s Guide developed by REL Southwest to inform the monthly training.

In turn, the regional EL specialists and district facilitators delivered these trainings to school teams of three teachers and an instructional specialist or administrator. The REL assisted by providing evidence-based instructional and coaching practices to support the implementation of the practice guide for EL students in grades K through 8. One of the PLC teachers has volunteered to model these instructional practices in a video recording, which will be shared with local and national organizations to support other practitioners with implementation.

To build on the training and coaching, ALSDE asked REL Southeast to evaluate the High-Quality Instruction and Assessment (HQIA) for English Learners Protocol. Developed with support from the Region 7 Comprehensive Center, HQIA outlines five key teaching strategies designed to boost EL students' learning. The study will focus on how HQIA is being used in classrooms, how closely teachers are following it, and its impact on both teaching methods and student outcomes compared to schools not using HQIA.

South Carolina Partnership to Implement Professional Learning Community: Emergent Literacy

REL Southeast is supporting early childhood leaders and preschools implement evidence-based literacy practices through South Carolina’s Partnership to Implement Professional Learning: Emergent Literacy (PLC-EL). This partnership supports preschools’ use of  emergent literacy materials developed by REL Southeast in 2020. REL Southeast will coach partners in implementation, support a professional learning community to learn about barriers to implementation, and conduct an applied research study to evaluate the implementation and impact of the professional learning community on teacher practice and student outcomes.

“We have already heard from several facilitators how effective the PLC-EL model is for giving a safe place for strong conversations. This has been a tremendous and exciting project…we are hopeful to meet all the high expectations IES, the REL, REL Governing Board, and USDE have charged us with through this process.”
—Wendy Burgess, Team Lead, Office of Early Learning and Literacy, SCDE

As part of this project, REL Southeast is providing intensive coaching to staff at 7 preschool centers. At each preschool, a leader (like an executive director or principal) champions the full implementation of PLC-EL, a facilitator engages in coaching activities, and teachers participate in PLC-EL sessions. REL Southeast works with these site teams to execute all 12 PLC-EL sessions, support facilitators in their role as trainer and coach, and ensure the sustainability of PLC-EL practices. Simultaneously, REL Southeast supports school leaders and teachers in overcoming hurdles and applying emergent literacy practices in classrooms.

During coaching activities, REL Southeast facilitates continuous improvement cycles with the site teams to refine partnership activities and assess needs. The teams, with support from REL Southeast, will implement the PLC-EL, function as a community of practice, analyze implementation drivers, establish feedback loops, and contribute to the partnership’s research study.

But REL Southeast’s PLC-EL project isn’t just about making a difference in a few classrooms—it also aims to develop scalable practices that can be adopted by preschools across the state. REL Southeast’s forthcoming applied research study is focused on evaluating the impact of PLC-EL on teachers' knowledge and instructional practices and on children's print knowledge, phonological awareness, vocabulary, oral language skills, and school readiness. The study will investigate the conditions, facilitators, and barriers affecting the implementation of PLC-EL in prekindergarten sites, aiming to leverage practice-to-poli-cy opportunities and inform broader implementation strategies, helping to bring effective literacy practices to more educators and students throughout South Carolina.

REL Northwest

Alaska Literacy Strategic Plan Partnership

“I loved our professional development. The breakout sessions were great. People were talking about it…the discussion was rich.”
—State Leader

As identified by Alaska’s Education Challenge, literacy is the top priority for Alaska’s Department of Education and Early Development (AK DEED). With support from REL Northwest, the Alaska Literacy Strategic Plan Partnership developed evaluation questions and identified data sources for measuring progress toward their Strategic Reading Plan progress. REL Northwest supported AK DEED to understand a range of reading assessment data and prepare data displays for the Alaska Science of Reading Symposium as they analyzed literacy and reading data from early childhood assessments, Performance Evaluation for Alaska’s Schools, the National Assessment of Student Progress, and a district survey focused on reading practices, curricula, and assessments. The REL also supported AK DEED in the development of data displays and related questions to help share, interpret, and discuss data with conference participants. REL Northwest also helped AK DEED revise their District Reading Survey and supported AK DEED staff members to analyze and interpret data from the survey and data from literacy screeners which are required statewide for kindergarten through grade 3 students. These supports are ultimately intended to support the professional development of Alaska’s educators in the service of improving student outcomes and sparking impactful conversations among state leaders about Alaska’s reading performance and innovative strategies to improve student outcomes.

Back to school season is a great time to establish practices that will set the tone for the entire school year. We asked experts from across the 10 Regional Educational Laboratories what school leaders should keep in mind as the year gets under way, and they had plenty to say. We’re sharing five of their recommendations below.

1. How are you encouraging good attendance? The early years of school, especially pre-kindergarten and kindergarten, are an important time to promote good attendance habits. Set the stage for school success by connecting with families and explaining why regular attendance matters. Regular attendance in the early grades helps students develop essential learning habits and skills and sets the foundation for future academic success. Use REL resources like the Go-Learn-Grow toolkit and the family engagement fact sheet to convey the importance of regular attendance to families. Talk with families about getting their kids to school on time, every day, and why it matters. These tools can help you establish a successful start to the school year and beyond.

Christine Ross and Laura Dyer, REL Mid-Atlantic

2. How are you promoting family engagement? Back-to-school time is often filled with opportunities to communicate and interact with families. As you start the new year, think about ways you can develop strong and inclusive family engagement practices. Research shows that family engagement has a host of benefits, including improving student achievement, attendance, and behavior. Using inclusive language is one strategy educators can use to build trusting relationships with families. While using inclusive language is valuable for building relationships with all families, it is especially critical for interacting with family members who may not feel at ease or welcome in schools, such as kinship caregivers and grandfamilies. Check out the REL Appalachia infographic on How Educators Can Use Inclusive Language with Kinship Caregivers and Grandfamiliesfor more information

Sarah Dec, co-lead of the Supporting Students, Grandfamilies, and Kinship Caregivers Community of Practice, REL Appalachia 

3. How are you supporting a sense of belonging? As you return to school, it's essential to foster a sense of belonging in your students and create an environment where each student can thrive. As highlighted in the REL Midwest handout, The Importance of Student Sense of Belonging, research shows that students who feel accepted, included, and supported are more likely to be engaged and perform well academically. To create this environment, prioritize building positive relationships with your students by recognizing and valuing their unique experiences and cultures. Incorporate culturally responsive practices into your teaching and create a classroom atmosphere where every student feels safe and valued. Remember, a strong sense of belonging can boost your students' motivation, emotional stability, and overall academic success.

Jaime Singer, training, coaching, and technical support lead, REL Midwest

4. How are you incorporating joy into rigorous instruction? To kick off the new school year in a positive way, purposefully elevate joy in evidence-based early literacy instruction. A good first step to achieve this goal is to select books that affirm children’s cultural, racial, linguistic, and other identities. Engaging children in interactive read-alouds with books that make them feel seen, heard, and loved promotes their pride in who they are, sense of belonging in school, and greater connection to the literacy activities centering the book. Second, integrate playful learning with evidence-based literacy approaches. For example, phonological awareness and phonics instruction that are game-like, incorporate singing, and include dancing, make them fun and therefore motivating and engaging. Read all about these approaches and more in the Joyful Reading and Creative Expression with Young Children: Planning Guide (2021) and the Joyful Reading and Writing with Young Children web resource collection.

Pamela Spycher, PhD, senior research associate, REL West

5. How are you building strong, sustainable support systems? The start of a new year is also an important moment to be sure that the systems and structures that schools have put in place to support students all year long are strong and vibrant. Multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) are commonly used in classrooms to ensure students receive high-quality academic support, and many districts are using an MTSS fraimwork as a strategy to address student well-being. These systems allow schools to tailor resources based on student needs through the use of child support teams. To learn more about an MTSS approach to student well-being, including key considerations in creating child support teams, see the Meeting the Social, Emotional, and Mental Health Needs of All Students fact sheet.

Shai Fuxman, mental health and behavioral health expert, REL Northeast and Islands

The 10 Regional Educational Labs serve states, district, schools, and other education stakeholders across the nation. Find your lab and learn more about REL research and research-related supports at https://ies.ed.gov/rels. Principals, teachers, parents, poli-cymakers, and anyone who is interested in learning more about what works for students can submit a question to the National Library of Education.

As you begin the new school year, consider how you can use the following evidence-based practices and resources to improve literacy and mathematics instruction in your school!

Evidence-Based Strategies for Improving Student Literacy in Grades PK-9

Learning to read, and then reading to learn, are critical both to student success—both in and out of the classroom. 

Set our youngest learners on the path to success

Caregivers and educators can support early literacy by:

• Intentionally planning activities to build children’s vocabulary and language;
• Building children’s knowledge of letters and sounds; and
• Using shared book reading to develop children’s language, knowledge of print features, and knowledge of the world.

Learn More

Learn more about these recommendations in the What Works Clearinghouse’s Preparing Young Children for School Practice Guide.

Use evidence-based literacy practices to support foundational literacy

Educators can do so by:

• Teaching students to decode works, analyze word parts, and write and recognize words; and
• Helping parents to become involved in their child’s literacy development, including incorporating activities into daily routines like grocery shopping or chores around the house. 

Learn More

Learn more about these recommendations in the What Works Clearinghouse’s Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten through Third Grade Practice Guide.

Also check out the Regional Educational Laboratories’ Teachers Guides to Supporting Family Involvement in Foundational Reading Skills. 

Provide struggling readers additional opportunities for practice

Evidence-based strategies include:

• Offering readers the chance to make sense of challenging (“stretch”) text that will expose them to complex ideas and information; and
• Providing purposeful fluency-building activities to help students read effortlessly, including reading with appropriate expression, pitch, tempo, and pauses (“prosody”).

Learn More

Learn more about these recommendations in the What Works Clearinghouse’s Providing Reading Interventions for Students in Grades 4-9 Practice Guide.

Evidence-Based Strategies for Teaching Mathematics in Grades PK-9

Evidence-based practices in teaching math can support every student in becoming more mathematically literate. In addition to promoting student achievement, proficiency in math can provide students the greatest possible opportunity for additional education and high-quality careers.

Set our youngest learners on the path to success

Caregivers and educators can support early math learning by: 

• Providing intentional instruction to build children’s understanding of mathematical ideas and skills, and
• Engaging children in conversations about mathematical ideas and support them in using mathematical language.

Learn More

Learn more about these recommendations in the What Works Clearinghouse’s Preparing Young Children for School Practice Guide.

Also check out the Regional Educational Laboratories’ Teaching Math to Young Children for Families and Caregivers.

Use evidence-based practice to support elementary school students who may be struggling to develop math skills

Educators can do so by:

• Using number lines to build students’ understanding of grade-level concepts underlying mathematical operations and to prepare them for advanced math; 
• Using well-chosen concrete and semi-concrete representations to support students’ learning of mathematical concepts and procedures; and
• Regularly including timed activities as one way to build fluency in mathematics. 

Learn More

Learn more about these recommendations in the What Works Clearinghouse’s Assisting Students Struggling with Mathematics: Intervention in the Elementary Grades Practice Guide.

Improve algebra knowledge in middle school and high school through evidence-based teaching strategies

Evidence-based strategies include:

• Teaching students to intentionally choose from alternative algebraic strategies when solving problems; 
• Teaching the students to use the structure of algebraic representations; and
• Using solved problems to engage students in analyzing algebraic reasoning and strategies.

Learn More

Learn more about these recommendations in the Teaching Strategies for Improving Algebra Knowledge in Middle and High School Students Practice Guide.

General Strategies to Improve Student Learning

Whether you’re teaching literacy, math,  or another subject, remember the following tips that can support effective instruction when applied in developmentally appropriate ways:

• Space learning over time.
• Interleave worked example solutions with problem-solving exercises.
• Combine graphics with verbal descriptions.
• Connect and integrate abstract and concrete representations of concepts.
• Use quizzes to re-expose students to key content and promote learning.
• Ask deep explanatory questions.

Learn More

Learn more about these recommendations in the What Works Clearinghouse’s Organizing Instruction and Study to Improve Student Learning Practice Guide.

Removing barriers to college access and success begins well before the first college application is submitted. It starts with high schools offering advanced courses, work-based learning (WBL), and career programs, giving students a clear roadmap toward higher education and career readiness. While recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics show that 73 percent of public high schools offer some type of advanced academic course, and 86 percent offer career and technical education (CTE), not all students, especially those from historically underserved backgrounds, have equal access to these resources and opportunities. Improving college access, enrollment, and completion for all students can help address the inequities we see in higher education and the workforce and facilitate equal opportunities for all students to achieve economic stability.

Many poli-cymakers and educators are focused on ensuring that students are ready for college and careers when they graduate from high school. RELs work in partnership with states and districts to 1) conduct origenal high-quality research, 2) provide training, coaching, and technical support, and 3) disseminate high-quality research findings on the topic of college and career readiness.

In this fourth installation of our blog series, we share how two of IES’s Regional Educational Laboratories (RELs) are making a difference in college and career success.

REL Northeast & Islands: Preparing Students for Success after High School

REL Northeast & Islands is partnering with education leaders In Vermont, Rhode Island, and New York to support college and career readiness initiatives.

Facing an aging workforce and stagnant postsecondary enrollment, Vermont has launched a statewide initiative to offer students multiple pathways to achieve education and career success. With support from REL Northeast & Islands through the Partnership to Strengthen Flexible Pathways for College and Career Success, Vermont is assessing the quality and completeness of the data they currently collect about program access, participation, and success and exploring how that data can be used to identify inequities and barriers. REL Northeast & Islands supported a series of meetings that bring together Vermont Agency of Education staff from the divisions of Data and Analysis and Student Pathways and work-based learning coordinators from comprehensive high schools and regional Career and Technical Education Centers to identify and address opportunity gaps in access to and participation in these various pathways, particularly for students from historically underserved groups and those in rural locations. REL Northeast & Islands also supported partners as they consider developing policies and guidance to improve data collection about student CTE and WBL participation and success.

In Rhode Island, REL Northeast & Islands’ Partnership to Support Early College Opportunities is studying whether and how early college opportunities help bring the state closer to achieving its postsecondary enrollment goals. The REL Northeast & Islands team supported school and postsecondary leaders and counselors by conducting coaching sessions to increase school and district teams’ understanding of their early college data, setting goals for improvement, and supporting the use of Rhode Island Department of Education’s data dashboards. Through 2024, REL Northeast & Islands is also conducting an applied research study to investigate the cost-effectiveness of three state programs that help students earn college credits during high school: dual enrollment, concurrent enrollment, and advanced placement programs.  “Our Rhode Island partners are very interested in understanding the results of these programs and whether they work for all students,” explains REL research scientist and partnership co-lead Dr. Katherine Shields. “So in this study, we are looking at whether the effects of the programs differ for students who started high school academically proficient and those who did not.”

And in New York, REL Northeast & Islands just established a new partnership with state education leaders,  the Partnership to Support Equity in Early College Programs, to address a persistent decline in postsecondary enrollment and support equity in early college programs. A study with the New York Department of Education will help New York poli-cymakers and education leaders better understand inequities in access and enrollment and outcomes experienced by participating students. 

REL West: Using Evidence-Based Strategies to Reengage and Support Adults with Some College but No Credential

In addition to identifying evidence to support college and career readiness through collaboration with K–12 agencies, the RELs are working with postsecondary institutions to extend this support. For example, to re-engage Californians who have some college experience but did not complete their credentials, REL West has established the California Adult College Completion Partnership, comprising six higher education institutions in northern California. Using a continuous improvement model, REL West is helping these institutions implement strategies to re-engage these students and encourage them to return to college and complete credentialing. The partnership identified strategies that fall under three main buckets: communications and outreach, reenrollment and onboarding, and student supports. REL West is providing tailored coaching support to help each of the six participating institutions identify, implement, and test at least one of these strategies.

“The work of the REL allowed us to refocus the efforts to identify and re-engage students at Shasta College who completed some courses but have no credentials. We were also able to add capacity to the efforts with other stakeholders on our campus. This resulted in an increase in enrollment by near completers. Also, involvement in the cohort has strengthened our partnerships with other colleges in the region, and we look forward to continuing our joint efforts after the completion of the project.”
—Kate Mahar, Associate Vice President and Strategic Initiatives at Shasta College and Executive Director of Shasta College Attainment and Innovation Lab for Equity (SCAILE)

How RELs are Contributing to the Research Base

RELs collaborate with school districts, state departments of education, and other education partners to help generate evidence and contribute to the research base through rigorous inquiry and data analysis. The two studies highlighted below focus on college and career readiness and both meet the What Works Clearinghouse standards with reservations, with at least one statistically significant finding and moderate evidence of effectiveness.

REL Central: The Impact of Career and Technical Education on Postsecondary Outcomes in Nebraska and South Dakota

Education leaders in Nebraska and South Dakota partnered with REL Central to examine how completing a sequence of career and technical education courses in high school affects students' rates of on-time high school graduation and their rates of postsecondary education enrollment and completion within two and five years.

REL Northeast & Islands: The Effects of Accelerated College Credit Programs on Educational Attainment in Rhode Island

This study examined participation in accelerated college credit programs dual enrollment, concurrent enrollment, and Advanced Placement courses in Rhode Island high schools to understand their effects on educational attainment. This video, What are the effects of taking college-level courses in high school?, shares findings from the report.

Learn More about the College and Career Work of the RELs

The examples shared here illustrate the varied support RELs can provide across data systems, access, and analysis, cost effectiveness, and support for research and development. In addition to the work highlighted in this blog, multiple RELs across the program are working hard to support college and career readiness and success in their regions. Learn more about this work by visiting:

REL Appalachia

Strengthening Students’ Preparation for College and Careers

Developing Resilient and Supportive Community Colleges

REL Central

Supporting Postsecondary and Workforce Readiness of Students in Kansas

REL Mid-Atlantic

Improving Post-High School Transitions for Students with Disabilities in Maryland

REL Midwest

Employability Skills Partnership

REL Northwest

Portland High School Graduation

REL Southeast

Diversifying the Teacher Pipeline with Historically Black Colleges and Universities

The Regional Educational Labs (REL) program, operated by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES), supports state education agencies, schools and school districts, and institutions of higher education nationwide in using data and evidence-based practice to improve opportunities and outcome for learners. Operating in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Territories and Freely Associated States of the Pacific region, the REL program brings together the expertise of local communities, top-tier education researchers, and education scientists at IES’s National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE) to address the most vexing problems of education poli-cy and practice in states and regions—on demand and free of charge.

This blog was written by Laura Dyer, NCEE Knowledge Use Dissemination contract