Blog
Helpful Habits for Examining Your Role as a Leader
Monday morning. Your alarm clock is buzzing as it flashes 5:30 a.m. You want to hit the snooze button but realize that you might need those 10 extra minutes to make some progress on your tasks for the day. You begin working through your morning routine and immediately start to wonder what challenges might arise. As a leader, how can you consistently take time to examine three key responsibilities: to communicate, model, and reflect?State: Regional
How to Deal With Missing and Unreliable Academic Data Due to COVID-19
Teachers depend on academic data for all sorts of important tasks, but the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic mean that the information on which they relied in the past may not be available or trustworthy. As we kick off this unique school year, many educators are struggling with what data to use and how to do so responsibly. Formative checks offer one simple strategy.State: Regional
6 Ways Educators Can Embrace Student Engagement During a Unique School Year
Student engagement is more important than ever as students return to schools in large numbers and deal with the lingering academic, emotional, and social effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. This article offers students’ perspectives on how educators can help students reacclimate to the school setting and incorporate their voices into decision making.State: Illinois
Key Levers for Successful School–Family Relationships
Region 9 staff spent the past year listening to recommendations from Illinois stakeholders on how to improve the educational experience for students and their families and then mapped these recommendations with current research on equitable family engagement practices. This work determined four “levers” that school and district leaders can employ to promote effective family engagement.State: Illinois
Pushing Educational Boundaries: Student Recommendations for Spending American Rescue Plan Funds
The 2020–21 Illinois Student Advisory Council spent months researching how to use the current influx of education funding to make the biggest impact for students. This webinar, hosted by the Region 9 Comprehensive Center, features their instrumental recommendations to help all students achieve educational success and incorporate student voices in decision-making.State: Illinois
How Can We Leverage American Rescue Plan Funds to Improve Equity in Education?
One of the most pressing issues school and district leaders currently face is how to effectively spend an unprecedented influx of federal funds. But how can districts and schools leverage these funds to address the long-term, persistent inequities faced by their low-income, historically disenfranchised, and underserved students? Education leaders can use this four-step process to analyze new and existing policies and practices through an equity lens.State: Regional
Time to Sharpen Your Axe! This 6-Step Checklist Can Help District and School Leaders Plan to Use Federal Funds to Support Learning Recovery
The recent passage of the American Rescue Plan added billions of federal dollars to support education, but how can leaders use these funds wisely? This checklist provides a guided process for district and school leaders that includes reviewing existing strategic plans, analyzing data, reflecting on the past year, prioritizing equitable and evidence-based practices, evaluating implementation, and reinforcing best practices.State: Regional
Remote and Hybrid Learning May Be a Permanent Strategy: How Will We Know Whether It Is Successful?
Our recent community of practice tackled the challenge of measuring the effectiveness of remote and hybrid learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. This project uncovered three key learnings and developed two tools that can inform implementation of remote and hybrid instruction now and into the future.State: Regional
Tools for School and District Leaders’ Professional Learning Toolbox
An evidence-based technical assistance model has been a crucial tool in guiding our capacity-building work with state education agencies and districts through the COVID-19 pandemic. Similarly, district and school leaders may find it a useful approach to guide their own plans for professional learning.State: Regional
Looking Forward to a “New Normal” in Education: What Can We Expect in 2021–22?
The 2021–22 school year will bring an opportunity to contemplate education priorities in a new light and consider bold, innovative solutions to persistent challenges. Two challenges exacerbated by the pandemic that are likely to become even higher priorities are equitable education and teacher shortages, recruitment, and retention.State: Illinois, Iowa
Using a Peer-to-Peer Approach to Coordinate a Statewide Back-to-School Response to COVID-19
Education leaders spent the summer and fall grappling with how to start the 2020–21 school year amid the COVID-19 pandemic. During this uncertain time, we partnered with the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools to facilitate a space in which district leaders could discuss challenges, share successes, and examine strategies to deal with the reopening of schools and beyond.State: Illinois
Tools to Hone Your Teacher Retention Strategies
How can education leaders discern which of their efforts are actually improving teacher retention? The imminent effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the teacher workforce make answering this question even more urgent. Our recent project with Chicago Public Schools offers some lessons and tools for states and other districts to consider as they grapple with this issue.State: Illinois
What’s Working in Education During COVID-19?
Despite the shifting landscape brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, educators, students, and families in Illinois and Iowa are problem solving and adapting. We’ve collected some back-to-school success stories from across the region.State: Illinois, Iowa
Let’s Invite Parents and Families Into “The Room Where It Happens”
No matter their race, religion, or socioeconomic status, parents and families want to make school a better place for their children to learn and grow. So, what can education leaders do to ensure that schools are meeting student needs? Try using these creative ways to bring families into the spaces where decisions are made.State: Illinois, Iowa
How Can Educators Honor Their Expertise While Using COVID-19’s Opportunity to Transform Their Practice?
The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed education to new modalities of face-to-face, hybrid, and remote learning, but many effective tenets of teaching and learning should remain. As education experts, teachers should consider which parts of their practice are worth preserving in this new era, as well as how to use COVID-19 as an opportunity to grow and transform.State: Illinois, Iowa
4 Key Insights About Teacher Leaders: Best Practices From High-Growth Districts
Region 9 staff spoke with nearly 100 teacher leaders and administrators in districts across Iowa with high year-over-year growth rates on state assessments to learn more about how the teacher leaders contributed to their success. The results yielded four insights into how teacher leaders can influence meaningful and measurable improvements in teaching and learning.State: Iowa
How Can Educators Balance Academics and Trauma Sensitivity During a Pandemic-Era Back to School?
Given that students missed months of instruction due to COVID-19, it is natural to be gravely concerned about learning loss. However, the creation of a safe, supportive, equitable, and engaging learning environment must not be overshadowed by the urgency to address academics.State: Illinois, Iowa
9 Questions for District and School Leaders to Consider in Getting Ready for the 2020–21 School Year
Informed by conversations with our advisory board, this starter list offers 9 obvious and not-so-obvious questions that district and school leaders can ask themselves and their leadership teams during summer planning.State: Illinois, Iowa
Leaders Must Design COVID-19 Recovery Programs to Be ‘READI’ for the Highest Need Schools
Although equity has been top of mind for many educators for years, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated inequities like never before. Leaders must look closely at the initiatives and programs they are implementing and ask themselves: Does this program reduce achievement gaps or contribute to them?State: Illinois, Iowa
8 Resources for Responding to COVID-19
We know that right now, educators are focused on responding to the school closures and stay-at-home orders brought by the global pandemic. The Region 9 Comprehensive Center has rounded up the following COVID-19 resources from the federal network of support.State: Illinois, Iowa
What Is the Region 9 Comprehensive Center?
The Region 9 Comprehensive Center recently kicked off our work in Illinois and Iowa. This article answers your questions about what the center is, what we are working on, and why it is important.State: Illinois, Iowa