Education First’s resource library offers curated resources, toolkits, policy memos and templates that have served our clients around the country and are now available to support you. Use these resources to guide your strategic planning, to stay fresh on hot-topic reform areas (like Common Core and college- and career- ready assessments), to improve your planning and implementation at the state or local levels and to inform grantmaking strategies and investments in areas that will improve student outcomes. Don’t see something you need? Contact us and we’ll be happy to help.
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Cincinnati Public Schools: Supporting Students and Educators: Whatever It Takes
Cincinnati Public Schools combines a comprehensive set of supports and high academic expectations to help its students beat the odds. Cincinnati pioneered the “community schools...
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Cleveland Metropolitan School District: A Community Plan for School Transformation
In 2011, Cleveland’s schools were in crisis. Led by the mayor, a group of community organizations and district leaders created a plan to transform the...
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D.C. Public Schools: Turning Around Schools in the Nation’s Capital
In less than a decade, D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) has transformed from a low-achieving, dysfunctional school district into the fastest-improving urban school system in the...
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Indianapolis Public Schools: From the Bottom Up
Just five years ago, Indianapolis Public Schools was languishing in the bottom rankings of the state. But now more students are passing state tests; taking...
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New Haven Public Schools: When Adults Work Together, Children Succeed
School districts and teachers unions often clash over education policy, but in New Haven Public Schools, collaboration and engagement are the norm. “Engagement is a...
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Santa Ana Unified School District: All Students UC- and CSU-Ready
Santa Ana Unified serves a low-income, high-minority population in Orange County, California. District leaders have set the goal of having all students graduate ready to...
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Springdale Public Schools: Teach Them All
Over the past two decades, Springdale, Arkansas has seen an influx of immigrant families coming to the region for jobs. The community at large has...
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Washoe County School District “Every Child, by Name and Face, to Graduation”
In spite of several superintendent turnovers and severe budget cuts, Washoe County School District is moving strongly toward its goal to get all students “college...
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Toward A Next-Generation School Accountability System
When the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) became law in 2015, it granted states unprecedented authority to innovate and create new accountability systems. In this...
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Ensuring High-Quality Teacher Talent
How Strong District-Teacher Preparation Program Partnerships are Transforming the Teacher PipelineAs districts face the recurring problem of ensuring every student has access to a high-quality teacher, a growing number have begun to proactively form deep,...
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The National Assessment Landscape: What Does High-Quality Look Like?
Our updated primer on Common Core-aligned assessments offers policymakers, staff, education leaders and advocates reusable slides that make the case for why we need new...
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Fewer and Better Local Assessments
A Toolkit for EducatorsIt’s time for a more strategic approach to assessment. Schools, school districts and charter management organizations (CMOs) need to take a fresh look at what...
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Following Through On What We’ve Started
Now That Race to the Top is Over, What's Next for States?Race to the Top directed billions of dollars to states in order to put in place college and career ready standards, educator evaluations, data systems...
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Planning and Managing Effective Networks
Since its founding in 2008, Education First has helped numerous partners – from funders, to nonprofits, to the Federal Government – establish and facilitate networks...
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Education First Strategic Planning Overview
In any strategic planning project, our task is to help the organization leaders and staff develop a blueprint that will guide their organization for several...
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Series: Achieving the Benefits of K-12 and Higher Education Alignment
In this series of briefs we provide an introduction to important areas for effective K–12/higher education collaboration and alignment. Each brief tackles a different issue:...
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Brief 1: An Introduction
In this brief we outline what alignment between K-12 and higher education means and how to achieve it in practice. We go into detail on...
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Brief 2: Defining College and Career Readiness
In this brief we outline how K-12 and higher education can create a shared definition of what college and career readiness means. We found that...
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Brief 3: Adopting New College and Career Ready Assessments
In this brief, we address the dual issues of assessment development and use. More than ever, the K-12 and higher education sectors are working together...
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Brief 4: Developing and Using College Readiness Courses
In this brief we describe how K-12 and higher education can collaborate to develop college readiness courses, which ensure that every student is ready to...
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Brief 5: Aligning Gateway College Courses
In this brief we describe how K-12 and higher education can collaborate on the courses that students first take when they begin postsecondary education. Students...
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Brief 6: Redesigning Educator Prep Programs
In this brief we discuss the importance of aligning teacher preparation programs with the classroom experience in K-12 schools. Until recently, most preparation programs focused...
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Assessment Design Toolkit
Measuring what students know and can do is an essential part of teaching, and like many teaching practices, designing assessments is sophisticated work. In this...
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Giving Teachers the Feedback and Support They Deserve: Five Essential Practices
This report provides our findings on how district and state leaders can improve feedback and support for teachers. Based on interviews with five school districts...
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