Educational Testing Service
Project Title
For building the capacity of school and system leaders
Date
Jun. 09, 2022
Duration
30 months
Description
College and career readiness requires more than academic knowledge—an extensive body of research shows that students’ socio-emotional skills are key to their lifelong success and well-being. However, despite the literature and the real-world urgency created by the COVID-19 pandemic, educators have few models and limited implementation strategies for integrating socio-emotional learning (SEL) into the academic experience. The Institute for Student Achievement (ISA) was founded in 1990 to ensure that traditionally underserved students are prepared for success in college and career. Using a capacity-building approach to address problems of practice and transform school environments, ISA has coached over 4,000 educators and provided personalized supports to over 80,000 students. With Corporation support, ISA developed a model for integrating critical SEL domains into academic instruction and successfully piloted the model in nine diverse secondary schools, demonstrating positive shifts in teacher practice and students’ SEL and academic skills. Continued support will allow ISA to build on this work by providing intensive capacity building to school and system leaders focused on SEL integration and educator well-being.
Website
Project Title
For support to further develop and implement the Integrating Non-Cognitive Teaching and Learning into the Academic Core Project (INTLP)
Date
Dec. 05, 2019
Duration
33 months
Description
Research shows that students’ socio-emotional skills are key to their lifelong success, yet there remains a dearth of program models that marry socio-emotional learning (SEL) with academics, particularly at the high school level. The Institute for Student Achievement (ISA) has a thirty-year history of transforming schools by providing instructional coaching to over 4,000 educators and personalized supports to over 80,000 students. With Corporation support, ISA developed a model for integrating critical SEL domains into academic instruction and successfully piloted the model in six diverse secondary schools, demonstrating positive shifts in teacher practice and students’ SEL and academic skills. With continued support, ISA will expand the SEL pilot by deepening school-level partnerships, enhancing district capacity to facilitate SEL integration, disseminating critical resources for implementation to a broad set of stakeholders, and informing SEL-related policies in partnership with a national policy organization.
Website
Project Title
For support to further develop and implement the Integrating Non-Cognitive Teaching and Learning into the Academic Core Project (INTLP), Institute for Student Achievement's (ISA) research-based solution for teaching non-cognitive skills as part of the academic core
Date
Jun. 01, 2017
Duration
30 months
Description
An extensive body of research shows that students’ socio-emotional skills are key to their lifelong success. Yet, there remains a dearth of program models that marry socio-emotional learning (SEL) with academic instruction, particularly at the high school level. The Institute for Student Achievement (ISA) has built a national network of over seventy new and turnaround schools, developing personalized supports for high school students across the country. With Corporation support, ISA has completed a pilot project to develop a teacher toolkit for developing students’ non-cognitive strategies by embedding SEL within academic classes. This pilot has been successful in shifting teacher practice and has resulted in promising early indicators of student success. With Corporation support, ISA will: expand this pilot to more classrooms within the pilot schools and to other ISA schools; adapt the core elements of the pilot to a more portable model for new school practices both within and beyond the ISA network; and develop tools and resources to support educators across all of these schools.
Website
Project Title
For a convening to develop a research agenda on micro-credentials for organizing teacher learning in education
Date
Jun. 01, 2017
Duration
6 months
Description
Interest in the use of micro-credentials (MCs) to certify that teachers have acquired targeted professional knowledge and skill is on the rise. States and districts are beginning to develop MCs oriented to a range of purposes and competencies in teaching. An important aspect for this innovation will be a robust inquiry process to explore what features and circumstances of this idea contribute to positive outcomes. Proposed is a working conference that brings together practitioners and researchers to formulate an agenda for the kinds of inquiry to support the development of MCs, considering both the design features of MC and their potential uses in policy and administrative systems. The long range goal will be to engage stakeholders in the launch of studies that provide empirical or evidence-based support for the development of micro-credentials for teachers.
Website
Project Title
For the Institute for Student Achievement to develop a program that redesigns the high school learning environment by integrating socio-emotional teaching and learning into the academic core
Date
Sep. 08, 2016
Duration
6 months
Description
Research confirms that preparing high school students, particularly underserved students, to be college and career ready requires not only the development of content knowledge and academic skills, but also non-cognitive factors, or socio-emotional skills, that underpin academic performance and persistence in secondary and post-secondary education. The Institute for Student Achievement (ISA), a division of the nonprofit Educational Testing Service (ETS), is a 22-year-old national organization with a strong track record of successfully transforming chronically low-performing high schools. Through the Integrating Non-Cognitive Teaching and Learning into the Academic Core Project (INTLP), ISA intends to demonstrate that supporting students to develop a core set of socio-emotional skills, behaviors and attitudes related to academic achievement in conjunction with developing their content knowledge and core academic skills produces high school graduates that are prepared for college and career success. Funding from the Corporation will enable ISA to conduct a five-month planning and pilot of INTLP, during which the organization will curate program curricula and resources and work with three New York City high schools to implement and refine the INTLP program in preparation for expansion following the pilot phase.