A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Mission

To link the knowledge from research with the wisdom from practice to improve teaching and learning. This is accomplished by working with educators, researchers, policymakers, business leaders, families, students, and others to discover, develop, evaluate, and disseminate innovative services, products, and practices.

Key Initiatives

CSRD Facilitation and Evaluation Services. AEL has developed meaningful partnerships centered around schoolwide reform issues with state departments of education, professional organizations, and institutions of higher learning as the Laboratory provides in-depth technical assistance to schools and districts as they apply for CSRD funding. In an attempt to build capacity for problem solving and continuous improvement within schools, AEL offers a 2-year, intensive learning experience to individuals helping to guide schools through a comprehensive reform process. This External Facilitators Academy provides schools with the expert, impartial assistance they need to ensure successful implementation of local programs. In addition, AEL and the Center for Research in Educational Policy at the University of Memphis have developed and are offering to local schools an inexpensive Formative Evaluation Package for School Improvement (FEPSI⁸) that will help inform and steer the implementation of comprehensive reform efforts.

Kentucky Writing Project. The Kentucky Department of Education is collaborating with AEL to conduct a 5-year applied research and development project to design professional development for writing portfolio improvement. Project staff have used qualitative and quantitative measures to identify school conditions and practices linked to consistent writing improvement. During phase one of the project, researchers developed 7 instruments, conducted 29 school site visits, and interviewed more than 100 teachers, 200 students, and 50 administrators. Analysis of this data revealed 33 indicators for improving schools. During phase two, the research team conducted pilot and field tests of a schoolwide self-study process for improving writing instruction. The field test has determined the most effective process model to recommend for statewide implementation in the fall of 1999. An external facilitator training package is being developed to use with Kentucky educators, who will assist selected schools to use the schoolwide writing process.

Promoting High Academic Performance for Under-served Students. This work involves two projects, both in Tennessee districts that serve large percentages of ethnic minorities. In a Memphis middle school, a 2½-year humanities project titled "African-Americans as History Makers" will develop, teach, and evaluate an interdisciplinary humanities curriculum. The project is building depth of knowledge through a scholars program, implementing interdisciplinary teamed instruction, and providing training in technology. In the second project, AEL staff are working in one district with central office and building level staff with faculty from the University of Memphis to improve mathematics instruction. This 3-year project is designed to build an infrastructure for change, investigate the affects of the learning process, and provide technical assistance to the K-8 mathematics teaching community.

Quest. Learning the "hows" and "whys" of continuous improvement and how readily communities can implement school improvement is the goal of elementary and high schools participating in this research project with AEL. Quest schools are not looking to import any specific program to fix today's problems. Rather, they are reaching out to form a "community of learners" that sets a clear school vision, studies and discusses ideas from current literature and their own experiences, fosters habits of collaboration and thoughtfulness, and promotes an environment for increasing student learning. Quest's framework for continuous school improvement, which guides and unifies the work of the elementary and secondary school networks, derives from the research literature on education change, school improvement, school effectiveness, and the field of business.

Teaching and Learning Mapping Strategy. This 2-year process for professional development and curriculum reform works alone or as part of a schoolwide reform program. It assists schools and districts by: (1) aligning curriculum, instruction, and assessment with state standards and test objectives; (2) increasing understanding of results-oriented teaching; and (3) improving communication among teachers across and between grade levels and courses. As teachers map what they are teaching, they also identify the standards addressed in each instructional unit, describe learning activities that illustrate how they teach, and explain how they assess student mastery of standards. The strategy enables teachers to identify potential areas for integration and reinforcement of learning across the curriculum. An external facilitator is a key component of the strategy. Throughout the 2 years, the facilitator works with teachers and administrators to guide them through implementation of the process and assist with mastery of new skills.

Signature Programs

Family Connections. This parent-tested, teacher-approved tool not only helps families and young children have fun together while learning, it also enables schools to boost parent involvement. The learning guides are either sent home weekly with children or delivered to the home by family educators. Each issue offers a brief, easy-to-read message for parents and a read-aloud selection for parents and children, along with do-at-home activities. Two 30-issue sets of colorful four-page guides are available. Family Connections 1 is for families of preschool children, and Family Connections 2 is for families of kindergarten and early primary children. A Spanish version also is available. To date, more than 100,000 sets (30 guides each) have been purchased by programs from Maine to Hawaii.

Interdisciplinary Teamed Instruction. A research-based strategy for curriculum integration, this interdisciplinary approach to instruction focuses on dissolving boundaries between disciplines of knowledge, students and teachers, and schools and communities. The professional development program includes publications to help understand the "whats," "whys," and "how-tos" of curriculum integration; on-site training and weeklong institutes that focus on team building and curriculum development; and action research to evaluate the effects of integration on teaching and learning. A moderated electronic listserv provides subscribers with a forum for sharing questions, insights, resources, and experiences.

The KERA Study. AEL's qualitative policy study of the implementation of the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990 began in that same year. The first 5 years focused on implementation of critical aspects of the law. Current research looks at the conditions under which KERA changes educator behaviors and studies the effects of those changes on students by following the class of 2006 for 3 years at six elementary schools across the state. A related study, sponsored by the Partnership for Kentucky Schools, is looking at professional development needs and ways to meet them.

QUILT. A long-term professional development program, QUILT is designed to increase student learning and thinking by improving teacher use of classroom questioning techniques. QUILT — Questioning and Understanding to Improve Learning and Thinking — represents a comprehensive approach to enhancing student engagement in learning. The program helps teachers create a classroom environment that is more reflective, student centered, inquiry based, and metacognitive. In QUILT classrooms, students understand how questioning and answering can help them learn, use effective questioning themselves, and become more actively involved in their learning.

Specialty Area

AEL's Rural Education Specialty supports the integrity of small rural schools in an increasingly interconnected world — helping students from rural places become successful, well-adjusted adults — wherever they end up residing. The focus that guides work in this area is fostering the essential relationship of sustainable rural schools and communities, with particular emphasis on student achievement and well-being. This focus illustrates AEL's commitment to promote the integral relationship of student achievement in rural schools, particularly small rural schools, along with their communities, their environs, and their joint futures. Staff work regionally to help rural schools and communities improve school readiness of preschool children, increase student achievement, and help students find pathways to adulthood through school-to-work opportunities and appreciation of rural community life. Nationally, staff provide leadership, share expertise, establish partnerships, and inform debate through a variety of publications, teleseminars, and electronic networks, and through participation in practitioner- and research-specific analyses of the National Center for Education Statistics databases. Through its specialty area work, AEL sponsors a National Academy of Rural School Practitioners and Scholars — which operates, in part, via a moderated electronic network — to link rural schoolteachers and administrators with those who study and write about rural schools and communities.

Selected Recent Products

Expanding the Vision: New Roles for Educational Service Agencies in Rural School District Improvement explains how education service agencies can help districts set their own agendas and develop their own approaches for accomplishing their goals in the face of court decisions, global impacts on communities, and national and state pressures for reform.

Family Connections Parent Notebook makes AEL's popular learning guides, formerly distributed through school or preschool programs, available to parents. All three versions — Family Connections 1, Family Connections 2, and Relaciones Familiarescan — be purchased individually. Each contains a set of 30 4-page guides, plus tips for using them.

The ABC's of Parent Involvement in Education: Preparing Your Child for a Lifetime of Success offers information, inspiration, ideas, and expert advice to parents with children of all ages. AEL's Family Connections staff partnered with the National Parents' Day Coalition to create this handbook designed to raise awareness of, energize, and empower parents with ideas on ways they can be involved in their children's education.

"School-Based Programs to Promote Safety and Civility," a Policy Brief, looks at recent studies designed to evaluate the effectiveness of antiviolence programs. The publication focuses on more than 20 primary and secondary level programs, all of which get a thumbs-up from researchers, and provides contact information for each.

"Schools for Disruptive Students: A Questionable Alternative?," a Policy Brief, reviews the research on alternative schools and suggests indicators policymakers can monitor to judge the effectiveness of alternative school legislation.

"Planning Schools for Rural Communities" from AEL's Rural Center is an Information Brief that discusses the character of a good rural community school and briefly considers the relationships among learning, community, and facility construction in rural areas.

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[ Mid-Atlantic Laboratory for Student Success (LSS) ]

[ SouthEastern Regional Vision for Education (SERVE) ]

This page last modified 12 November 1999. (lvb)