Contact us: www.mcrel.org | info@mcrel.org
January 2016
Happy New Year from McREL International!

As we celebrate our 50th year of serving educators, we want to pause to wish you a very Happy New Year! We have been fortunate to work with so many distinguished educators who are transforming the lives of students around the globe every day. We have high ambitions for our next 50 years of service and are looking forward to working with schools and organizations to help students and staff learn, succeed, and flourish.
Research Roundup
The Road Less Traveled: Changing Schools from the Inside Out
McREL International

In this new white paper, McREL's Bryan Goodwin urges education leaders and policymakers to rethink the way we've been approaching reform for the past three decades and consider what might happen if we improved schools not from the top down but instead from the inside out-putting curiosity at the center of learning and unleashing a powerful, more engaging system of schooling. Goodwin shows how schools can flip the top-down paradigm by taking a few key, consistent actions that put student engagement, motivation, and true problem-solving at the heart of teaching and learning to create new, more powerful outcomes that set students up for lifelong success.
Stanford study suggests academic benefits to ethnic studies courses
Stanford Graduate School of Education

In a recent study of high school students who were at risk of dropping out, researchers from the Stanford Graduate School of Education found that those who enrolled in an ethnic studies course that examined race, nationality, and culture as they relate to identity had higher rates of attendance and performed better academically. 
Quality Counts 2016: Rankings put states, nation to the test
Education Week

Education Week's 2016 Quality Counts report ranked U.S. states from first to last, focusing on academic standards and accountability as measured in three categories: chance-for-success, K-12 achievement, and school finance. While Massachusetts ranked highest in both school performance and student achievement, a majority of states (32) earned grades in the "C" range across the board. 
Events & Opportunities
Podcast | Whole Child Podcast: Every teacher is a leader

ASCD Director of Outreach Sean Slade hosts a monthly podcast, which focuses on ASCD's Whole Child approach to education. January's podcast guests----Bryan Goodwin, McREL president and CEO; Fred Ende, director of curriculum and instructional services of Putnam Northern Westchester BOCES; and Maddie Fennell, Omaha Public Schools elementary teacher and U.S. Dept. of Education Classroom Teacher Ambassador Fellow----will explore the topic of teacher leadership. Learn more, listen to the podcast, and subscribe for free .
Carnegie Foundation Summit on Improvement in Education
San Francisco, California, Mar. 22-24, 2016

Join McREL staff at this annual conference for collaborative conversation and insightful presentations about transforming teaching, leading, and learning. Learn more and register.
Pre-Conference Institute | ASCD Annual Conference
Atlanta, Georgia, Apr. 2-4, 2016

Pre-Conference Institute
Balanced Leadership for Powerful Learning
Date/Time
Mar. 31-Apr. 1, 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.

The role of school leader has never been more challenging, with many leaders trying to juggle too many balls at once. Effective leaders, though, learn how to increase the "signal-to-noise" ratio of their efforts by focusing themselves and their teams on doing what matters most. In this institute, McREL President and CEO Bryan Goodwin and education consultant Greg Cameron offer practical insight from research and real-life experiences that will help you to create a "stop-doing" list, focus on doing a few things well, overcome resistance to change, and develop a school culture where everyone works together to effect change so you don't have to go it alone. Learn more and register.
Summer PD | Balanced Leadership® Institute | School-Level Leaders
Denver, Colorado, Jul. 18-21, 2016

In this four-day institute, discover the leadership responsibilities that research shows are most strongly connected to student achievement. Learn practical strategies you can use in your school to develop a purposeful, positive school community, initiate and manage change within your school, and choose the right focus for your school's improvement initiatives. If you cannot attend all four days, you can register for individual days of your choice. Register by April 30, 2016, to receive a 10% discount per person. Learn more and register.
Summer PD | Classroom Instruction That Works® | Workshop
Denver, Colorado, Jul. 25-27, 2016

Learn research-based, practice-proven instructional strategies and ways to implement them in the classroom. Discover how each strategy can be effective with any student, at any grade level, and in any subject area, to enhance student achievement.
  • Learn new, evidence-based insights from the most recent, rigorous research
  • Get an instructional framework to strengthen instructional design
  • Discover the reasons for choosing certain strategies for certain situations
  • Connect the strategies to essential 21st century skills
Whether the strategies are new to you or something you already use every day, this workshop will help you raise your level of effectiveness. Register by April 30, 2016, to receive a 10% discount per person. Learn more and register.
Summer PD | Classroom Instruction That Works | Authorized Facilitator Training
Denver, Colorado, Jul. 25-29, 2016

Attend our Classroom Instruction That Works (CITW) workshop and authorized facilitator training to learn effective research-based instructional strategies and methods to help teachers learn and implement these strategies in their classrooms.
 
The first three days of this training will solidify your understanding of the nine CITW categories of instructional strategies and an instructional planning framework that maximizes the strategies' effectiveness. The final two days will prepare you to become an authorized facilitator of CITW workshops in your own district or region. Register by April 30, 2016, to receive a 10% discount per person. Learn more and register.
Perspectives
Blog Post | A step-by-step guide to building your intervention systems

In this blog post, McREL consultant and RtI/MTSS expert Adena Miller offers a step-by-step guide for school and district administrators seeking to implement a learning intervention program. Dr. Miller suggests starting with data and then performing an audit of current intervention needs.
Headlines
Student curiosity offered as key spice in latest reform recipe

THE Journal writer Dian Schaffhauser reviews McREL's latest white paper, The Road Less Traveled: Changing Schools from the Inside Out, outlining author Bryan Goodwin's seven-step plan for promoting student curiosity as the basis for school reform efforts.
Wah.Zha.Zhi Education Leadership Academy selects McREL framework

The Osage Nation in northern Oklahoma, in partnership with Kansas State University, announced that it will launch a new leadership academy in 2016 which will focus on the 21 principal leadership responsibilities found in McREL's Balanced Leadership® Framework.
Digital game designed to motivate students is under development

The University of Southern California (USC) announced  the development of a new project, "Identity-Based Motivation Journey to Academic Success", a digital game based on USC Dean's Professor of Psychology Daphna Oyserman's work on student identity-based motivation. The project, worth $2.7 million and funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Investing in Innovation (i3) Grant Program, will be developed and tested by educational game developer, Filament Games, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and McREL. The South Central Colorado Board of Cooperative Educational Services will also participate.
Leadership matters at all levels

On Education Week's Leadership 360 Blog, guest blogger, Dr. B.J. Worthington, director of schools for the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System in Tennessee, shares his thoughts on why leadership matters at all levels, and how McREL's Balanced Leadership approach, "embedding leadership through all levels of the organization," helps everyone share a vision of success.
New from McREL
GreenSTEM: Inspiring and empowering learners to change the world

GreenSTEM is a project-based model that uses science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) content and practices to investigte local environmental problems and implement solutions. We work with schools and districts to create place-based GreenSTEM programs that are engaging, standards-based, and empowering because of their direct and visible effects on students and the community. Contact us and we'll partner with you to customize and integrate a GreenSTEM model in your school or district. Learn more about GreenSTEM.
Client Testimonial
"We have relied on McREL as we continue to seek student improvement in our district. We appreciate that all of McREL's resources are research-based and proven effective. They've helped our staff to grow professionally and have a bigger impact on student learning."
Darrell Kohlman, Superintendent, Nemeha Central Schools, Kansas
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