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The purpose of this evaluation was to examine the impact of i-Ready Personalized Instruction that met Curriculum Associates' recommended usage levels on mathematics achievement, as measured by the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) mathematics assessment. This study compared mathematics achievement growth of students who used i-Ready Personalized Instruction with fidelity to comparison to that of students who only used the i-Ready Diagnostic Assessment suite, but did not have access to Personalized Instruction. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to compare mathematics achievement gains, and analyses were performed by grade level. Results showed that students in Grades 3, 5, 6, and 8 that used i-Ready Personalized Instruction with fidelity had significantly higher MCAS mathematics achievement gains in the 2020-21 school year than did comparison students who did not use i-Ready Personalized Instruction. These results help to illustrate the importance of students meeting Curriculum Associates' recommended usage levels of the Personalized Instruction suite in order to maximize the potential benefits of this instructional program.

The purpose of this evaluation was to examine the impact of i-Ready Personalized Instruction that met Curriculum Associates' recommended usage levels on ELA achievement, as measured by the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) ELA assessment. This study compared the ELA achievement growth in the 2020-21 school year of students who used i-Ready Personalized Instruction with fidelity in ELA classrooms to that of students who used the i-Ready Diagnostic Assessment suite, but did not have access to Personalized Instruction. Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) was used to compare ELA achievement gains, and analyses were performed by grade level. Results showed that students in Grades 4 and 8 that used i-Ready Personalized Instruction with fidelity had significantly larger MCAS ELA achievement gains than did comparison students who did not use Personalized Instruction. Additionally, ELA achievement gains for students in Grades 5 and 7 that used i-Ready Personalized Instruction, in relation to those of comparison students, approached statistical significance (p < 0.10). These results help to show the importance of students using the Personalized Instruction suite with fidelity in order to maximize potential benefits of this program.

The purpose of this study was to use a quasi-experimental design (QED) to examine the effectiveness of i-Ready Personalized Instruction on student achievement on a summative state assessment (Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System; MCAS) in a year of learning disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic. The study sample consisted of about 11,000 grades 3-8 students from five school districts in Massachusetts. All schools used i-Ready Diagnostic assessments, but each district assigned some students to receive both the Diagnostic and Instruction products, while other students only received the Diagnostic product. Propensity score weighting (PSW) was used to create a comparison (Diagnostic-only) group that was as similar as possible to the treatment (Diagnostic and Instruction) group. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), using school as the clustering variable, was used to conduct quantitative analyses of available achievement data, and analyses were conducted by grade level. Results showed that i-Ready Personalized Instruction use was associated with significantly higher MCAS mathematics achievement gains. Students in grades 3, 5, and 6 that used i-Ready Personalized Instruction significantly outgained comparison students, by an average of 5-7 points. Further, grade-aggregated analyses showed that i-Ready Personalized Instruction students showed significantly higher mathematics achievement gains than did comparison students, with Instruction students averaging five points higher MCAS scores. These results give evidence supporting the efficacy of i-Ready's Personalized Instruction suite in a school year marked by near-constant learning disruptions. It is important to note that, for these analyses, the comparison group used the i-Ready Diagnostic assessment system, which itself has already been shown to be an effective research-based intervention. Thus, it is likely that efficacy estimates of the treatment (Diagnostic and Instruction) condition may be somewhat conservative, relative to a comparison condition where students received neither of the i-Ready components.

School leaders are increasingly being asked, whether by rhetoric or policy, to measurably improve student achievement. The resultant need to assist school leaders in their ability to improve teaching and learning for all students in their schools led to the establishment of the National Institute of School Leadership's (NISL's) Executive Development Program. The NISL program emphasizes the role of principals as strategic thinkers, instructional leaders, and creators of a just, fair, and caring culture in which all students meet high standards. The current national focus on the importance of effective, instructional leadership has, in turn, led to calls for principal evaluation to be tied directly to student achievement (Davis, Kearney, Sanders, Thomas, and Leon, 2011). Within this milieu, effective and proven principal leadership development programs are crucial. (Contains 3 tables and 2 figures.) [This report was produced by the Center for Educational Partnerships, Old Dominion University.]

The National Institute of School Leadership's (NISL's) Executive Development Program (EDP) was established to provide professional development to school leaders to drive their schools to high performance. The program emphasizes the role of principals as strategic thinkers, instructional leaders, and creators of a just, fair, and caring culture in which all students meet high standards. Its primary goal is to ensure that the participating school leaders have the knowledge, skills, and tools to effectively set direction for teachers, support their staffs, and design an efficient organization. The curriculum is organized into four courses: "World-Class Schooling" (Principal as a Strategic Thinker and School Designer, Standards-Based Instruction), "Teaching and Learning," "Developing Capacity and Commitment," and "Driving for Results." Training sessions are designed to be highly interactive through the use of simulations and assignment of "pre-work" and "homework" to participants. This study examined the impact of EDP on student achievement in Pennsylvania schools from 2006-2010. It updates and extends a prior evaluation (Nunnery, Ross, and Yen, 2010a) study of this same cohort from 2006-2009, which found that elementary, middle, and high schools served by EDP principals had significantly larger gains in the percentages of students achieving proficiency in reading and mathematics. (Contains 1 footnote, 9 figures, and 4 tables.)