Joseph Boven

The 2017 North Dakota Legislative Assembly passed a bill, signed into law, that allows schools and districts to develop comprehensive plans altering the delivery of education, which sometimes includes a waiver request of some state education regulations. In doing so, it gave the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction (NDDPI) district and school administrators the flexibility to think big in proposing, developing, and implementing innovative education programs ...

REL Central recently worked with education agencies in our region to develop two reports to help provide stakeholders a better understanding of teacher movement and of predictors of teacher attrition and mobility. Now, we are hosting the webinar Understanding What Influences Teacher Mobility to discuss those reports in terms of what they mean for states, how they can be viewed as part of a larger national conversation, and how their data can be or will be used by educ...

Teachers' performance on certification exams and their years of experience teaching math were most associated with middle school students' success in Algebra I, according to the new REL Central report Associations Between the Qualifications of Middle School Algebra I Teachers and Student Math Achievement. The report was the result of a partnership between REL Central and Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (MO DESE) to discover the teache...

Work-based learning (WBL)-a practice that allows students to apply classroom taught skills in a practical, real-world setting-is an important strategy in supporting students as they solidify skills and prepare themselves for the workforce. Unfortunately, in rural communities, education agencies can face significant hurdles in implementing those skills. On October 15, education experts and rural practitioners came together to present the REL Central webinar Delive...

With the high costs of teacher recruitment and training, education leaders are looking for ways to retain teachers both in their schools and in the profession. A new report from REL Central highlighting the predictors of teacher mobility and attrition in Colorado, Missouri, and South Dakota shows that while pay and working environment matter, a number of other factors can also contribute to a teacher's likelihood of changing jobs. The report Factors Related to T...

A recent study by REL Central and four central region state education departments found that, on average, 10.4 percent of teachers in Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska, and South Dakota left the teaching profession during the 2015/16 and 2016/17 school years. The percentage did not come as a shock to education department leaders who saw the results as a call for further efforts to improve retention rates and acquisition strategies. The Colorado Department of Educatio...