State education agencies play a vital role in helping education systems move from vision to action. They work with districts, schools, educators, and communities to address pressing challenges, implement new initiatives, and create the conditions for all students to succeed. Whether the focus is strengthening attendance, supporting educators, or expanding opportunities for learners, the work rarely calls for one-size-fits-all solutions. Instead, it relies on a combination of evidence, implementation support, coaching, and resources at the right time.
Federally funded research and technical assistance centers are designed to be partners in this work. The Regional Educational Laboratories (RELs) and the Comprehensive Centers serve related but distinct roles. RELs help partners generate and use evidence through applied research; training, coaching, and technical support; and dissemination projects. Comprehensive Centers provide capacity-building services to state and local education agencies and schools as they implement evidence-based policies and practices.
When these centers coordinate their work, state partners receive support that is better aligned to their goals and less duplicative. Recent collaborations between REL Midwest and the Midwest Comprehensive Center in Ohio and Iowa demonstrate how this coordination can take different forms depending on each state’s needs.
Aligning evaluation planning and implementation support for Ohio’s Integrated MTSS
In Ohio, REL Midwest and the Midwest Comprehensive Center are providing complementary support to the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (DEW) as state leaders continue to roll out Ohio’s Integrated Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) framework. The Integrated MTSS framework is designed to help schools provide academic, behavioral, and other supports based on students’ needs, with a continuum of support that begins with schoolwide strategies for all students and extends to more targeted intervention when needed.
DEW has already begun training districts and schools on the framework through workshops across the state. As that work continues, state leaders are asking important questions: What does strong implementation look like in practice? How can the state determine whether the framework is being implemented as intended?
REL Midwest is helping DEW develop a plan to evaluate the rollout and results of Integrated MTSS. Together, REL Midwest and staff from DEW’s Office of Instructional Coherence and Impact are codeveloping a logic model, formulating research questions, and creating a measurement plan that will be used to evaluate the Integrated MTSS framework. This work will position DEW to generate and use evidence that supports continuous improvement of Integrated MTSS.
At the same time, the Midwest Comprehensive Center is supporting the same state team by developing tools and resources that help educators understand and apply the framework in practice. These resources include a school-level self-assessment tool, tip sheets, and other guidance documents to help educators understand what implementation should look like in schools and classrooms and reflect on their progress.
Together, the Ohio work illustrates how REL Midwest and the Midwest Comprehensive Center can strengthen different aspects of the same state priority. The Midwest Comprehensive Center’s implementation tools can help educators and school teams better understand what Integrated MTSS should look like in practice, while REL Midwest’s evaluation planning support can help DEW understand how implementation is taking shape and what data can inform continuous improvement. In this way, the two projects can build on each other, with clearer implementation guidance supporting stronger evaluation and stronger evaluation informing future implementation support.
Related Resources
- Ohio’s Integrated Multi-Tiered System of Supports
- Ohio’s Integrated Multi-Tiered System of Supports Overview
Building research-based resources to improve attendance in Iowa
In Iowa, REL Midwest and the Midwest Comprehensive Center are collaborating to support another high-priority issue: student attendance. Iowa has reduced chronic absenteeism in recent years, but rates remain above pre-pandemic levels. The Iowa Department of Education (IDE) has been working with the Midwest Comprehensive Center to strengthen state and district capacity to address chronic absenteeism through coaching, technical assistance, and resources for a pilot group of alternative schools.
Through its ongoing partnership with IDE, the Midwest Comprehensive Center identified a need for districts and schools to better understand the fiscal resources required to implement attendance interventions. To meet that need, REL Midwest is developing an attendance intervention cost tool. The tool will help school and district teams estimate costs associated with attendance interventions, including personnel time, materials, training, technology, and other implementation costs. It is designed to help teams calculate per-pupil costs, better understand cost drivers, and support data-informed decisions about which interventions may be feasible to sustain, adapt, or expand.
REL Midwest will support implementation through coaching sessions focused on refining the tool with IDE, preparing selected pilot schools to use it, and gathering feedback to inform future improvements. REL Midwest and the Midwest Comprehensive Center are coordinating this support through joint meetings with IDE, providing a single, streamlined point of contact while drawing on the distinct expertise of each center. This coordinated approach allows the Midwest Comprehensive Center and REL Midwest to align their work, leverage their respective strengths, and address state specific needs.
Related Resources
- Applying a Cycle of Evidence-Based Continuous Improvement When Selecting Interventions and Project Components to Improve Attendance
- Using Cost Analysis to Guide Resource Decisions
- Cost Analysis: A Starter Kit
Looking ahead
These two projects in Ohio and Iowa offer examples of how federally funded centers can work in coordinated, mutually reinforcing ways to support state priorities. In each case, REL Midwest and the Midwest Comprehensive Center bring distinct expertise to related work, helping state partners move from identifying a need to developing practical, evidence-informed support.
As these projects move forward, REL Midwest will continue to collaborate with the Midwest Comprehensive Center and state partners to connect evidence, implementation support, and practical resources in ways that help address high-priority needs across the region.
