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For almost a quarter of a century — as far back as the 2001 passage of No Child Left Behind — states have been required under federal law to identify and focus intense support on their poorest-performing schools.

What that means, practically speaking, is that the most targeted and resource-heavy programs are poured into turning around the bottom 5% of schools in every state, including those with chronically bad graduation rates and those where certain subgroups of students languish below grade-level. 

On its face, that’s not a bad priority — though being identified as such has historically meant being targeted with drastic policy changes, including state takeovers. But in many ways, the COVID-19 pandemic scrambled the traditional school landscape: Suddenly, math and reading scores plummeted across the board for students in every school, and chronic absenteeism soared. Four years later, the U.S. education system is still trying to claw its way back to pre-pandemic achievement levels. 

It’s no longer just the bottom 5 percent of schools in each state that are in trouble — it’s the majority of them. Recognizing this, Illinois developed a universal model of continuous school improvement to ensure that every school in the state — not just those identified for support by being the very worst — benefits from evidence-based improvement strategies. The goal of extending that type of focused support to every school, unique to Illinois, was developed in partnership with administrators, school boards, superintendents and principals. 

So when the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University announced it was planning a new state collaborative aimed at helping states identify, study and share their most effective school improvement policies, Illinois knew it would have something special to share.

The state is one of nine — along with Alabama, Colorado, Delaware, Indiana, Ohio, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Texas — participating in “States Leading States.” The goal of the initiative is ambitious: to work alongside state leaders to evaluate policies meant to solve their most pressing challenges and make those lessons rapidly accessible via a series of rolling policy reports to lawmakers and practitioners across the country.

“We are in a crisis moment in education,” said Scott Sargrad, director of States Leading States. “Now is really the time to double down on what works. And so in order to double down on what works, we need to know what works.”

The effort comes as the most recent math and reading scores for high schoolers plummet to record lows, chronic absenteeism soars and more and more students graduate without the skills necessary to be successful in college or the workplace. And it’s all occurring against the backdrop of a significantly diminished federal role in education under the Trump administration — both in terms of funding K-12 programs and prioritizing research to elevate best practices.

Take the myriad state efforts to boost reading scores by adopting policies better aligned to the science of reading. “It’s not totally clear what the best policy levers are to pull at the state level to actually get better teaching in the classroom, instructional coaching,” said Sargrad. “Is it tutoring? Is it high-quality instructional materials? Is it all of those things combined? We’re trying to figure out what the most effective state policies are on a bunch of pressing issues.” 

In addition to its continuous improvement plan, Illinois, for example, is in the process of developing a so-called “Comprehensive Numeracy Plan.” Modelled after a literacy program by the same name, the numeracy plan will establish a roadmap for strengthening math teaching and learning across the state, which right now, most states haven’t attempted. 

Harvard’s initiative is already garnering praise from both sides of the edu-political spectrum, with Margaret Spellings, former Education Secretary under President George W. Bush, and John B. King Jr., former Education Secretary under President Barack Obama, both backing the plan.

“At a time when too many students are not reading at grade level or able to do basic math and the gaps between highest and lowest performing students are growing, we need to make student achievement a priority again and develop evidence-based strategies that help all students succeed,” said Spellings, who is now the president and CEO of the Bipartisan Policy Center. King, who is currently the Chancellor of the State University of New York, said the initiative “sets a powerful example for the country.” 

States Leading States plans to publish research reports and practical policy solutions, sharing what works and what doesn’t. Attracting the right mix of states was important, Sargrad said, since ensuring geographic, demographic and political diversity of states participating in the initiative increases the likelihood for other state education leaders to glimpse how these policy lifts might play out in their state or district.

During this first year of collaboration, states are focusing on a variety of K-12’s biggest challenges. With social media and cell phone bans top-of-mind right now, a handful of states are focusing their initial efforts on identifying the most effective policy: Ohio is preparing to implement a statewide bell-to-bell cell phone ban, while Illinois and Delaware school districts are testing alternative cellphone policies, like requiring students to use phone pouches or keep them turned off and stored by the teacher. 

The current federal landscape puts “an urgent responsibility” on states to collaborate, try new ideas, measure their impact and share what works, said Angélica Infante-Green, commissioner of elementary and secondary education for Rhode Island. Beyond the current federal government shutdown, which has, among other things, resulted in the near total layoff of staff at the Office of Special Education Programs, the current administration’s efforts to dismantle the entire Education Department portends dire consequences for the ability to identify which state policies are working.

Some of those states are focusing on more traditional academic metrics: To improve reading proficiency in sixth through eighth grade, Indiana is piloting an outcomes-based approach for improving middle school literacy. This is a newer type of education vendor contract that holds service providers and districts accountable for student progress through language that stipulates payment upon literacy improvement on test scores. 

Alabama is requiring every district to offer summer reading and math camps for struggling students. The camps are a component of statewide efforts to improve reading and math proficiency, as mandated by the Alabama Numeracy Act. For struggling third-grade readers, attending a summer reading camp is one option to avoid being held back and requires passing a second reading test to advance to the fourth grade. Some districts are already seeing significant improvement, including in DeKalb County, where math scores are at an all-time high. 

Meanwhile, Tennessee, Texas, and Rhode Island are taking on a host of challenges, from boosting access to career credentials, to implementing high-quality curriculum and addressing chronic absenteeism.

A key piece of the initiative involves equipping state agencies with the skills and personnel needed to conduct and use data analysis for continuous improvement — a boon for states in search of technical assistance in the wake of a 90 percent cut to the Education Department’s research arm, the Institute of Education Sciences. Each state will host a data project fellow from Harvard’s Center for Education Policy Research to help organize data, analyze implementation, and build a community of researchers ready to share insights across state lines.

“We’re not a political action committee, we’re not an advocacy group. What we know how to do is measure the efficacy of policies, and when we find things that work, we’re going to try to make sure other states are aware of it,” Sargrad said. “There are a lot of things we can’t do right now, but one thing we can do is shine a spotlight on things that work. And we can do it well.”

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