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This brief continues ongoing research by NWEA® examining the degree to which the COVID-19 pandemic, and its associated school closures, influenced student learning. Prior research focused on math and reading and found that the pandemic's negative impact steadily accumulated during the 2020-2021 school year, with significant disparities in achievement and growth compared to prepandemic trends (Lewis, Kuhfeld, Ruzek, & McEachin, 2021). Although there were modest rebounds in reading and math during the 2021-2022 school year, progress toward pandemic recovery largely stalled in 2022-2023 and 2023-2024, with achievement and growth trends still trailing behind prepandemic levels (Kuhfeld & Lewis, 2022; Lewis & Kuhfeld, 2023; Lewis & Kuhfeld, 2024). Building on previous research series focused on math and reading achievement, this brief explores how the pandemic influenced student achievement in science. It examines science test scores across seven school years to understand how COVID-19 influenced science achievement.

The purpose of this technical appendix is to share detailed results and more fully describe the sample and methods used to produce the research brief, "COVID's Impact on Science Achievement: Trends from 2019 through 2024. We investigated three main research questions in this brief: 1) How did science achievement in 2021 and 2024 compare to achievement in 2019, before the pandemic? 2) How much additional schooling was required in spring 2021 and spring 2024 to return to spring 2019 levels? 3) How do these patterns differ by race/ethnicity?

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, educators and policymakers have scrambled to assess the impact on student learning. Popular metrics that have gained traction are the notions of "years of learning lost" or "months behind," which attempt to quantify the educational setbacks caused by the pandemic. The allure of these time-based metrics is understandable; they provide a seemingly straightforward way to communicate the magnitude of learning loss to non-technical audiences. But beneath their simplicity lies a complex web of assumptions, statistical manipulations, and, ultimately, misleading conclusions that may do more harm than good. This paper delves into the flaws of time-based metrics and argues for a more meaningful approach to measuring student progress. It challenges the assumption that more time automatically equates to more learning and advocates for assessments that provide richer, content-based insights into student abilities and needs. By critically examining the current narrative, the paper seeks to inspire educators and policymakers to reconsider how we measure and respond to educational challenges in a post-pandemic world. [Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the National Council on Measurement in Education (Philadelphia, PA, 2024).]

Racial disparities in infant health conditions have persisted for decades. However, there is surprisingly limited evidence regarding the long-term consequences of these disparities. Using novel linked administrative data from Texas and the shift to Medicaid Managed Care (MMC), I show that MMC-driven declines in infant health worsened cognitive and noncognitive outcomes for Black children, while MMC-driven enhancements in infant health improved noncognitive outcomes and educational attainment for Hispanics. Effects concentrate in low-value added districts for either demographic, suggesting that the long run impacts of changes to early life health conditions are more pronounced in less effective schools for one's demographic. [Additional support from the Hellman Fellows Find.]

This study uses a concurrent embedded mixed-methods design to assess the impact of additional funding on student outcomes in a large, urban school district in the Southeastern United States. The district implemented student-based budgeting (SBB), which allocates dollars to schools based on student characteristics using a weighted student funding (WSF) formula and provides flexibility to principals to allocate those dollars under site-based budgeting. Using simulated instruments in a difference-in-differences framework, we estimate the impact of additional funding on student outcomes provided by WSF. Student test scores in math and ELA increased by 0.14 and 0.12 standard deviations, respectively. Our qualitative analysis suggests that the flexibility given to principals was a key mechanism that improved student outcomes.

California's K-12 funding and instructional policies for English learners (ELs) have changed significantly over the past 2 decades, including new requirements for instructional materials specific to ELs statewide and a new school funding system that funds ELs at a higher rate. These major policy shifts held the potential to change student learning outcome patterns for ELs. This brief summarizes those policy changes and, as a first step in identifying their impact, describes changes over time in the development of academic skills and English proficiency among ELs in California. We find that English learners' academic achievement by 3rd grade has improved over time, shrinking the achievement gaps between K-cohort ELs and other students in English language arts (ELA) and math. We also find that more-recent cohorts of kindergarten ELs are reaching English proficiency on the California English Language Development Test (CELDT) in earlier grades than previous cohorts did. For the less recent cohorts who had reached Grade 5 by 2018-19, we find almost no change in the overall share who were proficient in English by the end of elementary school. We also find only half of kindergarten ELs were reclassified as English proficient by the end of elementary school in 2018-19.

The Partnership for College Completion (PCC) was founded to "advance equity in higher education" by supporting colleges and universities to improve college completion for Black, Latinx, and Pell-eligible students--those groups that experience persistent disparities in completion. Simultaneously, PCC engages in state policy reform to bring about systems-wide change. Begun in 2018, the Illinois Equity in Attainment Initiative (ILEA) is its flagship initiative, designed to partner with Illinois colleges and universities to assist them in narrowing their college completion gaps. Promising new research suggests improving equity in college completion requires an explicit focus on race, attention to organizational change, commitment to equity-focused policies and plans, and cross-institutional partnerships to help manifest change. Drawing from this research, ILEA and its partner institutions developed and implemented public-facing equity plans to improve graduation rates for their Black, Latinx, and Pell-eligible students. This study examines how the ILEA collaborative institutions confronted and negotiated structural barriers inhibiting graduation for these historically marginalized groups. The report aims to: (1) Provide study partners, including the Partnership for College Completion, with program feedback; (2) Inform readers about equity plan development and implementation, policy, and practice collaboratives; (3) Identify strengths and growth opportunities about PCC's efforts to bring colleges and universities together to jointly improve college completion for Black, Latinx, and Pell-eligible students; and (4) Reflect on implementation successes and challenges.

This brief is a continuation of NWEA's research series examining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student achievement and progress toward academic recovery. Initiated in the early phase of the pandemic, this series has leveraged NWEA's large national sample of longitudinal MAP® Growth™ data to track student performance and compare it to historical trends. The authors have tracked two critical aspects of student performance in the wake of the pandemic: achievement and growth. Achievement data reveals the extent of unfinished learning. The authors refer to the distance between current test scores and prepandemic trends as "achievement gaps." Growth data estimate how much test scores increase over time. They use these data to indicate whether students are making gains that keep pace with prepandemic trends. Understanding and tracking both achievement and growth is important. Achievement gaps quantify how much unfinished learning remains, while growth patterns help gauge the rate at which gaps will close. The system needs accelerated or above-average growth for students to catch up. The data provide insights into how effectively this is happening. The cumulative research shows that the harmful effects of the pandemic on student achievement steadily accumulated over the course of the 2020-21 school year (Lewis, Kuhfeld, Ruzek, & McEachin, 2021). Growth generally returned to, or slightly exceeded, prepandemic trends in the 2021-22 school year (Kuhfeld & Lewis, 2022). Progress stalled in 2022-23 when growth in nearly all grades fell short of prepandemic trends (Lewis & Kuhfeld, 2023). In this analysis, the authors use 2023-24 school year data to examine the current progress toward recovery. They examine test scores from approximately 7.7 million students currently in grades 3-8 in 22,400 public schools who have taken MAP Growth reading and math assessments since the onset of the pandemic. The "COVID sample" consists of six separate cohorts of students followed longitudinally across the last three school years. For instance, current fifth-graders are part of the grade 3-5 cohort; they measure this cohort's achievement across third grade in 2021-22, fourth grade in 2022-23, and fifth grade in 2023-24. The authors compared this COVID sample to a comparable group of 10 million students who tested in grades 3-8 in the pre-COVID school years of 2016-17 through 2018-19.

The Equity Playbook Initiative Implementation in Kentucky underwent an efficacy study conducted by LXD Research during the 2022-2023 school year. The study aimed to assess the initiative's impact on student academic achievement and school climate. A total of 55 public schools participating in the Equity Playbook Initiative were compared with 240 statistically similar non-participating schools. The demographic breakdown of the sample included 65% economically disadvantaged students, with a significant representation of 30% African American students and 35% non-white students. The findings indicated that Equity Playbook schools significantly improved key academic outcomes, particularly among economically disadvantaged students. Notably, students attending Equity Playbook schools, especially those with a high percentage of economically disadvantaged students, showed significant improvement in testing on grade level in Science and Math compared to their counterparts in non-participating schools. Additionally, the study revealed a reduction in the Kentucky Summative Assessment (KSA) achievement gap for economically disadvantaged students among participating schools. Furthermore, the completion rates of advanced courses for African American and non-white students in Equity Playbook schools showed marked improvement compared to the schools that did not participate in the initiative. Qualitative interviews with state, district, and school-level educators and staff also provided positive feedback regarding the effects of the Equity Playbook Initiative. The findings suggest that the Equity Playbook Initiative holds promise in promoting student academic achievement and enhancing school climate. This study encourages further evaluation and broader adoption of the Equity Playbook Initiative in various districts and schools across Kentucky to leverage its potential benefits. [This report was prepared for engage2learn by LXD Research.]

"Scaling Completion" highlights Complete College America (CCA)'s work in 2023 to: (1) Lead the field to improve college completion rates, particularly for historically underserved students; (2) Engage and bring together leaders to eliminate institutional performance gaps; and (3) Build capacity to create and implement data-informed transformative policies and practices. The report also takes a look at their growing impact since their founding in 2009, including increases in the number of degrees and certificates conferred, the numbers of students served, and graduation rates at two- and four-year institutions.

Students who have dropped out of high school--and those at risk of doing so--are at greater risk of lifelong poverty, involvement with the criminal justice system, dependence on government welfare programs, and even premature death. In the last few years, however, the problems at high schools have compounded, as pandemic-era school closures led to dramatic drops in math and reading proficiency, as well as a spike in chronic absenteeism. In the wake of the pandemic, there is thus a pressing need--as well as an opportunity--to find new, innovative approaches for recovering dropouts and retaining those at risk of dropping out. Paid high school work-study programs are a promising way to help provide opportunities to the most vulnerable teenagers and young adults. Before graduating from high school, students enrolled in work-study programs are employed in paid jobs to gain valuable, marketable skills while often receiving their first wages and being kept safe. Work-study programs make high school relevant, thus helping to prevent dropouts and to reclaim those who have already left. In preventing more students from exiting the school system, these programs can make the U.S. more economically competitive and turn around the lives of thousands of students who would otherwise likely fall into lifelong dead ends. School-district officials should work to establish these programs, starting with a select number of high schools and partners in the private sector and skilled trades.

Finding innovative educational strategies that work is important to help improve student learning and close equity gaps nationwide. The goal of the U.S. Department of Education's Investing in Innovation Fund (i3) was to build high-quality evidence about effective educational strategies and to expand implementation of these strategies. Between 2010 and 2016, i3 awarded 172 grants totaling $1.4 billion to universities, school districts, and private non-profit organizations. The i3 Fund intentionally awarded different types of grants either to develop and test new, innovative but as-yet-unproven strategies or to learn more about the circumstances under which previously tested strategies are effective. Grantees were required to fund independent evaluations that would meet high standards for quality. This report examines the quality and findings of the 148 i3 grants with completed evaluations and provides information about the focus of the strategies those grantees tested.

In 1993, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts dramatically overhauled its K-12 education system and created a new school finance formula, building an educational accountability structure to ensure every child has access to a high-quality education. The Massachusetts Education Reform Act (MERA) established academic standards in core subjects, mandated assessments to measure student outcomes on those standards, and established a system for holding schools accountable when students failed to meet basic expectations. This system has helped Massachusetts' public schools become the highest performing in the country. Student outcomes in all tested subjects and across demographic groups have improved steadily over time, but disparities in achievement and attainment exist between the Commonwealth's most privileged students and their less privileged counterparts, many of whom are black or Hispanic. Without the MERA and its requirement to assess every student and publish aggregate academic outcomes, policymakers may not understand the extent of disparity or how to address it as student outcomes data are integral to understanding where Massachusetts' public schools have been, where they are going, and how they can get there. This paper illustrates the importance of the Massachusetts Education Reform Act and how it has positively impacted students over time. It explains why the current accountability system evolved as it did and why preserving the most important aspects of that system is critical if the state is going to fulfill its constitutional obligation to educate all children to a high common standard.

The share of at-risk students has increased post pandemic requiring a response that matches the magnitude of the impact. High dosage tutoring has been one strategy to address the needs. If implemented effectively and at the proper scale, accelerated academic growth is possible. This brief reviews the collection of research on high dosage tutoring, its benefits and the factors that must be considered and included to implement high dosage tutoring effectively. Among those are frequency and scheduling, group size, qualified personnel, measurement of outcomes, curriculum, tutor-to-student relationships, and new components like removing barriers to access.

Because standardized tests in science are not given to PreK-3 students in Ohio, this report examined the longitudinal effects of learning from a teacher who had participated in the NURTURES professional development program. Specifically, it looked at the effects on students' mathematics and reading learning in grades 2-5 and science learning in 5th grade in 2017. Students who were in 5th grade at that time could have had a NURTURES-trained teacher at any time between kindergarten and 3rd grade. Thus, the study followed students up to 5 years after having a NURTURES teacher. The sample included the population of students enrolled in the 41 elementary schools in the Toledo Public School District. Students who never learned from a teacher who participated in NURTURES served as the control group. The data came from the 2017 administration of the Ohio Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) (NWEA, 2019) for mathematics and reading and the Ohio Achievement Test in Science for science (Ohio Achievement Assessment, 2015). The total number of students from these schools who took the May 2017 reading MAP was 6759 and the total number who took mathematics was 6703. The number of those students who had at least one NURTURES teacher was 2801 (41.4%) for reading and 2707 (41.6%) for mathematics. Analysis of the reading scores showed 2.14 advantage points for NURTURES students as compared to the average non-intervention student to an annual growth rate of 7.02 units (p < .001). The treatment effect size (Hedges' g) was 0.12. For mathematics there were 1.55 advantage points to an annual growth rate estimated to be 8.17 units (p < .001) as compared to the average non-intervention student. The treatment effect size (Hedges' g) was 0.09. Analysis of the 5th grade Ohio Achievement Science Subtest showed that students associated with at least one NURTURES-trained teacher was modeled to have a 5.86 advantage points as compared to the average non-intervention student. The treatment effect size (Hedges' g) was 0.08, which is to be interpreted as a treatment group having, on average, 0.08 higher scores in standard deviation units as compared to the scores of the control cohort. When compared with our earlier evaluation report (2016; revised in 2018), we see that students who had a NURTURES-trained teacher, on average, continued to show greater gains compared to students who did not. In addition, the achievement gaps between non-minority and minority students in reading and mathematics were reduced when the minority students had a NURTURES-trained teacher and the non-minority students did not. In science, the impact of the intervention roughly compensated for the attainment gap between boys and girls and partially ameliorated the gap between minority and non-minority children's scores associated with these demographic factors. [Published May 6, 2020 with minor revisions based in WWC inquiries published January 5, 2024.]

In 2022, the Center published "Student/Learning Supports: A Brief Guide for Moving in New Directions. The guide discussed the need for system changes to end the fragmentation, overspecialization, and marginalization of student/learning supports and outlined first steps to take in pursuing the changes. As the 2022 guide emphasizes, significantly reducing the achievement gap requires a laser-like focus on closing the opportunity gap by transforming the role schools play in addressing barriers to learning and teaching and reengaging disconnected students. In essence, the need is for fundamental changes in the way student and learning supports are conceived and structured. That means unifying student/learning supports and developing them into a comprehensive and equitable system. This companion document provides a detailed discussion of the first steps for moving forward, suggests a monthly schedule, and provides links to resource aids for pursuing them. The intended aim of the 2022 guide and this companion document is to make significant improvements in how barriers to learning and teaching are addressed at least at some schools and better yet at all schools in a district.

The Greenville Chamber, in Greenville, South Carolina, conducted the Bridging The Talent Survey (BTTG) campaigns to better understand the skills gap between the educational attainment of their workforce, the needs of local businesses, and to engage incumbent workers in education and upskilling opportunities. This report presents the key findings of the survey including: (1) Employers need workers with a variety of educational backgrounds, including high school diplomas, associate degrees, bachelor's degrees, and technical certifications; (2) Many businesses are interested in partnering with educational institutions to improve employee education and training opportunities, but few partnerships exist; (3) There is a significant gap between the availability of educational benefits and employee awareness and utilization of these programs; and (4) Many employees have a desire for further education but lack guidance and support in navigating the process. It also examines some of the Chamber's actions and provides recommendations for other communities.

Gateway courses are foundational, college-level courses that apply to a student's program of study or to a college's general education requirements. These courses are typically considered first-year or lower-division courses and serve as a basis for more advanced studies. Research has demonstrated that completing gateway courses in two key disciplines--mathematics and English composition--are positively correlated with completing a degree or credential. Completing gateway courses during the first year of a student's enrollment can generate momentum toward degree completion, but far too many students do not complete these foundational courses during their first year, or at all. This report examines challenges and proposed solutions around gateway course success at Kentucky postsecondary institutions. [This report is written in collaboration with the Kentucky Student Success Collaborative.]

The annual Performance Accountability Report (PAR) serves as an important mechanism by which public colleges and universities in Maryland are held accountable. Through a performance accountability plan, institutions are required to establish and maintain performance standards, and use metrics to assess their effectiveness in tackling institutional and statewide higher education goals. The 2022-2023 Performance Accountability Report summarizes institution's progress toward the three key goals of the 2022 State Plan for Higher Education. Last year the PAR raised some concerns about inequities in student success and how institutions hold themselves accountable to equitably achieve the objectives of the Maryland State Plan for Higher Education. Therefore, the Commission provided reporting prompts seeking responses to: (1) how institutions identify long-term equity gaps; and (2) how institutions measure their long-term equity gaps.

The Remediation report is in response to Ohio Revised Code section 3345.061 (H), which requires the Chancellor of the Ohio Department of Higher Education (ODHE) and the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (DEW) to issue a report recommending policies and strategies for reducing the need for academic remediation and developmental courses at state institutions of higher education. ODHE and DEW continue to collaborate on a range of initiatives to support student progress and success. Data in the following categories is presented: (1) Enrollment; (2) Remediation; (3) Economic Impact; and (4) Students. The report concludes with seven recommendations. [For the previous report "2022 Ohio Remediation Report: For Fall 2021 Enrolling College Students (Spring 2021 High School Graduates)," see ED627874.]

The Oregon Statewide Report Card is an annual publication required by law (ORS 329.115), which reports on the state of Oregon's public schools. The purpose of the Statewide Report Card is to monitor trends among school districts and Oregon's progress toward achieving the goals referred to in ORS 329.015. This report also provides a tool that makes education data accessible to researchers, media, students, and families and creates a clear, complete, and factual picture of the state of education in Oregon. [For the 2021-2022 report, see ED628178.]

School boards remain one of the most powerful forces in American education, helping to set curricula, evaluate teachers, and direct hundreds of billions of dollars in education funding. Yet teachers' unions play an outsized role in determining who serves on these boards. If the interests of teachers are perfectly aligned with those of students, then there may be no reason to worry about union dominance in school board elections. When these interests collide, union power likely encourages boards to prioritize the needs of adult employees over students. This report analyzes the nature of union power in school board elections, and in particular, how unions decide which candidates to support. Key findings include: (1) Union electioneering success is not simply a product of union mobilization. Rather, union endorsements increase voters' support for union-backed candidates by 6 percentage points; (2) The union seal of approval buoys candidates' electoral prospects because voters believe union-favored candidates hold shared interests on important education issues; (3) Voters are largely mistaken about what union endorsements convey and what drives endorsement decisions. The only consistent predictor of union support for incumbents is whether the district raised salaries for senior teachers prior to an election; and (4) The divergence between what union endorsements mean and how voters interpret them have troubling implications for democratic accountability and board-based governance. Groups wishing to counteract union dominance will need to find ways to ensure that ordinary voters are aware of the actual policy priorities of union-backed candidates.

This research was commissioned as part of Inclusive Britain, the government response to the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities (CRED). The research sought to answer three main questions: (1) Where schools and trusts have closed attainment gaps between pupils from different ethnic groups, has this been the result of a deliberate strategy (i.e., focused on raising the attainment of pupils from specific ethnic groups)?; (2) What practices have schools and trusts used to close attainment gaps and foster a sense of belonging for all pupils (including those from different ethnic groups)?; and (3) Can we draw practical lessons about closing attainment gaps between pupils from different ethnic groups from the work of schools and trusts (including lessons that are applicable to schools and trusts working in different contexts)? The research was designed to be exploratory. It focused on the role and practices of trusts and schools. The evidence gathered came from interviews with the leaders of nine academy trusts and leaders of individual schools within those trusts (plus one local authority maintained school). [This report was written with Richard Eyre and Kikelomo Agunbiade.]

Concern about the state of literacy instruction in America's classrooms has recently exploded. As a result, policymakers, school system leaders, and teachers have increasingly sought to remake how children learn to read in order to improve literacy outcomes--a pursuit that has gained heightened urgency in the aftermath of the pandemic. This work, often referred to as the "science of reading," has taken many shapes, but all emphasize the use of phonics-based instruction and early intervention to improve early readers' foundational literacy skills. This report considers Oakland Unified School District's (OUSD) efforts to reimagine early literacy instruction to improve student outcomes and close gaps between historically marginalized students and their peers. This report presents findings from an in-depth look at early literacy tutoring in OUSD. This report sets out to understand the key features of the literacy tutoring program in practice, to examine the school- and districtwide conditions that shaped its efficacy and sustainability, and to explore how tutoring shaped students' literacy outcomes. Conclusions are based on a mixed-method study that included interviews with school and partner staff, a survey of literacy tutors, and and analysis of data on students' literacy outcomes. [This project was made possible by the generous support from The Oakland REACH.]

Two years ago, the Heritage Foundation "Backgrounder" "Equity Elementary" (ED616087) first examined the extent to which the idea that educational institutions should have Chief Diversity Officers (CDO) had spread from higher education into public school districts. That "Backgrounder" also examined whether there was a relationship between the presence of a CDO within a district and the size and trend in achievement gaps between minority and white students. Despite CDOs ostensibly having the goal of reducing the extent to which black and Hispanic achievement, on average, lags behind average white achievement, the authors found that districts with CDOs had "larger" racial achievement gaps, which had been growing larger despite the adoption of CDOs during the preceding decade. This "Backgrounder" updates information on the number of school districts with CDOs and conducts a new analysis on how minority student achievement fared during the COVID-19 pandemic in districts with CDOs relative to districts without CDOs. Districts with a CDO suffered greater pandemic learning losses by black and Hispanic students. Not only did these black and Hispanic students experience significantly larger declines in math achievement, but those declines, on average, exceeded the rate of decline among white students. In fact, CDOs' energies appear to have been directed to politically contentious issues: Districts with CDOs were significantly more likely to have policies to keep parents in the dark about children's "gender" confusion or dysphoria. Chief Diversity Officers enforce the ideological orthodoxies opposed by majorities of parents instead of assisting with student learning or closing minority achievement gaps.

In 2015, the Minnesota Legislature passed statute 135A.012 Higher Education Goal, which enacted a goal that 70% of Minnesota adults (ages 25-44) will have attained a postsecondary certificate or degree by 2025. In recognition of existing gaps in attainment, the law also sets 30% and 50% educational attainment benchmarks for all races and ethnicities as interim goals. Current estimates show that 63.0% of Minnesotans aged 25-44 years completed a postsecondary credential. This percentage has steadily increased compared to 2015 estimates (57.5%). In order to reach the 70.0% educational attainment goal set by the Legislature, however, Minnesota still needs an additional 104,420 persons age 25-44 to complete a postsecondary credential by 2025. This yearly report provides an update on where Minnesota is at in their state postsecondary educational attainment goal. [For the 2022 report, see ED625506.]

The academic success of historically and systematically excluded (HSE) students, including Black, Brown, Indigenous, low-income, multilingual learners, and students with learning differences, remains impacted by social position and identity factors. Despite numerous education reform efforts, equity in education continues to be a pressing challenge in the United States. Many BIPOC solution providers possess the expertise and innovative solutions needed to meet the needs of HSE students, but they often face barriers that hinder their access to districts and education markets. To bridge this equity gap, the Center for Inclusive Innovation has introduced two innovative approaches: Learning Salons and Solution Showcases. The education Learning Salons create opportunities for collaboration and engagement between BIPOC solution providers and district leaders using a five-phase engagement model that allows both parties to identify and address specific challenges faced by HSE students. Solution Showcases provide a three-hour event where district leaders can learn about various undiscovered teaching and learning solutions designed by BIPOC solution providers. This report centers on the BIPOC solution providers and district leaders that participated in the Learning Salons and Solution Showcases from 2022-2023 and concludes with key pivots that education stakeholders can make to foster greater district-provider alignment in equity-centered solution sourcing and implementation.