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Researchers draw on the American Instructional Resources Survey (AIRS) and interviews with 45 English language arts (ELA) and math teachers to examine the prevalence of different types of benchmark assessments and explore educators' perceptions about the extent to which benchmark assessments align with other components of their schools' instructional systems. As school systems emerge from the chaos wrought by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and opportunities for gathering student assessment data resume, education leaders and policymakers have an opportunity to take stock of the state of their assessment systems and reflect on whether assessments--and benchmark assessments specifically--are appropriately aligned with other aspects of schools' instructional systems, such as state standards, summative assessments, and curriculum materials.

Providing and using technical assistance for capacity building within educational agencies is a complex endeavor. The U.S. Department of Education funds technical assistance centers to support state education agencies (SEAs) and local education agencies (LEAs) in the capacity-building process. Established in 2018, the Center to Improve Social and Emotional Learning and School Safety (CISELSS) was charged with providing support to and building the capacity of SEAs and LEAs to implement social and emotional learning and school safety--related policies, programs, and practices. In this report, the authors review the literature on organizational and individual capacities and develop a conceptual framework that ties these capacities with common aspects of technical assistance provision. Using this framework, they describe how CISELSS designed and implemented its technical assistance, as well as the technical assistance recipients' existing, desired, and built organizational and individual capacities and capacity-building experiences. The analyses presented in this report reveal important insights and implications for technical assistance providers. [For a related report, "Seeking Balance in the Provision of Technical Assistance: Insights from the National Center to Improve Social and Emotional Learning and School Safety. Research Report. RR-A1161-1," see ED616025.]

This report uses data from the RAND Corporation's American Educator Panels to understand the state of infrastructure to support elementary social studies instruction during the 2021-2022 school year. The report is focused at the elementary (specifically, kindergarten through grade 5 [K-5]) level because the authors hypothesized that infrastructure for social studies is especially lacking at this grade level. This report is the first effort to build a national picture of state-, district-, and school-provided infrastructure specifically for social studies instruction and also the first to provide national estimates of what social studies curriculum materials elementary teachers regularly use for their instruction. The infrastructure examined is much less robust for social studies than for other core academic subjects, especially at the elementary level. The findings contribute to a growing body of evidence showing that social studies instruction is underrepresented in the U.S. education system. The findings imply that improvements to social studies teaching and learning require much more than piecemeal efforts. Instead, a more comprehensive set of supports provided at the state and local levels is necessary to improve the state of social studies instruction across the United States.

In this report, drawing on the spring 2022 American Instructional Resources Survey, the authors examine teachers' awareness of and responses to limitations on how they can address race- or gender-related topics in their instruction. Teachers experienced limitations that infringed on their instructional autonomy, which included their choice of curriculum materials and topics for classroom discussion. These limitations originated from a variety of sources, including state, school, and district leaders and family and community members, and encompassed a wide span of topics, including, but not limited to race- or gender-related topics. The multifaceted nature of these limitations highlights how teachers exist in an increasingly complex policy environment in which they must consider and weigh not only their own perspectives but also the perspectives of multiple stakeholders, along with numerous messages and directives from a variety of sources about what and how to teach. In this complex environment, the authors found that teachers' responses to restrictions on their classroom instruction ranged broadly from compliance with to resistance against these restrictions; teachers also engaged in numerous strategies to navigate the existence of these restrictions. Moreover, limitations placed on how teachers can address contentious topics may be leading to consequences for teachers' working conditions and for student learning. Teachers perceived that teaching students under these limitations has become more difficult and that these limitations make it more difficult to engage students in learning, support students' critical thinking skills, and develop students' ability to engage in perspective taking and empathy building. [For "American Instructional Resources Survey. 2022 Technical Documentation and Survey Results. Research Report. RR-A134-14," see ED626089.]

RAND researchers explore the messages teachers receive about what to teach and how to teach English language arts and mathematics in kindergarten through grade 12 schools in the United States, as well as teachers' overall perceptions of coherence and incoherence in instructional systems and how they navigate such systems. The authors conceive of instructional system coherence as the extent to which multiple key system components (e.g., curricula, professional development, summative assessments) related to teaching and learning provide the same signals and supports to teachers and leaders about what instruction should look like. Incoherence occurs when one or more components is not linked to other messages within the larger instructional system or provides conflicting signals to teachers about what instruction should look like. The findings from this interview-based study have implications for policy and practice. The study findings point to practices that school and district leaders might adopt to achieve greater system coherence and support teachers in making sense of the myriad policy messages they receive. In addition, the findings can help state- and district-level leaders reflect on how teachers are positioned to enact equitable instruction. Understanding how teachers are processing messaging around equity and diversity will support schools and districts in implementing effective policy around these goals.

In 2023, California will implement a new statewide math framework that will drive curriculum decisions and pedagogical approaches for years to come. Although the state's content standards for mathematics are not changing, a statewide framework could nevertheless shift instruction by providing educators with guidance on how to implement content standards. Such guidance could describe the kinds of instruction, instructional materials, and professional development that would support successful implementation of standards-based instruction. Districts, schools, and teachers may require numerous coordinated supports to implement the framework's relatively novel priorities, including guidance on curriculum material selection and adoption, professional learning, and teacher preparation. RAND researchers draw on two teacher surveys, the 2022 Learn Together Survey (LTS) and the 2022 American Instructional Resources Survey (AIRS). Both surveys draw on RAND's American Teacher Panel, which is a nationally representative sample of more than 22,000 teachers across the United States. The researchers leveraged data collected from math teachers in California to paint a picture of math instruction throughout the state. These data illuminate ways in which state and local education leaders can foster equitable instruction in the context of the state's new framework.

The well-being and mental health of kindergarten through grade 12 (K-12) public school teachers has been a topic of national concern during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In 2021 and 2022, teachers were twice as likely to report experiencing frequent job-related stress and difficulty coping with their job-related stress than the general population of working adults. Restoring teacher well-being could improve job performance and job satisfaction and boost retention for teachers of all backgrounds. Recent media reports suggest that many districts and schools across the country are implementing new programs -- or expanding existing offerings -- intended to reduce teacher stress and burnout and promote well-being and retention. This report presents selected findings from the 2023 State of the American Teacher survey related to teacher well-being, the availability of mental health and well-being supports, and teachers' intentions to leave their current teaching jobs. The findings in this report are descriptive and intended to inform federal, state, and local education leaders and policymakers about the state of the teacher workforce. [For "State of the American Teacher Survey. 2023 Technical Documentation and Survey Results. American Educator Panels. Research Report. RR-A1108-7," see ED628911.]

This technical report presents information about the sample, content, and administration of the nationally representative 2023 State of the American Teacher (SoT) survey and the American Life Panel (ALP) companion survey. The SoT was completed by 1,439 American Teacher Panel members and the ALP survey was completed by 527 ALP members in January and February 2023. The SoT survey examined teachers' reports on several topics, including well-being (e.g., job-related stress, depression, burnout), compensation and hours worked, working conditions (e.g., mental health and well-being supports, administrator supports), teacher retention, and decisions to exit. The ALP asked similar questions, with wording appropriate to a general audience, to a nationally representative sample of employed adults in the United States. This technical report includes descriptions of survey content, survey administration, survey weighting for the SoT and ALP, and univariate descriptive tables of the SoT and ALP companion surveys.

Teacher morale declined during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, and teachers reported worse wellbeing than other working adults. Interventions to restore teacher well-being could improve job performance, job satisfaction, engagement, and retention. Although it is known that working conditions are related to well-being among other teachers nationally, little is known about which working conditions might support positive teacher well-being in which contexts. In this report, the authors present snapshots of the working conditions related to positive teacher well-being in five states: California, Florida, New York, Texas, and Washington. This report is a companion report to "Working Conditions Related to Positive Teacher Well-Being Vary Across States: Findings from the 2022 Learn Together Survey," which contains a summary of the data and methods used to create these state snapshots. In this report, the authors draw on data from the Learn Together Survey (LTS) of teachers, which was administered in March and April 2022. For technical information about the surveys and analysis in this report, see "Learn Together Surveys: 2022 Technical Documentation and Survey Results" (ED626092). [For the full companion report, see ED628571.]

Providing clear guidance to teachers is not a straightforward task for school systems: Teachers get information about what to teach and how to teach from many sources, some of which are beyond the control of school systems. When teachers get different, even conflicting, messages about what and how to teach from various sources, they likely perceive their instructional system as lacking in coherence. In this report, RAND researchers draw on quantitative and qualitative data to investigate the extent to which state reforms aimed at increasing adoption of, use of, and supports for standards-aligned instructional materials in Rhode Island and Tennessee relate to (1) the guidance that teachers perceive they get about what to teach and how to teach English language arts (ELA) and (2) teachers' perceptions of greater instructional system coherence. The researchers also explore relationships between teachers' perceptions of coherence, school-wide conditions, and teachers' ELA instructional practices. This research is intended to provide insights to state policymakers (and researchers) into how state policies and strategies are translated and implemented within schools and classrooms and what aspects of state policies could make a difference for more-coherent instructional systems. In addition, this research is intended to help district and school leaders reflect on the coherence of their systems and the steps they could potentially take to improve coherence and, thereby, support high-quality instruction.

Although well-being appears to have improved for many public school teachers of kindergarten to grade 12 (K-12) since the beginning of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, in some states, more teachers left their jobs at the end of the 2021-2022 school year than in the two previous school years and at rates higher than prepandemic averages. When teachers leave their jobs, student achievement can suffer, and the cost of replacing teachers can be high. The authors describe the roles that salary and work hours play in teachers' intentions to leave their jobs and how these factors relate to teacher well-being. The research indicates that teacher dissatisfaction with hours worked, salary, and working conditions appears to drive poor well-being and lead teachers to consider leaving their jobs. In addition, recent gains in racial and ethnic diversity in the teacher workforce could be in jeopardy because Black teachers were more likely to consider leaving their jobs than White teachers were; many cited low pay as their top reason. The authors recommend increasing teacher pay, reducing hours worked, and improving working conditions to boost teacher retention.

U.S. public school students have lost out on considerable mathematics learning since the beginning of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020. Public schools can take many steps to improve mathematics achievement, but to help students who are most at risk, those steps will need to keep equity front and center by focusing particularly on mathematics learning recovery for students who are Black, Hispanic, or experiencing poverty--students whose performance fell precipitously over the past few years. In this RAND Perspective, authors lay out a research agenda for the American Mathematics Educator Study by synthesizing what they know from mathematics education research regarding key factors that shape equitable, high-quality mathematics teaching and learning. Those factors include math learning opportunities for students, including access to rigorous math courses and interventions, along with resources for teachers, such as high-quality instructional materials, curriculum-aligned professional learning, and support for meeting students' diverse math learning needs. Authors also provide near-term recommendations for mathematics education policy and practice.

All students--particularly students of color--benefit academically and socially from having teachers who are people of color. However, people of color face systemic barriers to becoming and remaining teachers at multiple points throughout their careers. For example, people of color are more likely than their White peers to incur student debt, might not have access to teacher role models who share their lived experiences, experience bias during the hiring process, and are more likely to work in challenging environments once they become teachers. This report presents selected findings from the 2022 State of the American Teacher survey related to increasing the racial and ethnic diversity of the teacher workforce. The authors surveyed and interviewed teachers and convened a panel of education policymakers to gain deeper insight into the policies and practices that could be most effective for recruiting, hiring, and retaining teachers of color. The teacher voices presented in this report provide a source of evidence that teacher preparation providers, education leaders, and policymakers could use to identify and prioritize a set of practices to increase workforce diversity in their localities. [For "State of the American Teacher and State of the American Principal Surveys: 2022 Technical Documentation and Survey Results. Research Report. RR-A1108-3," see ED621137.]

The job of the school principal has become much more complex and demanding over the past several decades. Many university-based principal preparation programs -- which prepare the majority of school principals -- have struggled with how to make the fundamental changes needed to prepare principals for today's schools. This report shares lessons learned from redesigning university principal preparation programs. From 2016 to 2021, seven university principal preparation programs, with their district and state partners, fundamentally reshaped their principal preparation programs under The Wallace Foundation's University Principal Preparation Initiative (UPPI). This report describes the methods of and findings from the RAND Corporation's five-year study of UPPI. It is primarily intended as a secondary resource for readers who would like more detail about the study's findings and methods. Key findings are highlighted in the report in brief and three upcoming targeted reports: one for principal preparation programs, one for school districts, and one for state education organizations. [For the report in brief, see ED620468. For Volume 2, see ED609667.]

This report in brief shares findings from the RAND Corporation's five-year study of The Wallace Foundation's University Principal Preparation Initiative (UPPI). The job of the school principal has become much more complex and demanding over the past several decades. Many university-based principal preparation programs (PPPs)--which prepare the majority of school principals--have struggled with how to make the fundamental changes needed to prepare principals for today's schools. To test a path forward, The Wallace Foundation provided grants to seven universities and their partners to redesign their PPPs in line with research-supported practices. Key findings, which suggest that significant change around research-based practices is possible, are presented in this report. This report illustrates that it is feasible for universities -- in partnership with high-need districts, state agencies, and with the support of mentor programs that have engaged in successful redesign -- to improve principal preparation programs to reflect the best available evidence. [For the full report, see ED620465.]

Policymakers and practitioners increasingly have looked to instructional materials to signal the content that students are expected to learn and how to teach that content. The American Instructional Resources Survey (AIRS) has been investigating adoption and use of instructional materials in K-12 public schools in the spring of each school year since 2019. In this report, the authors focus on survey data on adoption and use of instructional materials of teachers across the United States and from state-representative samples of teachers in states that are participating in the Council of Chief State School Officers' High-Quality Instructional Materials and Professional Development (IMPD) Network. The IMPD Network focuses on supporting state reforms that encourage use of high-quality materials in K-12 schools. Following an introduction in chapter one, this report investigates the variables and linkages in this theory of action in several ways: (1) Chapter Two investigates the policy strategies undertaken by IMPD Network states to encourage and/or support the selection and use of curriculum materials that the state has defined as high quality; (2) Chapter Three summarizes standards-aligned material adoption, use, and supports across the United States and in the IMPD Network states during the 2020-2021 school year using teacher survey self-reports to AIRS, which was administered to a nationally representative sample of teachers in spring 2021; (3) Chapter Four provides state-specific profiles for each state in the IMPD Network; these profiles summarize patterns and trends within each state on key indicators relating to standards-aligned curriculum material adoption, use, buy-in, and supports; and (4) Chapter Five provides an overview of key findings and conclusions, followed by an appendix that includes more detail on state policies and strategies related to curriculum reform.

A large body of research demonstrates that teaching students explicitly about issues of identity, diversity, equity, and bias--sometimes referred to as "anti-bias" education--can lead to positive academic, attitudinal, and behavioral outcomes. Explicit instruction around issues of oppression, equity, and activism can support students' sense of belonging, competence, and confidence about their academic skills, as well as their appreciation for diversity (Aronson and Laughter, 2016; Dover, 2009). Given the evolving sociopolitical environment and the evidence base suggesting that nurturing students' sense of identity and providing instruction that directly addresses issues of equity in the classroom might lead to positive student outcomes, it would be useful for education leaders and policymakers to better understand how teachers across the country view anti-bias education. Leveraging nationally representative survey data of K-12 public school teachers, the following three research questions were examined: (1) Which teachers engaged in anti-bias education? (2) What types of instructional materials did teachers use to provide anti-bias education? and (3) How could anti-bias education be better supported? Findings from this report are drawn from the 2021 American Instructional Resources Survey (AIRS), which was administered through the American Teacher Panel, a nationally representative sample of K-12 public school teachers across the country. [For "American Instructional Resources Survey: 2021 Technical Documentation and Survey Results. Research Report. RR-A134-10," see ED619861.]

Since March 2020, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has placed unprecedented stresses on the public education system in the United States. At every level, from the U.S. Department of Education down through local districts and individual schools, the pandemic has presented formidable challenges. Many of these challenges have been operational in nature but there have also been substantial instructional challenges during the pandemic. Early insight into the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on public schooling identified the challenges that schools faced in the pivot to online learning in spring 2020. Large proportions of teachers reported through the RAND American Teacher Panel (ATP) that they had not received adequate guidance from their school systems to serve particular populations of students, such as students with disabilities (SWDs), homeless students, and English learners (ELs). These pandemic-era instructional challenges compound existing barriers to quality instruction. This report examines issues of instructional system coherence during the 2020-2021 school year. Specifically, the report investigates teachers' perceptions of: (1) guidance they received about ELA instruction; (2) guidance around addressing the needs of traditionally underserved students; (3) coherence of their ELA instructional system; and (4) presence of contextual conditions identified through literature as supporting coherence.

In the past decade, various stakeholders in the public and private sectors in Hawai'i have sought to increase the state's investment in child care and early learning programs. A new Executive Office of Early Learning was established in June 2012 to build a statewide early childhood development and learning system. The state also established a publicly funded preschool program in 2013-2014 with the eventual aim of universal access for all 3- and 4-year-olds. At the same time, like other states, Hawai'i has struggled to ensure that it has a well-prepared and well-compensated early care and education (ECE) workforce commensurate with this vision. Through a contract with the Research Corporation of the University of Hawai'i, this RAND Corporation report is intended to provide analytic support for the ECE Project's compensation and financing strategy by (1) documenting the landscape for the ECE workforce in the state in terms of compensation, working conditions, and professional development and (2) identifying policy options for addressing challenges in these areas. In an effort to expand understanding of the ECE workforce and develop a road map for the future, the study brings together previous data and research; new data collected by the RAND team through interviews, focus groups, and a survey; and case studies. [This report was sponsored by the University of Hawaii at Manoa, College of Education.]

Principal and teacher well-being is a matter of immediate concern for principals and teachers themselves and for the students they teach. Stress on the job can negatively affect educators' physical health, and poor teacher wellness and mental health are linked with lower-quality student learning environments and with poorer academic and nonacademic student outcomes. Furthermore, previous research suggests that principals and teachers of color are more likely than their White peers to experience poor well-being and are more likely to leave their jobs. Understanding the relationships among teacher and principal well-being, perceived working conditions, and teachers' and principals' intentions to leave their current position is critical for pandemic recovery and for the long-term health of the principal and teacher workforce. In this report, researchers present selected findings from the 2022 State of the American Teacher (SoT) and State of the American Principal (SoP) surveys. These findings are related to teacher and principal well-being, working conditions, and intentions to leave their jobs. The authors focus specifically on the well-being and working conditions of educators of color. [For technical information about the surveys and analysis in this report, see "State of the American Teacher and State of the American Principal Surveys: 2022 Technical Documentation and Survey Results" (ED621137).]

This technical report provides information about the sample, content, and administration of the 2022 State of the American Teacher (SoT) and State of the American Principal (SoP) surveys. The SoT survey was completed by 2,360 American Teacher Panel members, and the SoP survey was completed by 1,540 American School Leader Panel members. The American Life Panel (ALP) companion survey was administered to 500 ALP members in January and February 2022. The report also describes the teacher interview protocols and qualitative methods used for interviews with SoT respondents. The SoT and SoP surveys addressed teachers' and principals' well-being (e.g., job-related stress, depression, burnout), school climate (e.g., physical safety; teacher/principal voice; staff diversity, equity, and inclusion), teachers' and principals' working conditions this school year (e.g., instructional mode; hours worked; coronavirus disease 2019 [COVID-19] mitigation policies; beliefs about the teaching of race, racism, and bias), and teachers' and principals' careers as educators (e.g., preparation, retention, decisions to exit). Teachers were also asked about policies that they believed would be effective for recruiting, hiring, and retaining educators of color. Principals were also asked a series of questions related to their preparation to address political topics in their schools.

In a time when simply carrying out the essential functions of their jobs is a herculean task, educators have been faced with the additional challenge of addressing contentious, politicized topics in their schools and classrooms. Drawing from nationally representative samples of teachers and principals who completed the 2022 State of the American Teacher and the State of the American Principal surveys and teacher interviews, the authors focus their analysis on two especially politically salient issues: (1) how to implement COVID-19 safety measures with the return to in-person schooling; and (2) the role and emphasis that discussions about race, racism, or bias may or should have in schools. They investigate how these two highly politicized topics might contribute to elevated job-related stress by examining potential contributing factors, such as the extent to which educators must manage conflicting beliefs and opinions, the adequacy of support they receive, and the hostility and aggression that they experience from others in response to related policies. The authors also explore differences by educator- and school-level characteristics. Although politicized topics are more contested in some school settings and locales than in others, survey results suggest that educators' beliefs about how schools should manage politicized issues vary within all kinds of school communities. The authors explore the consequences of politicization for educators' instructional practices, well-being, perceptions of their school and district climate, and intentions to leave their jobs. They provide implications and recommendations on how to support educators in navigating politicized issues in their schools and classrooms in a way that fosters productive discourse between communities and schools. [For the "State of the American Teacher and State of the American Principal Surveys: 2022 Technical Documentation and Survey Results. Research Report. RR-A1108-3," see ED621137.]

This Data Note describes findings from a nationally representative sample of secondary school principals about their well-being and job-related stressors one year into the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Understanding principals' views on these topics at a national level can help education leaders and policymakers identify ways to support principal wellness, reduce job-related stress, and improve job satisfaction, performance, and retention. The authors use nationally representative survey data of "secondary principals," defined as principals who serve in schools that include any grade from 6th grade to 12th grade, from the 2021 Learn Together Surveys (LTS) to examine the state of principal well-being. The 2021 LTS was administered in March and April 2021 to 1,686 secondary principals, one year after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This Data Note highlights principals' responses to the open-ended survey, discusses key findings, and concludes with implications and policy recommendations.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced educators to rapidly adapt to remote learning during spring 2020, resulting in a scramble for teachers to ensure that students had remote access to instructional materials. Understanding how digital materials were used leading up to school closures can shed light on the extent to which teachers were prepared to pivot to full virtual learning and might help identify areas in which additional supports could be helpful in using digital materials for both virtual and in-person instruction. This Data Note presents a small, focused set of key findings from teacher responses to the spring 2020 American Instructional Resources Survey, which was fielded in May and June 2020. Researchers examine teachers' use of digital and comprehensive curriculum materials during the 2019-2020 school year prior to COVID-19 disruptions and teachers' perceptions about the extent to which their digital materials connected to their main curricula. The authors also consider how teachers' use of digital materials prior to the pandemic was connected to teaching and learning during school closures in spring 2020.

The authors of this report build on past studies by using survey data from a nationally representative sample to examine how middle and high school English language arts (ELA) and mathematics teachers use and perceive their instructional materials in terms of engagement, challenge, and usability. In addition, the authors use interview data to understand teachers' perceptions about what makes instructional materials engaging, appropriately challenging, and usable. "Engagement" is the extent to which the instructional materials pique and sustain student interest and attention; "appropriately challenging" is the extent to which the materials address the academic and learning needs of students; and "usable" is the extent to which the materials feature components that teachers desire and that are easy to enact or adapt to meet the needs of their students. Gaining insight into teachers' perceptions of their materials is important because this insight can affect the work of curriculum developers; it can influence state, school district, and other decisionmakers in their materials-adoption processes. Furthermore, teachers' modifications of materials can affect students' opportunities to achieve academic standards. This insight has become even more important during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic because of instruction moving online and teachers having to adapt their instruction and materials accordingly.

Policymakers and practitioners alike have increasingly positioned instructional materials as essential for achieving high-quality, standards-aligned instruction. State education agencies, school districts, and schools have looked to instructional materials to signal what to teach and to what depth for students to be on track to meet college- and career-readiness standards. As instructional leaders, principals play a critical mediation role in communicating district curriculum policies to teachers and supporting teachers' enactment of curriculum. However, very little work has explored how principals take on this role and what school leaders need most to engage effectively with issues and decisions regarding instructional materials. This brief brings together key findings from three RAND Education & Labor reports on principals' roles with respect to instructional materials. The findings point to several recommendations for how various stakeholders--federal and state policymakers, principal preparation programs, districts, and curriculum and professional learning developers--can better prepare and support principals to lead on the selection and use of instructional materials. [For the first report, "How Instructional Materials Are Used and Supported in U.S. K-12 Classrooms: Findings from the 2019 American Instructional Resources Survey," see ED614109. For the second report, "Teachers' Perceptions of What Makes Instructional Materials Engaging, Appropriately Challenging, and Usable: A Survey and Interview Study of Teachers," see ED614115. For the third report, "School Leaders' Role in Selecting and Supporting Teachers' Use of Instructional Materials: An Interview Study," see ED614075.]

Just as teachers' perceptions of instructional materials influence what they do with those materials, school leaders' perceptions of instructional materials influence their decisions about how and how strongly to support teachers' material use. The authors address a gap in existing literature by identifying what school leaders regard as key dimensions of quality instructional materials and describing the role that school leaders play in guiding the selection and use of instructional materials. The authors found that school leaders particularly valued characteristics of instructional materials that facilitated teachers' implementation and use of the materials. They also prioritized standards-aligned materials, perceiving these as best meeting the needs of their teachers and students. Fewer school leaders identified cultural relevance, language-acquisition supports, and social-emotional learning supports as essential dimensions of quality instructional materials. School leaders influence teachers' use of instructional materials by involving teachers in the selection of instructional materials, creating buy-in for district-recommended or -required curriculum, and providing guidance that balanced teacher autonomy and the fidelity of curriculum implementation. During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, school leaders grew more concerned about the engagement and social-emotional learning supports that materials offered. These findings can provide useful guidance to district policymakers about how to leverage the role of school leaders in the use of instructional materials and what might support school leaders in helping teachers use their materials thoughtfully.

Teaching was a stressful occupation long before the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic occurred; during the pandemic, it might have become even more stressful. Teachers are navigating unfamiliar technology, are balancing multiple modes of teaching, and have concerns about returning to in-person instruction. In addition, many teachers are caring for their own children while teaching. To explore the issue of job-related stress among teachers, the authors fielded a survey in January and February 2021 through RAND's American Teacher Panel. The results suggest that teachers have experienced many job-related stressors during the 2020-2021 academic year. Perhaps as a result, one in four teachers were considering leaving their job by the end of the school year -- more than in a typical pre-pandemic year and a higher rate than employed adults nationally. Black or African American teachers were particularly likely to plan to leave. Also, teachers were more likely to report experiencing frequent job-related stress and symptoms of depression than the general population. Stressful working conditions and increased personal responsibilities were more common among likely pandemic leavers (i.e., teachers who were unlikely to leave their jobs before the pandemic but who were likely to leave at the time of the survey). The experiences of these likely pandemic leavers were similar in many ways to those of teachers who left the profession after the start of the pandemic. These similarities suggest that likely pandemic leavers might decide to quit their jobs absent efforts to address challenging working conditions and support teacher well-being. [For the Technical Appendixes to this report, see ED613591.]

The U.S. Department of Education funds various types of technical assistance centers with the goal of providing the expertise and resources needed by state education agencies (SEAs), regional education agencies, and local education agencies (LEAs) to effectively implement federal education programs. Given the complexity of technical assistance for both providers and recipients, understanding technical assistance provision requires a deeper and more nuanced examination of (1) how recipients use, combine, align, and manage sources of support and (2) how providers design, adjust, and coordinate the support provided directly and in collaboration. The purpose of this report is to provide policymakers and technical assistance providers and recipients with an analysis of how a federally funded technical assistance center balances competing pressures amid unexpected challenges so that it can address the needs of its clients and fulfill its charge. The authors examine the Center to Improve Social and Emotional Learning and School Safety (CISELSS)'s first three years of operation. They explore how CISELSS balanced competing pressures and the influence of shifting contextual conditions in the provision of technical assistance to SEAs and LEAs and offer insights about CISELSS's early implementation that might help guide efforts to continuously improve its provision of supports.

This technical report provides information about the sample, survey instrument, and resultant data for the American Instructional Resources Surveys (AIRS) that were administered to principals and teachers in spring 2020 via RAND's American Educator Panels. The AIRS focused on instructional resources used and supported in English language arts, mathematics, and science K-12 classrooms across the United States and included questions related to instruction during school closures as a result of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Follow-up RAND reports provide key findings and recommendations to inform policy and practice related to use of instructional resources. [For "American Instructional Resources Surveys: 2019 Technical Documentation and Survey Results. Research Report. RR-4402-BMGF/SFF/OFF," see ED605304.]

This Data Note adds new insights from the American Educator Panels--comprised of English language arts (ELA), math, and science teachers--on their use of digital materials. Drawing on data from the spring 2019 American Instructional Resources Survey, researchers share the digital materials that ELA, math, and science teachers across the United States reported using regularly for instruction during the 2018-2019 school year. In addition to identifying the most commonly used digital instructional materials, researchers examine how teachers' use of these materials compares with their use of comprehensive curriculum materials, as well as teacher-reported barriers to digital material use. Finally, researchers explore several hypotheses regarding factors that might influence digital material use. [This report was prepared by the RAND American Educator Panels.]

State policymakers, including state leaders, districts, and professional associations, play a role in fostering an environment that supports the development of effective school principals, with the broad policy objective of achieving high principal quality across the state. This report examines how seven states use state policy levers to advance policy change to improve the quality of school principals. These states are all actively engaging in a collaborative initiative focused on principal preparation program redesign. All seven states in the study were part of The Wallace Foundation's University Principal Preparation Initiative (UPPI). Launched in 2016, UPPI is supporting seven university-based principal preparation programs to work in collaboration with their district and state partners to redesign and improve the programs to better support the development of effective principals. The UPPI programs and their respective states are: (1) Albany State University (Georgia); (2) Florida Atlantic University (Florida); (3) North Carolina State University (North Carolina); (4) San Diego State University (California); (5) the University of Connecticut (Connecticut); (6) Virginia State University (Virginia); and (7) Western Kentucky University (Kentucky). This report focuses on seven policy levers that states can use to improve school leadership: (1) setting principal standards; (2) recruiting aspiring principals into the profession; (3) licensing new and veteran principals (4) approving and overseeing principal preparation programs; (5) supporting principals' growth with professional development; (6) evaluating principals and (7) using leader tracking systems to support analysis of aspiring and established school leaders' experiences and outcomes. The report concludes with two appendixes. [For Appendix B, see ED609669. For Volume 1, see ED590580.]

In the wake of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, researchers estimate that the teachers of roughly 50 million K-12 public school students have had to transition to remote instruction. Emerging research about the impact of the pandemic on schooling consistently reveals that school closures have presented significant hurdles to effective instruction, particularly for children and youth in low-income families and other typically underserved student groups. Surveys from spring 2020 revealed that during school closures, schools and teachers faced challenges related to student engagement and students' lack of internet access. Moreover, these challenges were more prominent in high-poverty schools than low-poverty schools. Disparities in internet access for households with higher levels of poverty and in rural areas were documented before the pandemic began. Access to the internet remains a serious concern for teachers' capacity to deliver high-quality remote instruction during the 2020-2021 school year. This Data Note investigates the relationship between teachers' reports of their students' internet access and teachers' interaction with students and families during pandemic-related school closures. State and nationally representative survey data from nearly 6,000 teachers was used for these analyses. Using these data, the following research questions are explored: (1) To what extent did teachers report that limited technology access was a barrier to providing instruction during school closures? (2) How do teacher reports of their students' internet access vary by school demographic factors (e.g., school urbanicity, poverty level, and state)? and (3) How do teacher reports of their students' internet access relate to their reports of students' work completion and their ability to communicate with families? [For a related report, "American Instructional Resources Surveys: 2019 Technical Documentation and Survey Results. Research Report. RR-4402-BMGF/SFF/OFF," see ED605304.]

Coherence among components of an instructional system is key to changing teachers' instructional practices in standards-based reforms. Coherence involves working across traditional silos--or system components (e.g., curriculum, professional learning, assessment)--to integrate components to avoid fragmentation of experiences for educators and students. The authors set out to understand how districts and schools are activating various policy levers (i.e., instructional components) to drive instructional coherence and student learning in English language arts (ELA) in the Common Core era. The authors investigate the coherence of teachers' instructional systems using survey data from state-representative samples of teachers and smaller samples of district leaders across three states: Louisiana, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Specifically, in spring 2019, the authors asked state-representative samples of teachers in these states about the extent to which their curricula, assessments, and other components of their instructional systems cohered with one another and aligned with state standards. The authors examine the alignment of curriculum to standards, as well as the extent to which four components of instructional systems hypothesized as key to supporting instructional coherence are aligned to standards or the curriculum: curriculum-related resources (e.g., lesson plans, pacing guides), professional development, teacher evaluation, and student assessments. Using these findings, the authors build a measure of the overall extent of coherence in teachers' ELA instructional systems.

If a "curriculum" -- a set of instructional materials intended as a comprehensive course of study for a particular subject and grade level -- is well-aligned with state standards, it can help teachers deliver instruction that leads to students' mastery of those standards. However, most research suggests that curricula, in themselves, are not likely to change teachers' instruction because teachers use curricula in a variety of ways. Teachers likely need considerable supports to use curricula in ways that improve student learning. New results from the RAND American Instructional Resources Survey (AIRS), which was fielded to a national sample of public teachers and school leaders in spring 2019, shed light on how teachers use instructional materials in their classroom. AIRS specifically focused on the curriculum and other instructional materials used by kindergarten through 12th grade teachers in English language arts, mathematics, and science, along with how teachers are supported to use curriculum and the extent to which their students are engaged in standards-aligned classroom practices. The findings reveal the variety of ways in which teachers used curricula, as well as how curriculum use and supports varied among teachers in states and schools with different poverty levels. Analyses suggest that adoption of standards-aligned curricula -- in itself -- will not necessarily lead to more student engagement in standards-aligned classroom practices. Teachers who reported receiving more evaluative feedback and helpful professional learning (PL) on curriculum reported engagement in more standards-aligned classroom practices among all or nearly all of their students.