Annual Report 2013

2013

ANNUAL REPORT

From the CEO What keeps educators up at night? For 48 years, McREL has relentlessly focused on this question and on understanding what most challenges educators and why. We address these challenges with our high-quality research and evaluation services, professional development and consulting, technical assistance, and research-based products. In 2013, we stayed focused on this commitment, working with pre-K—16 educators to understand their problems of practice and, with our international reach, identifying and sharing great resources and “odds changing” practices from across the U.S. and around the world.

We’re pleased to share with you a sampling of our work and growth as an organization in 2013. We look forward to helping you work through your school or district’s challenges and, together, changing the odds for student success so that each of your students is ready for college, work, and life.

Dr. Tim Waters President and CEO

Welcoming Edvantia into the McREL family In 2013, McREL expanded its capacity to serve educators by acquiring Edvantia, a fellow non-profit organization that provides evaluation services to a variety of K–12 and higher education clients nationwide. We welcomed Edvantia’s staff as new members of our McREL team, and their offices in Nashville, Tennessee, and Charleston, West Virginia, are now operated as McREL regional offices. Our new colleagues are a cadre of expert evaluators who have a long track record of creating evaluation studies that are client-centered and maximize usefulness to program stakeholders.

REL Pacific: Working together to answer education questions that matter REL Pacific, one of 10 Regional Educational Laboratories funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, serves Hawai‘i, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau. Administered by McREL, REL Pacific provides research studies, data analysis, needs assessment, technical assistance, professional development, and dissemination of information to address problems and questions of high priority and relevance to Pacific education, including teacher effectiveness, family and community engagement, college and career readiness, data optimization, and more.

In 2013, REL Pacific produced the Five Steps for Structuring Data-informed Conversations and Action in Education facilitation guide, a series of environmental scans on priority topics, and two interactive computer modules that help educators understand and apply the principles of education program monitoring. Additionally, REL Pacific staff presented sessions on data use at the annual Pacific Education Conference in Saipan; on innovative approaches to research, evaluation, and technical assistance services at the annual Hawai‘i Educational Research Association Conference; and on taking action with education data at several regional “bridge events.”

IN 2013 MCREL WORKED IN

43

U.S. STATES

New name for an expanding organization From its beginnings in 1966 as the Mid-Continent Regional Educational Laboratory, and, later, as Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning, our organization has expanded its scope and scale, providing services to educators and leaders across the United States, Canada, the Pacific region, Australia, and other parts of the world. In recognition of this growth, we changed our name at the end of 2013 to McREL International.

This new name represents our ongoing commitment to serve educators in all 50 states and, with our international offices and staff, to discover, study, and scale up “bright spots” in education, strengthening the odds of success for students everywhere.

McREL Australia opens its doors After years of working with educators in southeastern Australia on improving school leadership and instruction, McREL in 2013 opened and staffed an office in Melbourne to expand our capacity to provide research-based strategies and practices to educators countrywide and share best practices from Down Under with the rest of the world.

Led by Executive Director Wayne Craig, formerly the regional director at the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development in Victoria, and Director Ross Dean, formerly of the Victorian Education Leadership Consortium, McREL’s Australia team provides schools and networks of schools professional development and consulting on increasing student engagement and achievement, improving educator effectiveness, and developing leadership talent.

McREL’s services and expertise align with three critical components of Australia’s National Plan for School Improvement: placing the best teachers and principals in every school; giving more support to students who need it most; and improving school results.

NCCC: Building states’ capacities to improve educational outcomes The North Central Comprehensive Center (NCCC) is one of 15 regional centers funded by the U.S. Department of Education to provide technical assistance to state education agencies implementing federal initiatives and requirements. Operated by McREL, the NCCC serves Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming, building each state’s capacity to implement and support initiatives that improve educational outcomes for all students, close achievement gaps, and strengthen the quality of instruction.

In 2013, the NCCC guided Nebraska in the implementation of new teacher and principal evaluation models, equity and diversity projects, Englishlanguage learner development, and data, research, and evaluation capacity. In North Dakota, the NCCC supported implementation of college- and career-ready standards and new principal and teacher evaluation systems, along with development of an Indian Education Summit and an Englishlanguage-learners pilot project. In South Dakota, NCCC assisted state officials with Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) waiver implementation and monitoring, and with identifying and publicizing emerging promising practices for Native American student outcomes. In Wyoming, the NCCC helped increase teacher understanding of assessments across the state and co-developed assessment systems to measure student progress NEW PUBLICATIONS IN 2013 toward meeting high school graduation requirements.

The 12 Touchstones of Good Teaching

A review of thousands of research studies, books, and articles revealed the 12 essential things teachers can do every day to make more deliberate, effective decisions and deliver high-quality instruction that positively impacts student outcomes.

Classroom Instruction That Works with English Language Learners, 2nd edition

Analyzing academic standards in Nebraska For the Nebraska Department of Education, McREL conducted a comparative analysis of the state’s existing English language arts and mathematics standards with the Common Core State Standards. Nebraska has not adopted the Common Core, but education leaders wanted to compare the level of rigor between the two sets of standards. Results of the study, shared with the department and the state board of education in the fall, showed that nearly all of the Nebraska standards are as rigorous as the Common Core standards.

Developing education leaders in Tennessee Using Race to the Top funding from the Tennessee Department of Education, the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System partnered with McREL to help increase leadership effectiveness, improve student outcomes, and show evidence of sustainability. McREL delivered its Balanced Leadership curriculum to 250 instructional supervisors, principals, assistant principals, and teacher leaders across the district to develop their capacity for leading change that results in increased student achievement.

Guiding systemic school improvement in New York With the support of a state turnaround grant, Mount Vernon City School District in New York partnered with McREL to make systemic changes in teaching and leading across the district. McREL consultants helped the district establish the structures, processes, and attitudes necessary to change the culture to one focused on continuous school improvement, enabling staff to take on not only Common Core instructional shifts and data-driven instruction but also leadership practices, classroom observations, and research-based instructional strategies.

This updated edition contains the latest research and best practices for developing oral academic language during subject-matter instruction, provides tips for teaching, and offers lesson examples aligned to the Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards.

Self-Regulated Learning for Academic Success This concise publication explains how teachers in every content area and at every grade level can teach students to be self-regulated learners who can manage their thoughts, behaviors, and emotions.

Common Core quickstart guides for middle school and elementary school This series is designed to help educators implement the Common Core math and English language arts standards with information on the structure of the standards at specific grade levels, practical lesson planning guidance, and sample lessons.

2013 BY THE NUMBERS

5

21

6

OFFICE LOCATIONS

MCREL BLOG POSTS

POLICY BRIEFS ISSUED ON HIGH-PRIORITY NATIONAL EDUCATION ISSUES

5,220

58

JOURNAL ARTICLES AND OTHER PUBLICATIONS

1,267

FACEBOOK FOLLOWERS, YEAR-END

TWITTER FOLLOWERS, YEAR-END

697

LINKEDIN FOLLOWERS, YEAR-END

138

3

PRESENTATIONS, WEBINARS, CONFERENCE SESSIONS, KEYNOTES, ETC.

ISSUES OF CHANGING SCHOOLS MAGAZINE

FINANCIALS OPERATING REVENUES

25,000,000

Publications 4% 20,000,000

4601 DTC Boulevard, Suite 500 • Denver, Colorado 80237 • 800.858.6830

www.mcrel.org DENVER

CHARLESTON

NASHVILLE

HONOLULU

AUSTRALIA

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

0

2003

5,000,000

2002

Other Contracts & Grants 50%

2001

38%

10,000,000

2000

50%

15,000,000

1999

Federal Contracts & Grants 38%

1998

Licenses 8%

1997

8%

1996

4%

OPERATING REVENUES