The Madison Metropolitan School District's (MMSD) Research, Assessment and Improvement (RAI) team has earned the Council of the Great City Schools Informing Progress in Urban Education Research Team Award for developing an innovative approach that helps educators make more informed decisions about literacy interventions and better support students who need it most.
MMSD received the recognition for a district-led research project that evaluated the effectiveness of elementary literacy interventions and examined whether students were meeting their reading goals. The project used rigorous single-case design methods to generate clearer evidence about student progress and intervention outcomes. Findings from the research also informed the development of a decision-support tool to help educators interpret progress-monitoring data more consistently.
“This recognition reflects our commitment to using research to solve practical problems that matter for students and educators,” said Dr. Caroline Racine Gilles, MMSD executive director of RAI. “In this project, we studied how literacy interventions were working in practice and developed a tool to help educators make more timely, consistent decisions about when to continue, adjust or intensify support.”
The project represents a collaborative effort to strengthen literacy outcomes by pairing rigorous research methods with practical tools that educators can use in their daily work. By making analysis easier to interpret and act on, the tool allows staff to focus more on meeting students’ individual learning needs.
The Council of the Great City Schools cited the project as being both methodologically rigorous and immediately applicable in classrooms. As part of the award, MMSD's RAI team will continue contributing to national conversations about improving research and evaluation practices in urban school districts.
"We are transforming how we look at student success by making data more accessible to our staff," said Dr. Deonte Iverson, MMSD district data literacy coordinator. "By giving teachers and interventionists clear, reliable information, we’re removing guesswork and empowering them to make confident, precise decisions that directly impact student outcomes."
For more information about MMSD’s community-involved approach to literacy, please visit the Mad for Reading page of the district’s website.
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Madison Metropolitan School District
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