Publications

Culturally Responsive Restorative Practices: Preliminary Data from Participating Schools, 2019-2020
This report provides a brief overview of Culturally Responsive Restorative Practices, an innovative framework intended to address discipline disparities and improve school climate and culture at ten AISD schools. This work is part of a 5-year, $3.5 million Education Innovation and Research (EIR) grant from the U.S. Department of Education. Highlights from year two of CRRP implementation include improved perceptions of school climate by students and staff, reduced reliance on exclusionary discipline, and steadily growing staff participation in CRRP and CP&I professional learning…
Leadership Development: Summary of Evaluation Findings from 2019–2020
The main purpose of the 2019–2020 evaluation of the Department of Leadership Development was to evaluate the implementation of the newly developed assistant principal (AP) and principal hiring processes, designed to select a diverse group of equity-focused, effective novice leaders. The hiring process consisted of using an online video interviewing tool (HireVue) and an assessment center consisting of several tasks intended to assess candidates’ abilities to perform job-related duties.

CARES 2019–2020 Evaluation: A Brief Review of the Second Year of Implementation
This report describes the activities and accomplishments of AISD's CARES team during the second year of implementation, school year 2019–2020. Highlights include how CARES team members were able to: maintain and in many cases exceed high-quality standards, continue progress monitoring, and provide support and resources for families, staff and community members during the first few months of the pandemic, a time of great uncertainty. CARES also expanded aspects of their feedback functions and adapted their planned implementation goals in response to staff and families' expressed…

Campus Best Practices Overview: Academic Gains and Improvement
This report examines campus-level contributors to student academic gains. Using student factors, curriculum and programming indicators, and campus features (e.g., staff retention and support programs) as inputs, the results indicate that changes in campus and teacher leadership scores are important and significant predictors of improvements in campus-level student performance, but data modeling alone does not offer enough information.

CARES One-page Activity Summary Fall 2019 to Fall 2020
This one-page document illustrates highlights of AISD’s CARES program activities and achievements. CARES, now in its second year of implementation, was able to maintain high quality of service standards, while experiencing a dramatic increase in volume. Further, CARES team members served vital functions during the unexpected challenges of the 2019–2020 school year.

Austin ISD Postsecondary Enrollment, Graduating Classes of 2013-2019
This report summarizes postsecondary enrollment rates for AISD graduates, Classes 2013 through 2019.

Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) Austin: Annual Evaluation Report 2019–2020
In 2019–2020, the program’s third federally funded year, GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) Austin served a cohort of 8th grade students (n = 2,546) across 11 middle schools. Nearly all GEAR UP students received support services relevant to college preparation. Evaluation findings suggest that students, teachers, and parents had a positive perspective on the role of the program services in college preparation.

Early College High School Program Summary Report, 2019-2020
Early College High School (ECHS) provides students with the opportunity to earn a high school diploma and 60 college hours, which lead to an associate’s degree. This report describes demographic characteristics and academic outcomes of the students served by ECHS and highlights emerging topics from the program coordinator survey.

Pathways in Technology Early College High School Program Summary Report, 2019-2020
Pathways in Technology (P-TECH) provides a 6-year, career-focused program that combines high school and college coursework with real-world work experience. This report includes findings regarding demographic characteristics and academic outcomes of the students served by the program and highlights emerging topics from P-TECH coordinators survey.

AISD Prekindergarten Partnership Program Summary Report, 2019–2020
This report summarizes the first year of the prekindergarten partnership between AISD, United Way for Greater Austin, and participating child development centers that served 417 students. Classrooms and students displayed high quality of instruction and academic performance, and teacher professional development opportunities are summarized.