Building Capacity for Educational Improvement

Training

Featured Workshops

• Multiple Dimension Approach (MDA) to Capacity Building—This training workshop provides an introduction to capacity building and the use of a multiple dimension approach to designing and implementing capacity building change. Participants will be able to identify four dimensions of capacity, determine capacity needs, and design capacity building initiatives using authentic improvement scenarios.
  
  
• Embedded Tasks—This training workshop explains the use of embedded tasks in capacity building and presents four levels of internal/external tasks. Participants will be able to design a change initiative using various types of embedded tasks to achieve targeted capacity building results.
  
  
• Capacity Building Maps—This training workshop provides templates and information on using maps to guide capacity building change. Participants will apply authentic scenarios in designing and implementing three types of Capacity Building Maps.

Featured Packages

• Multiple Dimension Approach (MDA) to Capacity Building—This training and technical assistance package includes four days of training in the MDA to Capacity Building, implementing Customized Capacity Services and personalized Embedded Tasks, as well as three days of on-site technical assistance in designing and implementing capacity building services.
  
  
• Designing Capacity Building Initiatives—This training and technical assistance package includes five days of training in Organization Design for Capacity Growth, Multipoint Support Services, Capacity Building Maps, Customized Capacity Services, and Mid- and Large-Scale Change, as well as three days of on-site technical assistance in using the training topics to design and implement capacity building initiatives.

For more information, contact Sharon Harsh at sharsh@icfi.com. 

Capabilities

• Assessing needs—ICF partners with policymakers to understand their needs—including context and history—and to build capacity and design responsive planning and implementation strategies, analysis, research, interventions, and products. Every ICF project is individually tailored to maximize client return on investment. Needs assessments across a number of clients may also identify common problems amenable to cost-effective solutions that serve many. 
• Engaging stakeholders in capacity building—ICF has many years of experience partnering with education stakeholders to enhance their capacity to implement effective policy and programmatic change. By developing communities of practice and other information-sharing channels and by highlighting effective practices, ICF facilitates the capacity building of state agencies, public-private partnership efforts, schools, districts, and early education programs in ways designed to bolster commitment among all stakeholders toward the common goal of improving learning across all age groups and diverse populations.
• Providing insights through rigorous research, analysis, and evaluation—ICF has extensive experience implementing rigorous research, analysis, and evaluation, from original empirical research to secondary analyses of data. Our capacity in all facets of information management enables us to design data systems, conduct analyses of data, advise on the best course of action, and evaluate the impact of educational improvements. With a unique combination of technical expertise and real-world experience, ICF staff offer state and local leaders insights that reflect not only the best information available, but also how to use it to tackle complex policy, program and process challenges. 
• Helping policymakers use data for decisionmaking—ICF builds capacity within early education programs, schools, districts, and state governments through partnerships focused on the examination and interpretation of data. We have experience in all facets of helping state and local organizations collect, communicate and use data to examine the impact of their educational strategies and programs and inform policy and practice decisions. 
• Strategic planning to achieve goals—ICF helps state agencies and communities look long term at their goals and set realistic plans for achieving them. By facilitating and engaging stakeholder groups, ICF staff are able to infuse content knowledge into the planning process and set timelines and milestones that are realistic. To support the strategic planning process, ICF staff are experts at crosswalking standards, initiatives and funding to give education leaders a better picture of their challenges and opportunities. ICF also helps implement strategic plans successfully, by writing reports, gathering data, conducting research or focus groups, and analyzing what actions need to be taken to stay on course.

Experts

• Dr. Teresa Duncan

  Senior Fellow

• Ann Reale

  Principal

• Peggy Ball

  Technical Director

• Dr. John Hitchcock

  Expert Consultant

• Edith Hawkins

  Senior Manager

• Dr. Felix Fernandez

  Technical Specialist

• Dr. Sharon Harsh

  Education Fellow

• Thomas J. Horwood

  Senior Manager

• Kandace Jones

  Expert Consultant

Projects

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  Quality Rating and Improvement System Development and Implementation

  ICF works closely with the District of Columbia's Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) to redesign a system of quality improvement for child care providers, which integrates an early childhood workforce professional development system, District-wide licensing regulations, and subsidy reimbursement.

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  What Works Clearinghouse

  ICF is a key partner on the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC), which was established by the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences in 2002 to provide educators, policymakers, researchers, and the public with a central and trusted source of scientific evidence of what works in education.

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  Reform Support Network

  ICF was selected by the U.S. Department of Education to manage the Reform Support Network, which was designed to help states implement sweeping reforms in education policy and practice.

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  National Child Care Information Center (NCCIC)

  ICF has operated the National Child Care Information and Technical Assistance Center (NCCIC) since 1994, providing broad information on early and school age care and education through its website, toll-free line, and email service on behalf of the Office of Child Care.

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  Texas Education Agency Best Practices Clearinghouse (TEA BPC)

  The Texas Education Agency Best Practices Clearinghouse (TEA BPC) supports schools in improving learning for all students by providing a means for schools to share information about evidence-based best practices. ICF supports this project by developing the framework and evidence standards for assessing best practices, leading webinars, analyzing data on targeted outcomes, and designing and hosting the website.

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  Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Mid-Atlantic

  The Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Mid-Atlantic supports the research-related needs of educational stakeholders throughout the District of Columbia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania with research, technical assistance, training, and dissemination. ICF provides practitioners and policy-makers with evidence-based improvement strategies, sponsors educational research forums, and conducts stakeholder-driven short-term research projects.

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  Evaluation of the High School Success Pilot Programs (HSSPP)

  ICF conducted a formative and summative evaluation of three discretionary grant programs focused on dropout prevention to assess their implementation, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness. This work highlights ICF’s expertise in designing quasi-experimental studies using a mixed-methods approach to measure the impact of program activities on student and teacher outcomes.

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  Evaluation of the Texas Adolescent Literacy Academies (TALA)

  ICF conducted a formative and summative evaluation of the Texas Adolescent Literacy Academies (TALA), a statewide teacher professional development (PD) program, to assess its quality, implementation, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness. This work highlights ICF’s expertise in evaluating the implementation and impact of adult learning opportunities that support adolescent learning and development.

Insights

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  Capacity-Building Series - Innovation: The New Capacity for Organization Effectiveness

  This ICF International white paper discusses how very few capacities are so substantial or multifaceted that they can form the basis for more than one workplace mechanism.

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  Capacity-Building Series - Innovation: The New Capacity for Organization Change

  This ICF International white paper addresses how innovation is a promising capacity for challenges facing organizations today.

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  Taking Successful Change Initiatives Beyond Capacity - A Multiple-Dimension Approach to Capacity Building

  This white paper explores the complex tasks of change and discusses the process of organizational learning, development, and capacity building.

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  Attachment and Aspiration - What Influences Rural Youths' Educational and Residential Plans?

  Building on recent research, ICF sought to explore how socioeconomic status and attachment to place influences rural youths’ educational and residential preferences across a wider geographic region.

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  Preparing Principals for High Need Rural Schools - A Central Office Perspective about Collaborative Efforts to Transform School Leadership

  This article presents district administrators’ reflections about the contextual challenges they face in leading a high-need rural school system in Central Appalachia and the change initiatives they implemented to transform the principalship from school management to instructional leadership.

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  Transforming Dropout Prevention Policy and Practice

  School dropout is a widespread and serious problem in the United States, with enormous consequences for students who choose its path. While recent federal efforts related to dropout prevention measure the extent of the problem, this white paper explores ICF's recommendations to solve it.

Reports

These reports were prepared for the Office of Child Care, Administration for Children & Families, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), as part of ICF’s support of the National Child Care Information Center (NCCIC) project. They are available on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website:

• State Early Childhood Education Governance Structures: Recent Inititatives
• Early Care and Education Systems Building Initiatives: Research Overview 

These reports were prepared for the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences as part of ICF’s support of the Regional Educational Laboratory Mid-Atlantic project. They are available on the U.S. Department of Education website:

• A Multisite Cluster Randomized Trial of the Effects of CompassLearning Odyssey® Math on the Math
  Achievement of Selected Grade 4: Students in the Mid-Atlantic Region
  
  
• The Impact of Collaborative Strategic Reading on the Reading Comprehension of Grade 5 Students in Linguistically Diverse Schools
  
  
• What English Language Arts, Math, and Science Instructional Materials have Districts in the Mid‑Atlantic Region States Adopted?