Historical Artifacts - Research Briefs - Case Studies

The following includes links to historical research and publications developed during our time working at two regional educational laboratories, partnerships with content and comprehensive centers, and original research by INSTLL. Publications also include academic papers written with colleagues, for journals and conferences. Each document was authored or co-authored by Brett Lane. Full citations can be found in each source document. We share these documents to provide an historical record of our work and to illustrate how educational issues have changed (but also stayed the same). 

Two early charter school documents written between 1996 and 1999. Our team at the NWREL (now EdNorthwest) developed what may have been the first leadership academy for charter school founders. This document was later disseminated as a set of "Charter Starter" guides in the early 2000s.

Choice Matters: Policy Alternatives and Implications for Charter Schools

A Profile of the Leadership Needs of Charter School Founders

Working with rural communities in the Pacific Northwest, we developed and applied a framework for community building and renewal.

Strengthening Community Networks: The Basis for Sustainable Community Renewal

Three publications written for AERA focusing on the important role that state and district leaders play in co-constructing, making sense of, and implementing education policy, and how federal education policy shifted between 1980 and 2005. 

Constructing Policy: A Framework for Effective Policy Implementation

We're From the State and We're Here to Help: State-level Innovations in Support of High-School Reform

The Passage of the NCLB Act of of 2001: Reflections on the Evolution of Federal Education Policy

Between 2001 and 2008, the Education Alliance at Brown University led a multi-year initiative to build the capacity of state education agencies, focusing on district and school improvement, school turnaround, and ensuring that the needs of English Language Learners were included in planning and thinking. 

How Can State Education Agencies Support District Improvement: A Conversation Amongst Educational Leaders, Researchers, and Policy Actors: This symposium and proceedings was the culmination of a three year engagement with multiple states. The symposium, led by the Education Alliance and Urban Education Program at Brown University, brought together over 50 leading educators for a 3-day symposium in Newport, Rhode Island. The lessons and reflections contained in the proceedings remain relevant. 

Leadership Capacities for a Changing Environment: State and District Responses to the NCLB Act of 2001: This is the final publication from a multi-year partnership with multiple states and the regional comprehensive center. Mr. Lane was involved in the New York case study.

Between 2008 and 2012, INSTLL collaborated with multiple organizations, including the Center for Innovation and Improvement, to consider how to build the capacity of states and districts to lead accelerated improvement. Building upon key state and district research, we conducted multiple case studies and authored the introduction to the Handbook on Statewide Systems of Support.

Policy to Reinforce Changing State Role, in the Handbook on Statewide Systems of Support (Sam Redding & Herbert J. Walberg, Editors)

Transforming a Statewide System of Support: The Idaho Story

Exploring the Pathway to Rapid District Improvement