Midwest Regional Educational Laboratory

Midwest Regional Educational Laboratory
Name	Midwest Regional Educational Laboratory
Formation	1960s
Type	Nonprofit research organization
Headquarters	Chicago, Illinois
Region served	Midwestern United States
Leader title	Director

Midwest Regional Educational Laboratory

Overview

The Midwest Regional Educational Laboratory operated as a nonprofit research institute based in Chicago, Illinois providing technical assistance, professional development and curriculum support to school districts across the Midwestern United States, engaging with entities such as the U.S. Department of Education, National Science Foundation, Council of Chief State School Officers, American Institutes for Research, and RAND Corporation to align practice with standards from the Common Core State Standards Initiative, Every Student Succeeds Act, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, No Child Left Behind Act, and model frameworks from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

History and Establishment

The laboratory traces origins to federal regional initiatives of the 1960s and 1970s alongside organizations like the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, the regional Education Resources Information Center, the Regional Educational Laboratories Program, and contemporaries such as the Pacific Resources for Education and Learning and the Southeast Regional Educational Laboratory. Founding stakeholders included state education agencies such as the Illinois State Board of Education, the Ohio Department of Education, the Michigan Department of Education, as well as local districts like Chicago Public Schools and networks including the Council of Great City Schools. Early collaborations linked the laboratory to national projects involving the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the Educational Testing Service, and the National Governors Association.

Programs and Services

The laboratory delivered programs in areas including literacy improvement, mathematics instruction, STEM integration, special education support, and early childhood education through offerings such as site-based coaching, online modules, technical assistance centers, and model curricula co-developed with partners like Teaching Tolerance, Learning Forward, Khan Academy, Achieve, Inc., and Education Development Center. Service lines included educator credentialing aligned with bodies like the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, district change management frameworks used by The Broad Foundation and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant recipients, and data-use supports interoperable with platforms from InBloom Inc. and PowerSchool.

Research and Evaluation Projects

Research programs produced mixed-methods evaluations, quasi-experimental studies, and randomized controlled trials in collaboration with institutions such as the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, University of Michigan, Indiana University, and Ohio State University. Projects included longitudinal studies that linked practice to outcomes reported in National Assessment of Educational Progress datasets, efficacy trials referencing What Works Clearinghouse standards, and program evaluations for initiatives funded by the Spencer Foundation, the William T. Grant Foundation, and the Smith Richardson Foundation. The laboratory also contributed to policy briefs cited by the Brookings Institution, Urban Institute, Economic Policy Institute, and the Kaufman Foundation.

Partnerships and Funding

Funding sources combined federal contracts with grants from foundations and partnerships with philanthropic actors such as the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Annenberg Foundation, the Lilly Endowment, and corporate partners including Microsoft Corporation, Google.org, and Apple Inc. Collaborative networks extended to professional associations like the National Association of State Boards of Education, the American Association of School Administrators, the National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, and consortia such as the Midwest Higher Education Compact and the Great Lakes Higher Education Consortium. Fiscal oversight and audits sometimes intersected with reviews by the Government Accountability Office and reporting standards from the U.S. Comptroller General.

Impact and Criticism

Advocates cited the laboratory's role in scaling evidence-based interventions across districts including improved reading scores reported in case studies involving CPS (Chicago Public Schools), increased math achievement in districts partnering with Indianapolis Public Schools, and enhanced early-learning outcomes referenced by the Head Start community. Critics questioned alignment with corporate grant priorities championed by entities like the Gates Foundation and challenged evaluation methods compared with standards from the What Works Clearinghouse and the Institute of Education Sciences, raising concerns echoed by scholars at Teachers College, Columbia University and policy analysts from the National Bureau of Economic Research. Debates also addressed governance and influence involving state education agencies such as the Minnesota Department of Education and Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and the laboratory's role within regional networks like the Midwestern Higher Education Compact.

Category:Educational research institutes in the United States