In partnership with leading researchers, content experts, and educators, Marshall Street developed more than 20 evidence-based practices that improve learning experiences, environments and outcomes for Black and Latinx students with disabilities experiencing poverty. The Research-to-Impact Practices are now available for any school to use.
Schools across America struggle to meet the diverse needs of students, particularly students who face the adverse effects of systemic racism, ableism, and classism. Yet through three years of concentrated effort, 10 public charter school networks across the United States joined together to demonstrate that it is possible to transform teaching and learning for students with disabilities.
The collections below document their work and offer a guide for schools committed to creating a more equitable education system. The practices are sorted into five collections by content area. Each collection summarizes relevant research and provides step-by-step instructions, case studies from schools in the network, and templates and implementation tools for educators to use in their classrooms.
Sign up for our newsletter to get updates on the Research-to-Impact Practices and other tools. If you are interested in learning more about our networked improvement communities or other partnerships, please email us at MarshallCoLab@summitps.org.
Interdisciplinary practices for building collaboration between general and special education teams
Tested practices for schools to identify gaps and implement interventions for secondary readers
Equity-based practices for using data at the district, school, and classroom levels to accelerate student supports
Proven school-based practices to empower students to transition into meaningful college, career, and community postsecondary pathways
One school’s skill-based practices for supporting students with emotional-based disabilities
Improvement Lead, Green Dot Public Schools California
“Over the last three years, we have found ways to improve reading levels for our most impacted readers that are replicable and scalable, focusing on identifying specific gaps so intervention is highly targeted.”
Director of Student Support Services, Collegiate Academies
“Since we started doing co-planning/co-teaching, I have noticed that general education teacher ownership of April Dunn plans is significantly higher. Our students benefited from this additional support and integration, as evidenced by the 30% growth in April Dunn project completion.”
Senior Director, Special Education & Psychological Services, Green Dot Public Schools
“Three years later, I’m so grateful and thankful for the improvement science work because it pushed us not to settle on behalf of our kids. Improvement science really helped us narrow down and focus on student voice and what students can accomplish. Using improvement science is going to carry on and change how we do things and how we show up on behalf of our students.”
CEO, Summit Public Schools
“[The work] truly can be a reallocation of resources within the system…that allows for us to design a system with historically marginalized students in the center.”
In public schools across America, students with disabilities often face low expectations, barriers to rigorous courses, and insufficient support to graduate high school and pursue their dreams. For Black and Latinx students with disabilities experiencing poverty, the challenges are even greater. Research shows that 85-90% of students with disabilities can achieve at grade-level when they receive high-quality instruction and appropriate accommodations. Educators need better resources and more support to help students with disabilities achieve their full potential.
From 2019-2023, 10 public charter school communities serving 75,000 students across the United States formed an intentional community — one of the only focused on our priority population — to identify and test best practices to make dramatic gains for Black and Latinx students with disabilities experiencing poverty.
Made possible by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and in partnership with technical assistance providers NIRN, RTI International, SRI International, and SWIFT Education Center, Marshall Street led the 10 charter school communities in using the processes of Continuous Improvement — principles and practices to help educators “get better at getting better” — to systematically address the critical intersection where students face multiple adverse effects of systemic racism, ableism, and classism embedded in America’s public school system.
Together, the community identified more than 20 best practices that demonstrate early evidence of positive outcomes for students. Now, we’re sharing these best practices so educators across the country can adapt them for their students and transform schools for the better.
Marshall Street recruited 10 school partners, convened technical assistant and content expert partners, and set up the infrastructure needed for this important work. Read our white paper.
Marshall Street led a community of practitioners, researchers and content experts to explore new practices, interventions, and programs inspired by academic research to learn what works and what doesn’t work for their students.
Marshall Street supported schools to spread and scale their efforts to make best practice standard practice across their school systems.