Kevin Bastian

Shout out to @epic-unc.bsky.social colleagues Rachel Rana and @mrosie.bsky.social for their presentations today at the NC Learning Research Network session! @ncpublicschools.bsky.social @ehutt.bsky.social @t-h-a-d.bsky.social

Very excited to release our annual evaluation report for the NC Principal Fellows program. We look forward to continuing to work with NCPFP to provide data and evidence that fuels program improvement and the leadership pipeline in NC. epic.unc.edu/wp-content/u...

Thanks to NCDPI for their partnership and insights throughout this work!

With the end of pandemic relief funding (ESSER cliff), districts may be unable to retain the same number of support personnel. Keep in mind there are still serious concerns with student achievement and attendance and support personnel benefit these outcomes.

The number of social workers in NC public schools has increased by 27 percent since the 2020 school year. Pandemic relief funding (eg ESSER) has played a big role in this increase, especially in urban districts.

NC public schools have more counselors and social workers than prior to the pandemic and the ratios of these personnel to students have increased. That’s good news for schools working to meet whole child needs AND in spite of increased attrition for counselors and social workers in recent years.

Excited to release, with coauthors Camille Mikkelsen and @sarahcfuller.bsky.social, a new research brief on NC’s support personnel workforce (counselors, social workers, school psychologists) through the pandemic epic.unc.edu/wp-content/u...

A few key findings:

Thank you!!

Adding me to the education policy researchers would be much appreciated!

Not currently but very open to that possibility. We’ve been pushing to have some initial results in time for the legislative session in TX.

5) Again, this is initial work that needs replication and on-going analyses. But important to show that investments in high quality and accessible teacher preparation show early returns.

3) 1st year teachers who completed a paid residency perform comparably to other 1st year teachers in math and are much more effective in reading.
4) Paid residents are also more likely to return for a second year of teaching in TX.

2) Mentor teachers are 5 % points more likely to return to their school in the year after hosting a paid resident.

1) Student achievement is higher in classrooms with a mentor teacher and paid resident. In math, this is due to K-12 schools and EPPs selecting more effective teachers. In reading, there is evidence that hosting a paid resident modestly boosts achievement.

New (and early) work from EPIC on paid teacher residency programs in TX epic.unc.edu/wp-content/u.... Much thanks to coauthors @sarahcfuller.bsky.social and Andrew Otte. Several key findings stand out:

Excited to be part of this work with @tswid.bsky.social and @sarahcfuller.bsky.social. Important to think about school attendance and how to promote learning in and out of school.