about the project

Like educators across the nation, those in the western region — Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah — are under intense pressure to raise student achievement and close entrenched achievement gaps. Never have education decisionmakers been more in need of trustworthy education research that addresses their high-priority issues.

As one of the nation's 10 federally funded Regional Educational Laboratories, WestEd's Regional Educational Laboratory West (REL West) reaches out to policymakers and educators across the western region to analyze their needs, solicit their questions, and build their interest in and reliance on evidence. Our REL West researchers then develop responsive research and development projects to help inform policy decisions:

• An Analysis of Utah's K-3 Reading Improvement Program
• Course-Taking Patterns and Preparation for Postsecondary Education in the California State University System Among Minority Youth
• Measuring Resilience and Youth Development: The Psychometric Properties of the Healthy Kids Survey
• Examining the Links Between Grade 12 Mathematics Coursework and Mathematics Remediation in Nevada Public Colleges and Universities
• The Reenrollment of High School Dropouts in One Large, Urban School District
• Characteristics of California School Districts in Program Improvement
• California Teacher Demand: A County and Regional Perspective

Many of our projects result in published reports (see resources link in the right-hand column).

REL West also conducts long-term rigorous experimental studies of promising interventions.