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Logic modeling, the process that explicates how programs are constructed and theorized to bring about change, is considered to be standard evaluation practice. However, logic modeling is often experienced as a transactional, jargon-laden, discrete task undertaken to produce a document to comply with the expectations of an external entity, the consequences of which have minimal or even negative influence on the quality of program evaluation. This article presents the Logic Modeling Theory of Action Framework (LMTAF) which elucidates needs, resources, and central activities of logic modeling, and describes its potential evaluation-related benefits. The LMTAF situates evaluators as the primary intended users of logic modeling, and logic modeling as a fundamental element of each stage of a program evaluation life cycle. We aim to reassert the value of logic modeling for evaluation and provide evaluation practitioners a useful touchstone for reflective practice and future action. 

A research-practice partnership (RPP) used a teacher co-design process, supported by equity-focused professional development, to create an elementary-level curriculum that integrates content, practices, and learning progressions from state computing standards with other standards-based curricula. Most district students are part of historically marginalized groups and the RPP chose to develop an equity and inclusion-focused curriculum that would be taught in all elementary classrooms to all students. Twelve teacher teams, supported by researchers and ELL and SPED specialists, designed, piloted, and documented 23 modules of 4-8, 45-minute lessons across K-5. Early adopter teachers followed the pilots and implemented the modules in their classrooms with the goal of facilitating adoption by all elementary classroom teachers. After being interrupted by the pandemic, the RPP developed a strategy where principals in cohorts of schools agreed to collaborate with RPP school-based lead teachers to establish professional learning communities (PLCs) to support classroom implementation of the modules. Eleven schools participated in a 2021-22 cohort and nine more schools joined in 2022-23. Centering equity, PLCs, and quality module documentation and materials are key to sustaining and evolving the CSforAll curriculum. The modules were revised based on feedback obtained from ELL and SPED specialists, early adopters, teacher coordinators, researchers, and district curriculum directors. Using a large data set of meeting and classroom observation records, interviews, field notes, focus groups, surveys, and module documentation, we track the evolution of the curriculum and provide a detailed analysis of one module as an example. 

Teacher collaboration and social-emotional learning (SEL) are extant school improvement strategies intended to have a positive effect on student learning outcomes. The purpose of this quantitative, ex post facto study was to examine possible correlations between degree of teacher collaboration and use of instructional practices that support student SEL among lower secondary teachers (grades 7-9) in the United States (Leonard, 2021). Correlational analyses were conducted using a secondary dataset of the 2018 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) sponsored by the Office of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, 2018). Results showed strong, statistically significant relationships between frequency of teacher engagement in higher-intensity “student-facing” collaborative actions such as peer observation, and the enactment of instructional approaches that contribute to student SEL, such as helping students believe they can do well in school and having them work in groups to come up with a joint solution to a problem. Implications for research and for the advancement of teacher collaboration and SEL in P12 schools are discussed.