Soliciting, vetting, monitoring, and evaluating: A study of state education agencies’ use of external providers for school improvement efforts

Abstract

Recent United States (U.S.) educational policies—especially the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015—have challenged state education agencies (SEAs) to take greater responsibility for and leadership over improving underperforming schools. SEA capacity to accomplish this charge varies, so many SEAs contract with third-party, external providers in the school improvement industry. Yet, little systematic consideration has been given to the processes that SEAs use to work with appropriate, high-quality external providers. In this study, a substantial dataset consisting of publicly-available documents and survey responses permitted the analysis of how 51 SEAs solicited, vetted, monitored, and evaluated external providers that offered school improvement services. Results, which highlight how various U.S. states are responding to a seemingly ever-changing U.S. educational policy context, suggested more SEAs solicited and vetted, but approaches and procedures often differed. Far fewer SEAs, however, monitored and evaluated external providers. The paper closes with a discussion of each stage of the SEA external provider procurement process along with recommendations for future research on the school improvement industry.