The Utah Department of Education’s ULEAD Education program is a statewide education R&D initiative supporting research-practice partnerships that identify, study, and scale effective practices in Utah schools.
Turning State Education R&D Investments into Impact
ULEAD is supported through state education investments in research, innovation, and improvement infrastructure.
$ 2.02 milliion
Since 2018, ULEAD has received $2.02 million in public funding from the state legislature.*
The impact of these investments is clear:
> 200 proven practices
Building and growing a statewide library of 200+ proven practices in K-12 teaching and learning
How Utah is Using State Investments to Build a Statewide Research-Practice Infrastructure
Through the program ULEAD—or the Utah Leading through Effective, Actionable, and Dynamic Education—the state is building a way to study effective practices in school settings and translate them into actionable guidance for educators and policymakers. The Utah State Legislature created ULEAD to bridge the gap between research and classroom practice, supporting the development of a statewide clearinghouse and that elevates innovative and effective practices across Utah’s schools.
Since the Utah State Legislature established ULEAD in 2018, it has invested $2.02 million in ULEAD. The primary legislative architects were Representative Jefferson Moss and Senator Ann Millner, who were the lead sponsors of both the original authorizing legislation (H.B. 408, 2018) and its update (H.B. 437, 2022). Together, they advanced a vision where education research is actionable for educators while simultaneously strengthening collaboration between research institutions and K-12 systems. These investments directly ensure ULEAD’s sustained focus on innovation, scalability, and real-world impact.
Rather than funding isolated studies, ULEAD identifies promising practices emerging from Utah schools, examines them in context, and builds tools to support broader implementation. Its cyclical approach starts with teachers, districts, and state leaders weighing in on the challenges facing Utah schools — practitioner voices that set ULEAD’s focus areas each year.
To explore those areas, ULEAD convenes education leaders, school and district staff, and researchers in Collaboration and Innovation Cohorts. These groups tackle specific challenges and study high-performing Utah schools to surface what’s working in practice.
ULEAD also works with research partners to look closely at high-performing schools and their practices. Together, they surface the mechanisms producing those schools’ success and consider how those approaches might be adapted in other settings.
Across this work, ULEAD produces reports, briefs, and tools through the ULEAD Repository so that educators and system leaders across Utah can learn about best practices.
“ULEAD has been a fantastic partner in our work with the BYU Public School Partnership. Together we have studied outlier teams across the state and have identified practices that will improve learning for all students.”
The Impact
Though still a young initiative, ULEAD has strengthened Utah’s capacity to identify and share effective educational practices by connecting educators, researchers, and state leaders. It has grown the state’s evidence base of strong instructional and schoolwide practices and focused scaling efforts on the challenges educators name as most pressing. Findings reach the field through practitioner-facing reports, briefs, and other resources.
Recent ULEAD-supported research has examined high-performing schools in literacy and math instruction to pinpoint the practices driving strong student outcomes. In early literacy, ULEAD found that top-performing teachers moved beyond basic phonics by teaching students to break down larger words and read complex texts, shifting the focus from reading speed to deep comprehension. The study of middle school math practices revealed how successful classrooms use simple tools like individual whiteboards to encourage student risk-taking; and teaching teams plan collaboratively to maximize time spent on critical concepts. Additional ULEAD studies can be found here.
Education R&D Playbook in Practice
Utah’s ULEAD initiative embodies the recommendations made in ALI’s State Education R&D Playbook, especially: 1) Leverage Technology and 2) Change Mindsets and Behaviors. Answering the call to make research accessible and actionable, the ULEAD Repository acts as a vetted digital clearinghouse for continuous improvement. Beyond technology, ULEAD actively addresses the human factors of systems change. By relying on practitioner cohorts for genuine community engagement from problem identification through solution design, the initiative ensures shared ownership of K-12 challenges. Publishing these statewide reports then closes feedback loops and promotes a culture of innovation, shifting away from top-down compliance toward a collaborative model where testing and scaling new approaches is expected.
Looking Ahead
ULEAD offers a replicable model for how states can embed education R&D inside their public school systems. By identifying effective practices, studying them in context, and sharing what it learns statewide, Utah is tightening the link between evidence and improvement.
As the initiative matures, Utah is expanding the ULEAD Repository, deepening research-practice partnerships, and sharpening how it identifies and scales effective practices.
*This total was calculated using data from the Utah State Legislature’s Compendium of Budget Information (COBI) website.