Wing Institute

About The Wing Institute

Our Mission

The Wing Institute at Morningside Academy is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit operating foundation dedicated to the promotion of evidence-based education policies and practices in K-12 education. As a “catalyst” organization, it is designed to bridge the research-to-practice gap by facilitating communication, cooperation and collaboration among individuals and organizations currently engaged in evidence-based education. Its goal is to analyze and disseminate existing knowledge, help create new knowledge, and facilitate the effective application of that knowledge to real world settings in real time parameters.

The Wing Institute at Morningside Academy was founded in 2004 and named after Ernie Wing, an outstanding educator and child advocate who was an early champion of evidence-based education and quality services for children with special needs.

The Need

The Wing Institute's strategies are designed to address specific needs and opportunities in the U.S. K-12 education system:

1. The field of education is experiencing an information explosion. There is a rapidly growing database of research, data, analyses, models, and policies in virtually all aspects of K-12 education.

1. This information is extremely complex and nuanced. The K-12 education system is vast in terms of stakeholders, resources, issues, and philosophies. Education programs (classrooms, schools, districts, states, universities, etc.) vary in every way imaginable.

1. Interpretation and use of this information vary widely. The issues involved in K-12 are extremely complex and most conclusions are driven by special interests, ideologies, and commonly held beliefs rather than scientific evidence.

1. There is now solid evidence regarding what does and does not work in building a successful education system. There has been a dramatic increase in scientific research over the past few decades that supports evidence-based decision-making.

1. Effective implementation is an essential, and too often ignored, component of evidence-based interventions. Interventions that have been scientifically validated often fail in the real world due to poor implementation strategies.    

1. The aggregation, analysis and dissemination of this information have been fragmented across the field of education. There have been few efforts to organize this information in a way that makes it easily accessible and useful to stakeholders.

Our Strategies

To address these needs, the Wing Institute is actively engaged in implementing the following strategies:

Information Clearinghouse

The Wing Institute web site houses an online information clearinghouse. It is designed with a state-of-the-art, functional web architecture that analyzes, organizes and synthesizes the enormous, complex, nuanced, and rapidly growing database of research, data, analyses, models, and policies. It is organized around three critical components of an evidence-based system: 1) “education drivers” encompassing the critical components of effective education, 2) a “roadmap” to establish a continuous process for decision making, implementation, and monitoring. (3) a system “dashboard” which provides a snapshot of the latest data on what schools are doing and how well they are performing.

Research

The Wing Institute supports, promotes, reviews, and completes research in education policies and practices. It engages in extensive data-mining, tracking, analyzing, and synthesizing the most current data and research from governmental agencies, private organizations, and research / policy institutes in the context of “real time, real world” issues. It also funds new research through its graduate research funding program.

Publications

The Wing Institute facilitates and disseminates journal articles, policy analyses, research reviews, books, newsletters, position papers, and tools related to application of evidence-based education to assist education decision makers.

Evidence-based Education Knowledge Network

The Wing Institute continued to operate, refine and expand its interactive Knowledge Network to accelerate communication, collaboration, and cooperation across a wide range of individuals, organizations, professional disciplines, and regions in the promotion of evidence-based education. The goal of the Knowledge Network is to accumulate and disseminate existing knowledge, create new knowledge, and facilitate the effective application of that knowledge to real world settings in the area of evidence-based education.

Professional Forums

The Wing Institute participates in professional summits, seminars, and conferences to encourage dialogue, collaboration, and communication among researchers, decision makers, and educators.

Organizational Networking

The Wing Institute maintains working relationships with selected key organizations engaged in the promotion of evidence-based practice.