Community colleges enroll a diverse set of students who often face challenges meeting their basic needs. This report describes the potential benefits and costs of one low-cost and relatively light-touch tool that colleges might use to increase students' access to basic needs assistance. The authors focus on the Findhelp platform, which is modeled…

In an effort to improve high school graduation and college enrollment rates among students who are Black, Latino, or experiencing poverty, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation established the Networks for School Improvement (NSI) initiative and awarded five-year grants to intermediary organizations to develop networks of school teams that work…

Rural regions across the United States are facing enduring challenges in aligning postsecondary education with industry and workforce development to advance economic mobility. The Tristate Energy and Advanced Manufacturing (TEAM) Consortium--which spans 45 counties across Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia--brings together ten community…

This appendix supplements the report "Effectiveness of Screened, Demand-Driven Job Training Programs for Disadvantaged Workers an Evaluation of the New Orleans Career Pathway Training. Research Report. RR-2980-DOL" (ED618674). The appendix reproduces the instruments used in the analysis presented in the full report. The following are…

This appendix augments a report that updates 2013 guidance to school district leaders and their partners across the country who are interested in launching summer learning programs or improving established ones. In that report, the authors present recommendations based on evaluations, conducted between 2011 and 2016, of summer programs in five…

Teachers and administrators across the United States struggle to maintain safe, civil, and community- and achievement-oriented schools. Disciplinary actions (such as school suspensions) and security measures (such as school resource officers/security guards and security cameras) are some approaches commonly used in schools to try to improve school…

The Big Lift is a collective impact initiative extending from preschool to third grade in San Mateo County, California. The collective impact effort consists of people and organizations from various sectors uniting to tackle a single, complicated societal problem -- in this case, third grade reading achievement. The initiative is a partnership of…

The job of the school principal has become much more complex and demanding over the past several decades. Many university-based principal preparation programs -- which prepare the majority of school principals -- have struggled with how to make the fundamental changes needed to prepare principals for today's schools. This report shares lessons…

The National Summer Learning Project, launched by the Wallace Foundation in 2011, includes an assessment of the effectiveness of voluntary, district-led summer learning programs offered at no cost to low-income, urban elementary students. The study, conducted by RAND, uses a randomized controlled trial and other analytic methods to assess the…

School districts are facing several urgent questions as they plan for fall 2021. Will parents send their children to school in person in fall 2021? Why or why not? And what can schools do to reassure parents about sending their children to in-person schooling? To answer these questions RAND researchers surveyed 2,015 parents of children ages 5-18…

Ensuring the safety of students, faculty, and staff is a multifaceted challenge that requires institutions of higher education (IHEs) to navigate myriad threats, hazards, and risks. Concerns about safety and security at IHE campuses encompass everything from various forms of violence to the safety of pedestrian traffic, to the security of personal…

Prior research has determined that low-income students lose more ground over the summer than their higher-income peers. Prior research has also shown that some summer learning programs can stem this loss, but we do not know whether large, district-run, voluntary programs can improve students' outcomes. To fill this gap, The Wallace Foundation…

The landscape of early learning and out-of-school-time programs in the City of Santa Monica is complex, with numerous providers and funding streams. This complexity reflects its evolution in response to changes in federal, state, and local priorities and initiatives. Future shifts in funding levels, program auspices, and other features are likely.…

The four-day school week (4dsw) is growing in popularity, especially in rural areas across the western United States. RAND Corporation researchers addressed knowledge gaps about the 4dsw by conducting a large-scale study of the implementation and outcomes of the 4dsw that involved the collection of original data in numerous districts across Idaho,…

Across the country, school districts, their stakeholders, and policymakers have become increasingly concerned about suspensions, particularly about suspending students from elementary school and disproportionately suspending ethnic/racial minority students. Suspended students are less likely to graduate, possibly because they miss the…