Based on a one-year longitudinal experimental study with 3,782 kindergarten school children across 15 countries, this article examines the association between prayer and happiness. Results show that the post-test scores on the faces scale were higher for the participant group who had taken the prayer lessons vis-à-vis the comparison group.…

In this longitudinal study, the cross-language transfer from second language (L2) to first language (L1) was examined among Spanish-speaking English-language learners in an English intervention (Grades 1-3) in the southwest United States. Path analysis revealed statistically significant transfers (ps < 0.05) for the treatment group from English…

The present study evaluated long-term effects of a home-based smoking prevention program targeting smoking-specific parenting in families with children with and without asthma. A total of 1398 non-smoking children ("mean age" 10.1) participated, of which 197 (14.1%) were diagnosed with asthma. Families were blinded to group assignment.…

English language learners (ELLs) benefit when their teachers utilize a wide range of English as a Second Language (ESL) instructional strategies. However, content-area teachers often are unfamiliar with these ESL strategies as they have not received extensive professional development on meeting the needs of ELLs, especially within the context in…

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are considered the "gold standard" for evaluating an intervention's effectiveness. Recently, the federal government has placed increased emphasis on the use of opportunistic experiments. A key criterion for conducting opportunistic experiments, however, is that there is relatively easy access to data…

This study is a randomized controlled trial that assessed the impact of Early College High Schools on students' high school graduation, college enrollment, and college degree attainment, as well as students' high school experiences using extant data and survey data. The study included 10 Early Colleges that enrolled students in Grades 9 to 12 in…

Findings from three years of a longitudinal randomized control trial involving a national U.S. sample of Algebra 1 teachers and students are reported. The study examines the effects of a connected classroom technology (CCT) professional development and classroom intervention on student achievement when compared to classroom instruction with…

We report on the scaling up of a high school content literacy framework, Reading Apprenticeship, over a period of four years as part of the independent evaluation of an Investing in Innovation grant from the U.S. Department of Education to WestEd's Strategic Literacy Institute (SLI). Our goal was to understand the school processes that support…