In fall 1998, the Maryland State Department of Education and six schools began a pilot program to evaluate the impact of serving breakfast to students in the classroom as part of the school day. Students in participating schools have an opportunity to eat breakfast in their classroom each day at no charge, regardless of family income. The program,…

This report explores the relationship between teachers' implementation of different aspects of the America's Choice program and the learning gains of their students. It draws on data from Plainfield, New Jersey, where teachers' survey responses about America's Choice schools were linked to the test gains of the students who were taught by those…

This paper examines the Merck Institute for Science Education (MISE). Begun in 1993, MISE had two stated goals: raise the interest, participation, and performance of public-school students in science; and demonstrate to other businesses that direct, focused involvement would hasten improvements in science teaching and learning in public schools.…

In their search for new ways to assess their agencies' success in working with children and families, child welfare administrators and senior managers are increasingly seeking regular and reliable sources of information that help them evaluate agency performance, make ongoing decisions, and provide an accurate picture for agency staff and external…

The Johnson County Community College (JCCC) Success Center (Kansas) has been operational since 2000 and focuses on the facilitation of student growth and development. The Center's user evaluation--the results of which are contained in this document--is one of three projects developed to help evaluate the Center's success model. A questionnaire was…

New American Schools (NAS) was formed in 1991 to create and develop whole-school designs that would be adopted by schools throughout the country in order to improve student performance. This book is a retrospective on NAS and draws together the finding from RAND research. Chapter 1, the introduction, gives an overview of NAS, RAND's purpose and…

This paper compares and summarizes empirical research on the outcomes of outdoor education (OE) and related programs. Most frequently, OE outcomes have been researched using post-program surveys of staff and participant attitudes. Such reports are vulnerable to many potential distortions. A second major approach to examining OE effectiveness…

A study was conducted to determine whether the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) is fulfilling dual public health and primary care missions of its Child Health Clinics, which provide services to 78,000 New York City children every year. Among the services provided by Child Health Clinics are health examinations for school and…

In 1995, the Texas legislature established a policy that each school district must have an "alternative educational setting for behavioral management." This policy brief examines the ways in which this idea has been implemented in Texas, using data from the Texas Education Agency. Findings show that, for the most part, these alternative…

The Summer Opportunity To Accelerate Reading (S.O.A.R.) program is the elementary summer school program to improve reading and literacy in the Austin Independent School District, Texas. In June 2000, the 21-day program served 2,406 students in grades 1 through 3 who were below grade level in reading or at risk of retention. The budget allocation…

This report by the U.S. Department of Education highlights the benefits of the Class-Size Reduction program that was passed by Congress in 1998. Prior to this federal program, more than 85 percent of students were in classes with over 18 children. However, 1 year after its inception, the program enabled 1.7 million young children to learn in…

The Principals' Academy, associated with the Success for All Children Initiative, grew out of the work and interest of participating superintendents. The initiative was designed to help members of the Forum for the American School Superintendent enhance their advocacy for children by addressing communitywide changes needed to ensure children's…

The Summer Opportunity To Accelerate Reading (S.O.A.R.) program is the Title I elementary summer school of the Austin Independent School District (AISD), Texas. The S.O.A.R. program provides early intervention to accelerate literacy learning for students entering grades 1-3 who are at risk of retention or are below grade level. In its second year…

The Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) has provided an alternative school program for students with long-term suspensions since the 1995-96 school year. Since 1996-97, the WCPSS has contracted with a private firm to operate the Richard M. Milburn High School (RMHS), as an alternative learning center. This Executive Summary highlights the…

Large multi-site followup studies of treatment clients comprise a major source of evidence on the effectiveness of substance abuse treatment in the United States. This report considers challenges to the validity of results in treatment effectiveness studies due to four factors: (1) nonrandom entry to treatment from the population needing…