Micro-credentials are increasingly being adopted across a variety of industries and countries, including the kindergarten through grade 12 education system in the United States, as a way to identify workers with specific skills, knowledge, and competencies. This report presents the results of a study conducted by RAND researchers who investigated…

Single Stop is a U.S. nonprofit organization that offers U.S. colleges services and tools to help students achieve economic security. Its portfolio of options includes an online platform that screens students' eligibility for public benefits programs, a search tool that connects students to community and college resources, and case management…

This report presents summative findings from RAND's six-year evaluation of the BHP Foundation's Education Equity program. The evaluation is based on a review of funded partner organizations' internal program progress reports, performance indicators, and independent project evaluation reports; interviews with representatives from partner…

California's Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act (JJCPA) funds the implementation of programs for justice system--involved or at-promise youth (i.e., youth who are at risk of becoming involved in the justice system). In this report, the authors evaluated the implementation of programs run by three Los Angeles (L.A.) County agencies that receive…

Single Stop is a program that colleges have used to assist with screening students to identify those eligible for such public benefits as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid, make referrals to community resources, and support case management by college staff. This research brief describes work done in "Connecting…

In this report, the authors provide a preliminary look at the Improving Pre-Engineering and Computer Science Education Through Micro-Credentialing project to develop and implement micro-credentials as a means of providing scalable, competency-based certification of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teaching skills in…

Instructional materials, such as printed textbooks and digital resources, are a cornerstone of education in kindergarten through grade 12 (K-12) education and represent a powerful lever for improving classroom instruction. Historically, the selection of instructional materials in the United States has been predominantly led by local school…

School improvement is complex and difficult, especially in comprehensive support and improvement (CSI) schools, which concurrently struggle with multiple challenges. To guide state education agencies (SEAs) in supporting schools, this annex provides (1) the resources that SEAs have identified and developed to support the identification and…

The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) launched the Collaborating Districts Initiative (CDI) with the goal of supporting school districts to build their capacities to promote social and emotional learning (SEL) for all students. Twenty large, urban districts across the country participate in the CDI. Although many…

Providing and using technical assistance for capacity building within educational agencies is a complex endeavor. The U.S. Department of Education funds technical assistance centers to support state education agencies (SEAs) and local education agencies (LEAs) in the capacity-building process. Established in 2018, the Center to Improve Social and…

This Perspective builds on a related RAND Corporation report that describes the implementation of Findhelp at four North Carolina community colleges in 2021 and 2022. Findhelp is an online tool to connect students to resources in their communities to help meet their basic nonacademic needs. The North Carolina Community College System, with support…

Teachers, like the students they serve, never stop learning. In-service teacher professional development (PD) gives educators opportunities over the course of the year to learn more about pedagogy and improve their own instruction methods to boost students' academic and social and emotional outcomes. On average, teachers participate in ten days of…

A large body of evidence indicates that well-implemented social and emotional learning (SEL) programs improve academic, social, and emotional outcomes for students and educators. Education policy has the potential to influence the high-quality implementation of SEL, from the school district, to the school, to the classroom. Before and during the…

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…

The United States faces an unprecedented mental health crisis, with youth and young adults at the center. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly 50 percent of college students reported at least one mental health concern. The COVID-19 pandemic notably exacerbated these issues and underscored the urgent need to identify and implement ways to…