Choosing a school for a child can be a rewarding, but difficult task for parents. A recent survey reported that parents often feel confused by the information available to them as part of the school choice process. This can be exacerbated by limited time and resources to devote to the process--constraints that can particularly affect low-income…

The purpose of this evaluation was to understand the development, implementation, and impact of Project Exc-EL (Excellence for English Learners), a school-wide intervention focused on providing teacher professional development and training to better support English learners (ELs) in New York. Project Exc-EL focuses on training teachers to use data…

Since 2004, the National Institute for School Leadership (NISL) has offered the Executive Development Program (EDP), a leadership program for sitting school principals that is typically delivered in two-day workshops once per month over 12 months. From its inception through 2018, 15,000 principals across 23 states have participated in the EDP.…

The Good Behavior Game (GBG) is a group contingency intervention that has effectively reduced disruptive behavior and improved classroom management in many replications, for various settings and populations. The student composition of American public schools is changing, leading to culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms with unique…

We study a popular dual enrollment program in Washington State, "Running Start" using a new administrative database that links high school and postsecondary data. Conditional on prior high school performance, we find that students participating in Running Start are more likely to attend any college but less likely to attend four-year…

LEAP and TEACCH represent two comprehensive treatment models (CTMs) that have been widely used across several decades to educate young children with autism spectrum disorders. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to compare high fidelity LEAP (n = 22) and TEACCH (n = 25) classrooms to each other and a control condition (n = 28), in…

Until the late 1990s, "vocational education" in traditional trades such as carpentry, cosmetology, and auto mechanics was often the presumptive high school placement for low-performing students considered ill-suited for college. However, in the past two decades, policymakers and educators have reconsidered what is now referred to as…

International assessment data indicate American students are not competing with their counterparts in other countries. The mathematics curriculum and pedagogy are not preparing students to compete in a global economy. This study compared student achievement using sixth grade mathematics results from the Illinois Standards Achievement Test.…

We use data from one of the few states where information on curriculum adoptions is available--Indiana--to empirically evaluate differences in performance across three elementary-mathematics curricula. The three curricula that we evaluate were popular nationally during the time of our study, and two of the three remain popular today. We find large…

This study exploits a randomized trial of two light-touch elementary school interventions to estimate long-run impacts on postsecondary attendance and attainment. The first is a classroom management technique for developing behavioral skills in children. The second is a curricular intervention aimed at improving students' core reading skills. We…

In this study, we examined 56 first-grade struggling readers' phonics and reading achievement in classrooms served by SRA Reading Mastery, a scripted model of early reading instruction against the achievement of 52 first-grade struggling readers in classrooms served by one of four other, non-scripted reading models. We also studied the…

This study explored the long-term benefits of the Reading Recovery ® program for economically disadvantaged students who were successfully discontinued after the first grade. The hypothesis was tested that students exiting first grade with grade-level reading abilities and with similar low socio-economic status (economically disadvantaged), who…

Exploiting a statewide cutoff point on the placement examination used to assign students to remedial courses in Tennessee, this study employs a regression discontinuity research design to provide causal estimates of the effects on student outcomes of recently redesigned remedial courses at three Tennessee colleges. Moreover, using data on student…

The literature on formative assessment shows great potential for significant improvements in student achievement. However, little is known about combining formative-assessment strategies, based in large part on short-cycle and medium-cycle assessments, with continuous quality improvement concepts to improve student achievement in mathematics at…

Problem and purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate reading achievement levels of fourth, fifth, and sixth grade Central Valley students who participated in Reading Recovery in first grade and those students eligible that did not participate in Reading Recovery in first grade (1999, 2000, and 2001). The study also sought to…