The hallmark of a successful education system is increasing or maintaining high student achievement. RAND research measures the effects of various types of school reforms on student achievement, with recent studies focusing on charter schools, No Child Left Behind, reform-oriented teaching, and classroom sizes.
Improving school leadership may improve student outcomes. Evaluation is critical for effective use of resources, but poses challenges to states and districts. Evaluators and policymakers should allow time for improvements to show, use multiple evaluation measures, and interpret findings carefully.
This fact sheet examines teachers' impact on students and how effective teachers can be identified.
This fact sheet examines what students' scores on achievement tests do and don't reveal about how well teachers are meeting expectations.
This fact sheet describes student growth percentiles and their limitations in measuring teaching effectiveness.
This study provides a quantitative and qualitative status report on the implementation of school-based management (SBM) in Indonesia, identifies factors associated with the successful practices of SBM, and assesses SBM effects on student achievement.
Presents research on first-year principals' experiences, actions, working conditions, and outcomes; the research is intended to inform efforts to promote school improvement and principal retention.
The earliest years of a child's life are critical to physical, socio-emotional, behavioral, and cognitive development. High quality early education can improve readiness and success in school, particularly for disadvantaged children, but access to such programs is uneven.
ImpactFinder is an analysis and advice package to identify research impacts using a web survey and to examine the why and how of research translation. It aims to support preparations for the UK's research funding framework but has wider application.
Pittsburgh instituted a new college scholarship program to encourage eligible students to continue their education. An assessment of the program offers recommendations for improving its short- and long-term effectiveness.
Reviews the controversy over the true high school graduation rate in the United States, provides a comprehensive review of the debate, discusses shortcomings of current methods, and proposes new methods that address those shortcomings.
Teacher effectiveness is multifaceted, and policymakers need to consider many factors, not just annual test scores, in assessing teachers' contributions to student learning.
The Community Foundation of Shreveport-Bossier selected education, health, and poverty as the focus for funding related to children and families. This framework helps the Foundation prioritize investments by identifying the intersection of local needs, community assets, and national best practices.
Examines the contribution of family, school, and neighborhood factors to the racial achievement gap in education.
Examines the effects of family process variables (specific things families do) and family status variables (who families are) on the academic achievement and nonacademic outcomes of students, both in the United States and internationally.
The New York City Department of Education asked RAND to conduct a longitudinal evaluation of its 5th-grade promotion policy. The findings provide a comprehensive view of the policy's implementation and its impact on student outcomes.
This report, one in a series on the New York City Department of Education 5th-grade promotion policy, identifies lessons learned about policy design and implementation from top-level administrators in states and districts with similar policies.
This report, one in a series documenting RAND's evaluation of the New York City Department of Education 5th-grade promotion policy, identifies and reviews the relevant literature on grade retention.
Examines the financial benefits that taxpayers realize -- from increases in tax revenues and decreases in spending on social support programs and correctional facilities -- as a result of increases in students' educational attainment.
Chicago's multi-grade charter high schools (those serving students in grades 7-12, 6-12 or K-12) appear to improve their students' chances of graduating and attending college, as compared with the city's traditional public high schools.
Describes which groups of California's children are falling short of proficiency in English-language arts and mathematics in the early elementary grades and evaluates the potential for well-designed preschool programs to close achievement gaps.
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