To determine which interventions are most effective in improving student, teacher, and school performance, RAND researchers investigate a variety of approaches — including pay-for-performance incentives for educators, summer learning programs for disadvantaged students, training techniques for military personnel, and continuing education for adult learners. Metrics for assessing educational outcomes and the impact of national and local policies also are considered.
Many factors contribute to a student's academic performance, but research suggests that, among school-related factors, teachers matter most. What's less clear is how to measure an individual teacher's effectiveness. A new RAND Education website features fact sheets, blog posts, research briefs, and more on this important issue.
Commentary
If we want testing to exert beneficial effects on teaching and learning, we need to advocate for higher-quality tests and for evaluation and accountability systems that use multiple measures and do not rely exclusively on test scores, write Laura Hamilton and Gabriella C. Gonzalez.
Blog
Since their inception in 1992, charter schools have been a lightning rod for controversy in the education policy world. Research highlights the importance of moving beyond test scores and broadening the scope of measures that evaluate success in order to fully assess the performance of charter schools.
Journal Article
The career focus at magnet high schools seems to help students move through the indecision of adolescence and build a career identity. However, career magnet schools had a higher dropout rate than comprehensive high schools, and many of the programs were of poor quality.
Report
This report reviews the Excellence in Innovation for Australia Impact Assessment Trial in order to assess how well the universities identified and demonstrated impact, as well as how the process could be improved.
Journal Article
Qatar
— Jan 1, 2013
This chapter focuses on Qatar's education system, describing the laws and policies under which both public and non-public schools operate.
Commentary
Despite widespread agreement among parents, educators, employers and policymakers worldwide that students need skills like critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork and creativity, these skills are stubbornly difficult to teach and learn, write Anna R. Saavedra and V. Darleen Opfer.
Journal Article
The authors summarize nine lessons from the science of learning telling how students learn 21st-century skills and how pedagogy can address their needs.
Multimedia
Several factors–such as globalization, technology, migration, international competition, and changing markets–present new challenges in preparing today's students for work, citizenship, and life. V. Darleen Opfer discusses what we know about how students learn and about how to teach these skills in the 21st century.
Journal Article
In this paper, we outline a practical guide for policymakers interested in developing institutional performance measures for the higher education sector.
Report
Military family support programs have proliferated, but there has been little evaluation of whether the programs are meeting their key objectives. An examination of the curriculum, themes, and outcomes of Operation Purple found some positive effects from participation and helps lay the groundwork for future studies.
Report
Most California school districts with new flexibility about how to spend $4.5 billion in education funds opted to move most of the money into their general funds to balance budgets and avoid teacher layoffs.
News Release
Most California school districts with new flexibility about how to spend $4.5 billion in education funds opted to move most of the money into their general funds to balance budgets and avoid teacher layoffs.
Research Brief
Examines how California school districts responded to increased financial flexibility in the face of budget cut.
Report
Describes statewide patterns in California school district revenues and expenditures in light of a new state policy that increased flexibility over a large number of previously restricted categorical programs.
Blog
When kids go on summer vacation, their knowledge and skills suffer, with their performance dropping off, on average, one month from where they were when they left school in the spring. Such losses do not affect all kids equally, having the greatest effect on low-income students.
Research Brief
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.
Journal Article
Standards-based accountability (SBA) has been a primary driver of education policy in the United States for several decades.
Research Brief
Analysis of an incentive program that paid teachers bonuses based on their students' growth in achievement in mathematics, English language arts, science, and social studies showed no effect on student test scores in any of the subject areas.
Report
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.
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