Benjamin K. Master

'Grow Your Own' Prep Programs Can Improve Diversity of the Teaching Workforce

Black and Hispanic educators are much more likely than white educators to say they plan to leave the profession, threatening to exacerbate an already overwhelming lack of diversity. Local, “grow your own” alternative teacher preparation programs can help to strengthen the diversity of the teaching workforce, as well as enable districts to address broader staffing challenges.

Lost Learning and the Costs of COVID-19

President Biden's plan calls for $130 billion to help schools safely reopen and identifies summer school or other supports to help students compensate for lost learning time as permissible uses of this funding. Recent RAND research can shed light on how Congress might consider divvying up these funds to support students over the next year.

Report

Teaching and Leading: An Evaluation of the Impacts and Professional Trajectories of Teach For America Participants in Indianapolis

The authors quantify the impacts of Teach For America Indianapolis (TFA Indy) on student and school outcomes in the Indianapolis area, by evaluating the effectiveness and retention of TFA Indy teachers in comparison with other teachers.

Report

The BHP Foundation's Education Equity Program: Midterm Evaluation Findings (2018–2022)

In this midterm evaluation of the BHP Foundation's Education Equity program, the authors assess the program's impacts, share insights to inform its improvement, and provide recommendations for its strategy and theory of change.

Report

Developing Enabling Environments for Women's Access to Education and Vocational Opportunities: A Case Study of Policy Change Efforts Led by UN Women's Second Chance Education Programme in India

This case study traces the development of two efforts by UN Women's Second Chance Education Programme (SCE) in India to support policy changes that improve women's access to education and vocational opportunities.

Report

Engaging a Global Network to Curate and Disseminate Evidence About What Works to Improve Family-School Engagement: A Case Study of the Center for Universal Education's Family-School Engagement Playbook Effort

This case study describes the effort of the Brookings Institution's Center for Universal Education to produce and disseminate a Playbook that synthesizes evidence and promising strategies to improve family-school engagement.

Report

Exploring How Teach for All's Networks Connect Local Educational Organizations: A Case Study of Alumni Professional Connections in Peru

Using data from Enseña Perú, the Peru chapter of the global Teach for All network, the authors evaluated alumni professional interactions with each other and the extent to which these collaborations span organizations, sectors, and regions in Peru.

Report

Taking a Contextualized Approach to Synthesizing and Mobilizing Evidence to Improve Teaching and Learning: A Case Study of Queen Rania Foundation's Contextualized Teaching and Learning Toolkit Effort, Developed in Partnership with the Education Endowment Foundation

This case study features the efforts of the Queen Rania Foundation in Jordan to contextualize and mobilize the Education Endowment Foundation's Teaching and Learning Toolkit for a Middle East and North Africa audience.

Report

Widening the Pathway: Implementation and Impacts of Alternative Teacher Preparation Programs Across Three Contexts

The authors describe implementation of three alternative teacher preparation programs—called Teacher Effectiveness and Certification (TEACh) programs—and their effect on teacher recruitment, teacher retention, and student achievement.

Commentary

The Changing Nature of Entrepreneurship

Online platforms and services have helped increase entrepreneurship in the United States, but concentration in the online marketplace has created challenges for entrepreneurs. Can entrepreneurship remain a viable pathway to financial success?

Commentary

Equity in Entrepreneurship: Challenges and Opportunities

Inequities in wealth and access to capital diminish entrepreneurship start-up and success for women and racial and ethnic minorities. Policies to rectify these inequities could boost wealth accumulation among these groups and economic growth.

Report

Transforming Global Education Through Evidence: An Evaluation System for the BHP Foundation's Education Equity Global Signature Program—Executive Summary

This report is a summary of research for the evaluation of the BHP Foundation's Education Equity Global Signature Program.

Report

Transforming Global Education Through Evidence: An Evaluation System for the BHP Foundation's Education Equity Global Signature Program

In this report, researchers develop a framework to evaluate the BHP Foundation's Education Equity Global Signature Program, explain methods for assessing progress over five years, and present preliminary results after a year of evaluation.

Commentary

Entrepreneurship in America: Challenges and Opportunities

This Perspective describes recent trends in entrepreneurial activity in the United States. The trends show that entrepreneurial activity is declining and that the United States lags many other developed countries.

Report

COVID-19 Testing in K–12 Schools: Insights from Early Adopters

This report describes approaches that early adopters of COVID-19 testing in U.S. K–12 schools were using as of December 2020, highlighting key facilitators that made testing feasible, acceptable, and effective.

Journal Article

Developing School Leaders: Findings From a Randomized Control Trial Study of the Executive Development Program and Paired Coaching

This article presents the results of two randomized control trials evaluating the impacts of the National Center on Education and the Economy's Executive Development Program and coaching on schoolwide practices and performance.

Report

Growing Teachers from Within: Implementation, Impact, and Cost of an Alternative Teacher Preparation Program in Three Urban School Districts

The authors investigated implementation and costs of the Teacher Effectiveness and Certification (TEACh) initiative in three urban school districts, as well as the program's impact on teacher recruitment, job performance, and retention.

Research Brief

How Can Assistant Principals Be Trained as Instructional Leaders? Insights from the PLUS Program

This research brief summarizes study findings of a school leadership program and offers three recommendations for school districts and school leadership training programs to consider as they strive to improve instructional leadership effectiveness.

Report

Pathways to Instructional Leadership: Implementation and Outcomes from a Job-Embedded School Leader Training Program

The authors describe the initial implementation and impacts on staff and student outcomes of the Pathway to Leadership in Urban Schools program, which focused on newly hired school assistant principals, in one large urban district over four years.

Report

Effects of the Executive Development Program and Aligned Coaching for School Principals in Three U.S. States: Investing in Innovation Study Final Report

In this report, part of a series on professional development for school principals, the authors analyze the effects of a professional development program and paired coaching for middle school principals in three states.

Report

Putting Professional Learning to Work: What Principals Do with Their Executive Development Program Learning

This report presents findings from part of RAND's evaluation of the National Institute for School Leadership's Executive Development Program (EDP) for sitting school principals, focusing on how principals applied their EDP learning and coaching.

Report

Principal Pipelines: A Feasible, Affordable, and Effective Way for Districts to Improve Schools

This report describes the implementation of The Wallace Foundation's Principal Pipeline Initiative and its effects on student achievement, other school outcomes, and principal retention.

Report

Preparing School Leaders for Success: Evaluation of New Leaders' Aspiring Principals Program, 2012–2017

This report analyzes whether schools and students led by graduates of New Leaders‘ Aspiring Principals program outperformed comparison schools and students in the same district.

Report

Combining Entrepreneurship and Web Development for High School Students: A Pilot Evaluation of the Startup Tech Program and High School Students' College and Career Aspirations

This pilot evaluation of Startup Tech assesses whether 12th-grade students experienced either improved self-efficacy or changes in their college and career plans during the year in which they were in the program.

Journal Article

Teacher Workforce Developments: Recent Changes in Academic Competiveness and Job Satisfaction of New Teachers

Policy makers and school leaders are perennially concerned with the capacity of the nation's public schools to recruit and retain highly skilled teachers.

Report

Improving Teaching Effectiveness: Access to Effective Teaching: The Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching Through 2013–2014

This report attends to the distribution of effective teachers between low-income minority (LIM) and other students in Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching sites and what might explain changes in LIM students' access to effective teaching.

Research Brief

Trends in Access to Effective Teaching: The Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching Through 2013–2014

This brief summarizes a RAND Corporation evaluation of the effectiveness of key reforms of the Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching for low-income minority students in three public school districts and a charter management organization.

Report

Examining the Early Impacts of the Leading Educators Fellowship on Student Achievement and Teacher Retention

Presents findings from preliminary analyses of the Leading Educators Fellowship program, which is dedicated to training promising mid-career educators to lead their colleagues in pursuit of student success.

Journal Article

Staffing for Success: Linking Teacher Evaluation and School Personnel Management in Practice

Using unique data from an independently managed public charter school district, I explore the extent to which autonomous school administrators' formative evaluations of teachers predict a variety of future personnel decisions.

Journal Article

Effective Instructional Time Use for School Leaders: Longitudinal Evidence from Observations of Principals

This study examines the associations between leadership behaviors and student achievement gains using a unique data source: in-person, full-day observations of approximately 100 urban principals collected over 3 school years.

Journal Article

Different Skills? Identifying Differentially Effective Teachers of English Language Learners

Our findings lend support to the notion that general education teachers can develop valuable ELL-specific instructional skills.