Educational Institutions

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Federal Data Gaps on New Migrant Students Leave Schools Unable to Plan Ahead

Federal law requires U.S. public schools to serve all school-age children who come to their doors, no matter their immigration status. With thousands of children crossing the southern border each year, schools face complex challenges, foremost of which is simply knowing how many of these new students to expect.

Brian Phillips, Shelly Culbertson @SC_Culbertson

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U.S. Labor Market, 988 Hotline, Firearm Homicides: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on the U.S. economy’s uneven pandemic recovery, a new national mental health hotline, firearm homicides, and more.

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New Legislation May Not Be Enough to Counter Chinese Interference in British Universities

There is alarming evidence of growing Chinese espionage and influence in UK universities that could threaten UK national security and academic freedoms. Three complementary initiatives could increase university researchers' awareness of the potential risks of collaborating with certain Chinese partners.

Fiona Quimbre @FQuimbre

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Truth Decay, School Lunch Nutrition, Regulating Space: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on tackling Truth Decay, how tech experts view the military's use of artificial intelligence, a new approach to regulating outer space, and more.

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Employing Insurgency in Ukraine, U.S. Hospital Prices, Reaching the Middle Class: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on how insurgency could give Ukraine an edge over Russia, repurposing commercial buildings to help address L.A.’s housing crisis, Americans’ options for reaching the middle class, and more.

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If College Isn't the Pathway to the Middle Class It Once Was—What Is?

Is college still the best path to the middle class? It's complicated. College credentials still do lead many to increased earnings, but the rapid increases in college costs, coupled with a strong labor market, have made the payoff for a college degree no longer a sure thing.

Lindsay Daugherty

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Summer Learning Is More Popular Than Ever. How to Make Sure Your District's Program Is Effective

In the best of times, it is no small feat to put together a quality summer learning program. Given that districts are focusing not only on academic recovery from COVID learning loss, but on retaining teachers, supporting students' and teachers' mental health, and addressing increases in misbehavior, they need immediate, digestible guidance for summer programming.

Catherine H. Augustine, Heather L. Schwartz @schwartz_hl

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What Is Really Polarizing Schools Right Now?

Political polarization that rises to the level of interfering with schooling isn't simply a headache; it's a fundamental problem for public education. When there is deep disagreement over the essentials—what schools teach, how they keep children safe—schools are at risk of becoming ungovernable.

Heather L. Schwartz @schwartz_hl

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U.S. Failure in Afghanistan, Critical Race Theory Bans, Income Inequality: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on how early mistakes led to America's failure in Afghanistan, the potential effects of critical race theory bans, an art installation that breaks down RAND data on income inequality, and more.

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Just How Many Lives the Vaccines Have Saved, Afghanistan, Unemployment: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on the number of lives saved during the early U.S. vaccination effort, what leaving Afghanistan says about other U.S. commitments, global competition for virtual-reality dominance, and more.

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Insights on Afghanistan, Back to School, North Korea: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on the collapse in Afghanistan, what parents think about sending kids back to school, insights from game theory on North Korean denuclearization, and more.

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Next Year's Freshman: How Corequisites Might Help Address COVID-19 Learning Loss

As states and colleges look to address learning loss due to COVID-19, it is important that they not turn to traditional models of remediation that prevent students from directly entering college coursework. Instead, they should look to new, effective models of corequisite support.

Lindsay Daugherty, Trey Miller

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Charting a Path Forward for College Athletes to Receive Pay

The NCAA has long restricted what student athletes could receive in education-related benefits. But a recent Supreme Court ruling may be a step toward allowing athletes to access the income that their labor produces.

Jhacova Williams

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The Remote Learning Paradox: Some Educators, Parents Want to Keep Online Classes Option Even Though Instruction Suffered

Despite remote learning not going particularly well during the pandemic, about one-third of U.S. schools are keeping it as an option. Is remote learning a pandemic blip or a permanent feature of public education moving ahead?

Julia H. Kaufman @juliahkaufman, Heather L. Schwartz @schwartz_hl, et al.

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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.

Grace Evans, Heather L. Schwartz @schwartz_hl, et al.

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School District Leaders Indicate Online Instruction Will Outlast COVID-19. Here's What to Consider

Remote K–12 learning at scale is an unprecedented challenge for everyone involved. It can and would improve dramatically if educators, government, and philanthropy treated it as a work in progress, featuring evidence-based development of quality online curricula, continuous improvement, and engagement of teachers.

Heather L. Schwartz @schwartz_hl, Paul T. Hill

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Establishing a Wargaming Insurgency at the University

When properly employed, wargaming can serve as a potent experiential learning tool. If educational wargaming is to evolve and endure, a global wargaming insurgency may be required. This will likely demand additional time, effort, and energy, but if successful, the dividends could be remarkable.

Sebastian Joon Bae

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Schools and COVID-19, Health Care Resources, Leaving Afghanistan: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on allocating scarce but lifesaving resources during a pandemic, insights from America’s educators, the lopsided telework revolution, and more.

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Community College Enrollment Is Way Down. That Could Be Bad for Economic Recovery

Enrollment at America's community colleges is down by nearly 10 percent compared with before the pandemic, leaving community colleges in a perilous financial position. Without intervention, these institutions may not weather the storm.

Jenna W. Kramer @j_w_kramer, Shelly Culbertson @SC_Culbertson, et al.

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Do Children Really Transmit COVID-19 Less Than Adults? The Evidence Is Questionable

The theory that children are unlikely to contract or spread COVID-19 may feel reassuring, but it's based on flawed science. Until more is known, adopting aggressive strategies to limit viral spread in schools is the best way to keep students and teachers safe.

Laura F. Garabedian, Rebecca Lee Haffajee

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To Reopen Schools Safely, Prepare for New COVID-19 Test Capabilities

Safely reopening K–12 schools for in-person instruction requires complicated protocols ranging from symptom monitoring to physical distancing, as well as containment of transmission in the community. State policymakers and school leaders could begin planning now to draft, pilot, and evaluate protocols for reopening schools that incorporate rapid testing.

Peter S. Hussey, John J. Rydzewski

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Back to School: Working Parents Will Need Help from Employers

Reopening schools would provide much-needed child care for parents who need to work, help feed 30 million U.S. children, and prevent further inequitable learning losses. But it also means exposing more kids to the virus. How can families and employers prepare for the disruptions that lie ahead?

Charlene A. Wong, Laura J. Faherty @LauraFahertyMD

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College in America Could Be Changed Forever

COVID-19 is threatening to upend the models that both public and private higher education depend on in the United States. As universities consider whether to postpone in-person classes until next year, many parents and students may be questioning the value of a traditional higher education.

Charles A. Goldman, Rita T. Karam

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COVID-19's Effects on U.S. Schools, Vaccine Uptake, Small Businesses: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on how COVID-19 has affected U.S. schools, potential barriers to vaccine uptake, what small businesses need to survive, and more.

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How COVID-19 Affected the Nation's Schools: New Data Gives Insights for Planning

RAND surveyed teachers and principals to gauge how the pandemic has affected schooling, what supports these educators need, and how they are thinking about the next school year.

Laura S. Hamilton

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Coronavirus Outbreak Intensifies: Q&A with RAND Experts

Cases of the coronavirus have now spread to several dozens of countries, infecting thousands and thousands of people across the globe. With concerns about the disease rising, we asked a group of RAND researchers to answer a wide range of questions about the crisis.

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Iran, School Discipline, North Korea: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on the costs of U.S.–Iran confrontation, discipline reform in America's schools, why the North Korea problem is bigger than nukes, and more.

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Hong Kong, Education Reform, Baghdad: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on lessons for state education reform, retaining women in the U.S. Coast Guard, recounting the Battle for Baghdad, and more.

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Addressing the College Completion Problem

More than half of students who enter college end up dropping out without ever completing a degree or certificate. Time and money are wasted without the benefits of a degree. While colleges are experimenting with novel techniques to boost completion rates, strategic support from the federal government could further these efforts.

Lindsay Daugherty

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AI Bias, Opioids, Afghanistan: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on the danger of artificial intelligence bias, infants with opioid withdrawal symptoms, peace talks in Afghanistan, and more.

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National Database Could Help Students Pick College—and Income

A bill introduced in May would create a searchable database of students' college majors and earnings after graduation. The data could help U.S. students make informed decisions and could also be used to better allocate resources that benefit students.

Charles A. Goldman

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How Parents Can Find Out What They Need to Know in an Era of School Choice

To make an informed choice about schools, parents need to know about the quality of instruction, services, and the overall school climate. Schools need a better system of measuring and collecting data on performance, and a way to make it accessible to families.

Andrew McEachin, Laura S. Hamilton

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Community Colleges Can Be 'First Responders' in Retraining Displaced Workers

Many of the occupations with the most opportunities require two-year degrees or certificates. Community colleges play a key role in training students for these jobs and offer a supportive environment for displaced and dissatisfied workers.

Lindsay Daugherty

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Before We Measure Teaching Quality, We Should Know What It Is

The lack of an evidence base on teaching quality and its impact in higher education points to a need for more research, made more pressing by the imminent roll-out of the Teaching Excellence Framework, which intends to assess and monitor teaching quality at UK higher education institutions.

Lucy Strang

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The High Cost of Free College

Tuition subsidies may encourage institutions to raise tuition, since the government would foot the bill. One possible solution: develop and implement policies that encourage greater productivity from higher education institutions.

Trey Miller

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Reframing the 'Free College' Debate

Framing the future of college as a debate about whether it should be free is a lost opportunity to discuss what's really wrong with higher education in America—and a missed chance to help young Americans regain lost competitiveness in the workforce.

Diana Gehlhaus

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Implementing Education Reforms to Enhance School Performance

Although countries differ greatly in how their education systems are structured, financed, and the extent to which they are centralized, they share common obstacles that undermine reform success. Beyond the obvious steps of providing adequate resources and professional development, there are ways to improve the implementation of school-wide reforms.

Rita T. Karam

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The Shared Savings Model: An Innovative Way to Attack Rapidly Rising College Costs

The challenge facing policymakers is how to lessen the college cost pressure felt by families while incentivizing institutions to innovate to reduce cost and improve quality. What if cost savings from increased productivity were quantified and a portion returned to institutions?

Trey Miller, Van L. Davis

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Rethinking Student Discipline and Zero Tolerance

Restorative practices are an alternative to zero-tolerance school discipline policies. Rather than mandating prescribed punishments for specific misbehaviors, this more tailored approach aims to empower students.

Joie D. Acosta, Matthew Chinman, et al.

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America's College Promise: Meeting the Higher Education Challenge

President Obama's proposal to cover the costs of two years of community college offers hope to many American students, but two key challenges should be addressed: meeting the needs of underprepared students and devising a system to smooth the transfer of credits from one institution to another.

Trey Miller, Holly Kosiewicz

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College Ratings and Affordable Education

There are reasons to believe American students from the middle- and lower-income tiers aren't making affordable college choices. Can a new ratings system help them make better, more affordable decisions?

Rafiq Dossani