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Academic Achievement Gap

Commentary

Commit Now to Get Summer Programming Right

When summer programs are targeted to needs, intentionally designed, and well attended, they produce positive outcomes in math and reading. But these programs need federal support, and they require early planning.

Apr 15, 2021
Report

Adapting Course Placement Processes in Response to COVID-19 Disruptions: Guidance for Schools and Districts

Because of the pandemic, spring 2020 end-of-year assessments were canceled and schools began the 2020-2021 year without assessment data. The authors compare three strategies to estimate missing test scores and help with course placement decisions.

Feb 16, 2021
Journal Article

Inequality in Household Adaptation to Schooling Shocks: Covid-induced Online Learning Engagement in Real Time

Using internet searches, we study real-time demand for online learning resources. Internet searches for online learning resources doubled during the pandemic. Increases were larger in are as with higher income and better internet access. The pandemic will likely widen achievement gaps along these dimensions.

Feb 3, 2021
Report

Do Teachers Perceive That Their Main Instructional Materials Meet English Learners' Needs? Key Findings from the 2020 American Instructional Resources Survey

In this Data Note, researchers draw on data from the spring 2020 American Instructional Resources Survey to examine teachers' perceptions of how their main materials meet the needs of English learners.

Jan 27, 2021
Report

Every Summer Counts: A Longitudinal Analysis of Outcomes from the National Summer Learning Project

This seventh report in a series presents longitudinal findings on the effectiveness of voluntary summer learning programs in five school districts. The authors also offer implications for policy on narrowing the achievement gap between students.

Dec 17, 2020
Multimedia

COVID-19 and the Digital Divide: Inequities in Online Learning

RAND senior policy researcher Julia Kaufman explains how the digital divide impacted teaching and learning when schools closed last spring in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Oct 16, 2020
Report

The Digital Divide and COVID-19

Findings from a survey of U.S. teachers reveal how limited home internet access has been a barrier to providing instruction amid pandemic-related school closures. The problem is particularly acute among high-poverty schools.

Sep 24, 2020
Journal Article

Educational Attainment and Perceived Need for Urgent Care

This article presents analyses of perceived need for urgent care among seniors.

Aug 27, 2020
Journal Article

School's Out: The Role of Summers in Understanding Achievement Disparities

We use a novel data set with more than 200 million test scores for students across the United States to explore whether the "fanning out" of achievement from Grades 1 to 8 occurs while students are in school or during the intervening summers.

Jul 28, 2020
Journal Article

Not Where You Start, but How Much You Grow: An Addendum to the Coleman Report

The Coleman Report (1966) first suggested that schools play a relatively small part in shaping students' achievement. The results in this paper suggest a need to update this conventional wisdom.

Jul 28, 2020
Report

Using Data to Support the Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching Initiative: Data Collection, Metric and Dashboard Creation, and Lessons Learned

The Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching initiative was a multiyear effort to improve student outcomes by increasing access to effective teaching. The authors discuss challenges in measuring effectiveness and how the team addressed them.

Mar 5, 2020
Report

Investing in Successful Summer Programs: A Review of Evidence Under the Every Student Succeeds Act

This report, which provides a systematic review of the evidence supporting summer programs and descriptions of evidence-based programs, is intended to provide guidance regarding the effectiveness of summer interventions.

Jun 5, 2019
Journal Article

Pittsburgh Equity Indicators: A Baseline Measurement for Enhancing Equity in Pittsburgh

The Pittsburgh Equity Indicators assess annual progress toward equitable opportunities and outcomes for Pittsburghers of all races, genders, and incomes. The 2017 report summarizes baseline equality scores, which measure disparities in Pittsburgh.

Apr 24, 2019
Journal Article

Pittsburgh Equity Indicators: A Baseline Measurement for Enhancing Equity in Pittsburgh

The 2018 Pittsburgh Equity Indicators report in enables the comparison of two years of data to measure change in disparities. The report includes information on equality scores for 2017 and 2018, as well as "change scores" between years.

Apr 24, 2019
Commentary

The Potential for Early Years Programmes to Close the Disadvantage Gap Is Under-Examined

Many schools are looking to close the disadvantage gap in their communities, but they need more evidence about what actually works. Research that helps policymakers and practitioners understand how early years interventions can promote equity and close the disadvantage gap is needed.

Oct 12, 2018
Research Brief

Does School Choice Mean Students Attend Better Schools? The Case of Post–Hurricane Katrina New Orleans

Researchers examined school choice outcomes in New Orleans following 2005's Hurricane Katrina, including exit patterns of students across sectors and school types in New Orleans and the destination schools of mobile students.

Jun 22, 2017
Research Brief

The Economic Returns from Investing in Early Childhood Programs in the Granite State

We assessed investments in early childhood programs in New Hampshire, summarizing benefits and economic returns of three early intervention strategies and estimating costs and benefits of statewide investments in programs for at-risk children.

Feb 15, 2017
Report

The Costs and Benefits of Investing in Early Childhood in New Hampshire

Stakeholders in the public and private sectors in New Hampshire have been focused on investments in young children. What do they need to know?

Feb 15, 2017
Journal Article

Family Functioning and Predictors of Runaway Behavior Among At-Risk Youth

Adolescent runaway behavior is associated with a range of negative consequences in young adulthood. Therefore, this study aimed to examine predictors of running away in at-risk youth.

Oct 12, 2016
Research Brief

A Costly Divide: The Economic Impact of Gaps in Student Performance in Pennsylvania

Analysis of Pennsylvania public school student performance showed significant achievement gaps for subgroups defined by race-ethnicity and family economic status. Closing these gaps would produce considerable economic benefits.

Dec 17, 2015

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Research conducted by

RAND Education and Labor

Researcher Spotlight

Sabrina Lee

Ph.D. Student, Pardee RAND Graduate School, and Assistant Policy Researcher, RAND

SoHyun Sabrina Lee (she/her) is a Ph.D. student in the Community-Partnered Policy and Action stream at Pardee RAND Graduate School and an assistant policy analyst at RAND. Her research interests include community health and well-being, educational equity, academic opportunity gap, education…
Heather Gomez-Bendaña

Assistant Policy Researcher, RAND

Heather Gomez-Bendaña (she/her/ella) is an assistant policy researcher at RAND and a Ph.D candidate at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. Her research interests include social determinants of health, health care access, health disparities, health care quality, academic achievement gaps, education…

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