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Education Policy

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Education policy includes laws as well as processes and policies that educational organizations, local districts, states, and nations put in place and follow to achieve academic goals. RAND analyses have informed education policy in the United States, United Kingdom, Qatar, and many other countries.

Research Brief

Surges in Undocumented and Asylum-Seeking Children Prompt Need for Better K–12 Policies

Sep 30, 2021

Growing numbers of children from Central America and Mexico are arriving in the United States. As of March 2020, 321,000 undocumented and asylum-seeking children were enrolled in public schools. How are the schools managing, and what could be done to help them better prepare to assist these students?
Commentary

How State Critical Race Theory Bans Could Trickle Down to the Classroom

Aug 31, 2021

Given the potential blowback to teaching anything related to race or gender, avoiding lessons on the experiences of women or people of color will be the path of least resistance in many schools. But discussing racism and sexism in a safe environment is crucial for students to become active, knowledgeable citizens.

Explore Education Policy

Report

The Rise of Standards-Aligned Materials for English Language Arts and Math Instruction: Findings from the American Instructional Resources Survey

Experts from the RAND Corporation and EdReports share new data from a national teacher survey during this one-hour webinar on some factors that may be leading to increases in use of standards-aligned instructional materials across the United States.

Dec 2, 2021
Report

Are Educators Considering Student Voice?

Asking students to voice their perceptions can provide valuable insights that adults in a school do not have access to, while also generating more student engagement in learning.

Nov 17, 2021
Report

Summer for All: Building Coordinated Networks to Promote Access to Quality Summer Learning and Enrichment Opportunities Across a Community

In this eighth report in RAND's Summer Learning Series, the authors chronicle early efforts in four communities to create coordinated approaches to summer programming, noting their challenges, enablers, and early outcomes.

Nov 10, 2021
Report

Seeking Balance in the Provision of Technical Assistance: Insights from the National Center to Improve Social and Emotional Learning and School Safety

The authors examine the first three years of operation for the Center to Improve Social and Emotional Learning and School Safety (CISELSS) and offer insights that might help guide efforts to continuously improve CISELSS's provision of supports.

Nov 9, 2021
Report

Learn Together Surveys: 2021 Technical Documentation and Survey Results

This report provides information about the sample, survey instrument, and results data for the 2021 Learn Together Surveys that were administered to secondary principals and teachers in March 2021 via the RAND Corporation's American Educator Panels.

Nov 2, 2021
Report

How Do Teachers Identify Supports for Struggling Students?

A survey of 6th- to 12th-grade teachers found that to determine academic needs they rely most often on information gathered from personal interactions with students and from students' performance. And more than half of them look to school and district colleagues first to learn about available interventions.

Nov 2, 2021
Journal Article

Professional Development Incentives for Oregon's Early Childhood Education Workforce: A Randomized Study

This study used two trials to test whether sending emails and offering different financial incentives to Oregon ECE workforce members increased career lattice sign-up and increased education and training levels or workplace retention.

Sep 24, 2021
Blog

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.

Sep 3, 2021
Report

The Future of New Jersey's Tuition Aid Grant: A Review of Options and Evidence

RAND Corporation experts prepared this report to address several key issues that are a priority for the New Jersey state government surrounding its Tuition Aid Grant (TAG) program for low-income college students.

Aug 5, 2021
Research Brief

How Does Corequisite Remediation Change Student Experiences? Results from a Randomized Study in Five Texas Community Colleges

Corequisite remediation for non–college-ready students provides early opportunities to earn credit, more-intensive instruction, greater rigor, greater alignment, and increased opportunities to learn from peers.

Mar 24, 2021
Report

Student Experiences in English Corequisite Remediation Versus a Standalone Developmental Education Course: Findings from an Experimental Study in Texas Community Colleges

In this report, researchers use data from a randomized control trial at five community colleges in Texas to examine contrasts in student experiences between corequisite remediation and standalone developmental education courses.

Mar 24, 2021
Journal Article

Constraints, Values, and Information: How Leaders in One District Justify Their Positions During Instructional Decision Making

We investigate how leaders support their interpretations of problems and proposed solutions during closed-door negotiations around three policy decisions, and how they invoke race, class, and language in the process.

Mar 2, 2021
Research Brief

Would Low-Income Students Graduate Faster with a Boost in Financial Aid? Results from a Natural Experiment in New Jersey

New Jersey's Tuition Aid Grant—the nation's most generous state-funded grant program per state resident college student—increased the rate of on-time bachelor's degree completion at public universities for low-income students who received it.

Feb 4, 2021
Report

Cutting the College Price TAG: The Effects of New Jersey's Tuition Aid Grant on College Persistence and Completion

RAND researchers studied more than 450,000 recipients of New Jersey's Tuition Aid Grant to explore whether larger amounts of grant aid led to higher graduation rates for students at varying income levels and types of institutions.

Feb 4, 2021
Journal Article

The Effect of Large-scale Performance-Based Funding in Higher Education

We analyze the effect of large-scale, high-stakes performance funding programs in Ohio and Tennessee. Using a difference-in-differences identification strategy along with a synthetic control approach, we find no evidence that these programs improve key academic outcomes.

Jan 26, 2021
Report

Evaluation of Delaware's Opportunity Funding and Student Success Block Grant Programs: Early Implementation

The authors examine the 2019-2020 implementation of two newly expanded Delaware weighted education funding programs, the Opportunity Fund and Student Success Block Grant, and emerging best practices, as reported by local education agency leaders.

Jan 21, 2021
Report

Using State-Level Policy Levers to Promote Principal Quality: Lessons from Seven States Partnering with Principal Preparation Programs and Districts

The authors examine how seven states are using state-level policy levers to improve the quality of school principals.

Nov 17, 2020
Project

Education Research at RAND Europe

Researchers at RAND Europe explore how different policies can support learning at every stage of life, helping organizations and policymakers develop more effective education practices that are inclusive and equitable for all.

Sep 2, 2020
Research Brief

How Can State Financial Aid Best Meet the Needs of Low-Income Students? The Wisconsin Case

The author of this brief analyzes the policy design, implementation, and outcomes of the Wisconsin Grant program.

Aug 31, 2020

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