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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
Getting Students to and Through Advanced Math
Students who take precalculus, calculus, and advanced placement math classes get a leg up when it comes to securing college admission and careers in STEM fields. But a large portion of U.S. high school students don't take advanced math. What explains this gap, and what can be done to close it?
Apr 17, 2023
Essay
A Four-Day School Week? Here Are the Costs and Benefits
Hundreds of small school districts across America have cut one day a week from their calendars. A shorter school week helps them compete for teachers and reduce costs. Teachers and parents love it. But is it really in the best interests of students?
Aug 31, 2023

Explore Education Policy

Research Brief
Adapting to the New Normal: Educating Syrian Refugee Children in Jordan
RAND's evaluation of Jordan's Emergency Education Response Programme for Syrian refugee children identified significant successes and longer-term challenges. Key recommendations related to developing medium-term thinking and targeting gendered needs.
Sep 19, 2016
Report
Evaluation of the Emergency Education Response for Syrian Refugee Children and Host Communities in Jordan
RAND's evaluation of Jordan's Emergency Education Response Programme for Syrian refugee children identified significant successes and longer-term challenges. Key recommendations related to developing medium-term thinking and targeting gendered needs.
Sep 19, 2016
Commentary
What Does the Stern Review Mean for the Research Excellence Framework?
The Stern Review's release at the end of July raised two pertinent questions about the Research Education Framework. What purposes does the REF serve? And does it offer good value for money for the UK's higher education institutions?
Sep 6, 2016
Report
Options for Investing in Access to High-Quality Preschool in Cincinnati
Like many other major American cities, Cincinnati is seeking to expand access to and raise the quality of preschool programs, especially for its most vulnerable kids. What are the city's options?
Aug 16, 2016
Commentary
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.
Aug 1, 2016
Journal Article
Teaching Practices and Language Use in Two-Way Dual Language Immersion Programs in a Large Public School District
This article provides a descriptive view of what is happening in two-way dual language immersion classrooms in a large, urban U.S. school district.
Jul 28, 2016
Commentary
Inspiring Better Teacher Planning and Instruction or Just Adding Noise?
Teachers can and should have the freedom to select and develop at least some of their own instructional resources. But whether sites like Amazon Inspire will actually save teachers time and help them find high-quality resources is up for debate.
Jul 20, 2016
Journal Article
Intention-to-treat Analysis in Partially Nested Randomized Controlled Trials with Real-World Complexity
Randomized Control Trials have become the 'gold standard' of education research and an integral part of the 'what works' agenda.
Jun 10, 2016
Journal Article
Detracking and Tracking Up: Mathematics Course Placements in California Middle Schools, 2003–2013
Between 2003 and 2013, the proportion of California eighth graders enrolled in algebra or a more advanced course nearly doubled to 65%. In this article, we consider the organizational processes that accompanied this curricular intensification.
Jun 1, 2016
Commentary
The Opt-Out Reckoning
Criticism of standardized testing is nearly as old as the testing itself. Will the opt-out movement promote meaningful and enduring changes in the educational system, and will these changes benefit the most at-risk and disadvantaged students?
May 10, 2016
Research Brief
How Different Pension Policies Can Impact Teacher Retention
A dynamic retention model can help policymakers concerned with mounting pension costs estimate and analyze the relationship between different retirement benefit policies and retention over the career of Chicago public school teachers.
May 2, 2016
Report
Retirement Benefits and Teacher Retention
There is little capacity to predict how recent pension reforms and changes to teacher compensation will affect teacher turnover and teacher experience mix—and in turn—potentially impact the cost and efficacy of the public education system. Research using a structural modeling approach may begin to fill that gap.
May 2, 2016
Report
Building the Future: Summary of Four Studies to Develop the Private Sector, Education, Health Care, and Data for Decisionmaking for the Kurdistan Region — Iraq
This report summarizes four studies intended to help the Kurdistan Regional Government expand access to good education and health care, increase private-sector development, and design a data-collection system to support high-priority policies.
Mar 17, 2016
News Release
Teachers Reported Moderate Concerns and Need for Additional Professional Development Prior to 2015 Testing
The new Common Core State Standards changed expectations for what students should learn in English language arts and mathematics, and what teachers should know and teach in their classroom. Prior to the first round of K-12 standardized testing in 2015, most teachers had concerns about test difficulty and low student performance.
Feb 1, 2016
Commentary
Battered by War, Syrian Refugee Kids Need to Be Taught
More than 700,000 Syrian refugee children are not receiving formal education. Host countries are struggling to create enough spaces to accommodate them in schools, and there are no formal programs to teach children who have missed years of instruction.
Jan 15, 2016
Journal Article
Considering Valuation of Noncognitive Skills in Benefit-Cost Analysis of Programs for Children
In this paper, we review the state of valuation of key noncognitive skills that are often targeted in social policy intervention directed toward children in youth.
Jan 4, 2016
Commentary
Analysing 'High Performance' Research Units in Higher Education
The characteristics that are central to high performance are people—as in recruiting and retaining the best—and the culture and values within the department, coupled with the leadership displayed.
Dec 4, 2015
News Release
Urgent Attention Is Needed to Improve Education for Refugee Children from Syria
Only half of Syrian refugee children have access to education, with nearly 700,000 not attending any formal education in Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan. Classes are overcrowded and teachers are inexperienced in handling classroom conditions that include traumatized students, some of whom have missed years of school.
Nov 23, 2015
Report
Urgent Attention Is Needed to Improve Education for Syrian Refugee Children
Only half of Syrian refugee children have access to education, with nearly 700,000 not receiving any formal instruction in Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan. Classes are overcrowded and teachers are inexperienced in handling classroom conditions that include traumatized students, some of whom have missed years of school.
Nov 23, 2015
Journal Article
Independent Evaluation of California's Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge Quality Rating and Improvement System: Half-Term Report
This half-term report presents findings which focus on the Validity and Reliability Study of California's RTT-ELC quality and improvement system (QRIS).
Nov 19, 2015

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Research conducted by

Researcher Spotlight

Lawrence M. Hanser

Senior Behavioral Scientist

Lawrence M. Hanser (he/him) is a senior behavioral scientist at the RAND Corporation. He previously served as associate director of the Manpower, Personnel, and Training Program within RAND Project AIR FORCE.
Katie Tosh

Adjunct Policy Analyst

Katie Tosh (she/her) is a senior policy analyst at the RAND Corporation. Her research interests include the design, implementation, and evaluation of education and health programs and policies. She is particularly interested in quality improvement and systems change. She is skilled at planning…

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