RAND physician policy researcher Laura Faherty describes measures for reducing the transmission of COVID-19 in schools and the feasibility of implementing such measures.
Most U.S. schools are providing either fully remote or hybrid instruction as the pandemic continues to limit students' learning. Students are less prepared for grade-level work and those from vulnerable populations are most at risk of falling behind. Some 80 percent of teachers report burnout.
Researchers examine the expansion of Propel Schools, a small, regional charter school network in southwestern Pennsylvania, to describe the academic and behavioral experiences of continuing and expansion students from fall 2017 to spring 2020.
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.
Since the pandemic began, America's school districts have been offering more remote instruction options. This includes a ninefold increase in the number of districts running standalone virtual schools.
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.
During the pandemic, the percentage of districts offering weekend meals to eligible students nearly tripled. Nine of ten districts offered summer programs. More mental health services and computing devices will be provided to students in 2021–2022. But most academic programs won't change.
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.
This tool allows users to compare district leaders' responses to each question in the June 2021 survey. Bar charts display results for all respondents and by district type, locale, student racial and ethnicity composition, and district poverty level.
As the pandemic increased stress on educators, many indicated they planned to leave their jobs by the end of the 2020–2021 school year. Districts have also had budget concerns, knowing federal aid will expire. Neither of these crises has come to pass, but they might yet.
This report provides technical information about the June 2021 survey of the American School District Panel. The authors summarize districts' characteristics and the weighting process that they used to produce nationally representative estimates.
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.
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.
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?
Ohio has been a leader in scaling stackable credential programs since passing initial legislation on stackable credentials nearly 15 years ago. Over this time, Ohio saw strong growth in short-term credential programs. And most individuals who stacked credentials earned a degree.
Stackable credentials allow individuals with short-term credentials to build on them with additional credentials throughout their careers. The authors of this report examined educational programs in Ohio and earnings gains from stacking credentials.
The authors provide technical information about the sample and survey instrument, along with resultant descriptive data, for the COVID-19 surveys administered to principals and teachers via RAND's American Educator Panels in spring 2021.
About 42% of rural school districts in the United States offered fully in-person instruction as of February, compared with only 17% for urban districts. The opposite pattern held for fully remote learning: 29% of urban districts offered fully remote instruction compared with 10% of rural districts and 18% of suburban districts.
As of February 2021, only 17 percent of urban school districts—compared with 42 percent of rural districts—were offering fully in-person instruction. What are the implications of this disparity?
A total of 434 district leaders from school districts and charter management organizations (CMOs) took the second survey of the American School District Panel between January 21 and March 5, 2021. This tool presents weighted survey results that are nationally representative of school districts in the United States.
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.
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.
