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Student Achievement

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The hallmark of a successful education system is increasing or maintaining high student achievement. RAND research measures the effects of various types of school reforms on student achievement, with recent studies focusing on charter schools, No Child Left Behind, reform-oriented teaching, and classroom sizes.

Research Brief

The Promise of Community Schools

Jan 28, 2020

The New York City Community Schools Initiative is based on a holistic strategy of education reform. Academics, health and wellness, youth development, and family engagement are integrated into each school. This approach had positive effects on most of the examined student outcomes.
Essay

Investing in Principals Helps Students Succeed

Jul 5, 2019

Hiring good principals is one of the most important things a district can do for its students, second only to hiring good teachers. Students whose schools participated in a principal pipeline initiative outperformed their peers by six percentage points on reading tests and nearly three points in math.

Explore Academic Achievement

Report

Report

Evaluation of Families Forward Learning Center: Participant Perspectives and Student Outcomes

In this report, the authors examine how participants in the Families Forward Learning Center (FFLC)'s two-generation learning program perceive its benefits and compare FFLC children's educational outcomes through third grade with their peers'.

Aug 3, 2020
Research Brief

Research Brief

A Two-Generation Learning Program Educates and Empowers Parents and Children: An Assessment of Families Forward Learning Center in Pasadena, California

This brief summarizes how participants in the Families Forward Learning Center (FFLC)'s two-generation learning program perceive its benefits, and also compares FFLC children's educational outcomes through third grade with their peers' results.

Aug 3, 2020
Journal Article

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

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
Essay

The COVID Slide: How to Help Students Recover Learning Losses

Research shows that summer breaks contribute to income-based achievement and opportunity gaps for youth. How can we use what we know about summer learning to help kids in the age of COVID-19?

Jul 9, 2020
Report

Taking Stock of Principal Pipelines

To what extent do U.S. school districts view school principals as a key lever for school improvement? Superintendents and senior officials from a national sample of school districts shared their views on principal pipelines and the priority their districts place on them.

Jun 23, 2020
Journal Article

Journal Article

Priming the Leadership Pipeline: School Performance and Climate Under an Urban School Leadership Residency Program

This study examines school climate and student achievement trends under an ambitious school leadership residency program in an urban school district.

Jun 16, 2020
Report

Data Access and Use Among Middle and High School Principals

School principals make countless decisions that could benefit from access to data in electronic data management systems. During the 2018–2019 school year, what kinds of student data did principals have access to through these systems? Were the data disaggregated by student race, ethnicity, and income?

Jun 11, 2020
Report

Report

Evidence on the Validity, Reliability, and Usability of the Measuring and Improving Student-Centered Learning (MISCL) Toolkit: Key Takeaways and Lessons on Developing Tools for School Improvement

This report summarizes a study on the validity, reliability, and usability of the Measuring and Improving Student-Centered Learning Toolkit, which was developed to help high schools measure the extent of student-centered learning in classrooms.

Jun 8, 2020
Research Brief

Research Brief

Ensuring That the Measuring and Improving Student-Centered Learning Toolkit Is Easy to Use and Produces Accurate, Meaningful Results

This research brief summarizes the validity, reliability, and usability of the Measuring and Improving Student-Centered Learning Toolkit, which was developed to help high schools assess the extent of student-centered learning in their schools.

Jun 8, 2020
Journal Article

Journal Article

The Nuffield Early Language Intervention: Evaluation Report

An evaluation of the Nuffield Early Language Intervention observed 1,156 students across 193 schools through a randomised control trial. The study found the intervention added three months progress in language skills compared to non-participants.

May 5, 2020
Report

Report

A Team-Based Leadership Intervention in New York City Schools: An Evaluation of the Targeted Intensive School Support Program

This report describes findings from an evaluation of the implementation and effects of the Targeted Intensive School Support program. This program was implemented in New York City Department of Education schools by the NYC Leadership Academy.

Apr 24, 2020
Commentary

Is It Time to Rethink the Separation Between the High School and Postsecondary Systems?

We do not yet know how long or deep this economic downturn will be, or how the pandemic will affect the way we work and learn. But just as the post-coronavirus workplace is surely being re-envisioned, this crisis should motivate us to reconsider the structure of our educational system. Early college is a model that can help inform these discussions.

Apr 16, 2020
Research Brief

Research Brief

Financial Aid Can Help Low-Income Students Finish Two-Year College Programs

In Wisconsin, a state-funded grant helped the lowest-income college students meet living expenses and supported degree completion. A grant of $1,100 made graduation 9 percent more likely for students enrolled at technical colleges.

Mar 30, 2020
Report

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
Commentary

What LAUSD Can Learn from the New York City Community Schools Initiative

A study of New York City's community schools found improved academic performance, higher attendance, and other positive outcomes for disadvantaged students. This model could benefit similar efforts underway in Los Angeles, where 80 percent of students live in poverty.

Jan 28, 2020
Report

Illustrating the Promise of Community Schools: An Assessment of the Impact of the New York City Community Schools Initiative

This report presents the impact of the New York Community Schools Initiative (NYC-CS) through the 2017--2018 school year by assessing the effects along seven outcome domains based on student- and school-level characteristics.

Jan 28, 2020
Report

Report

Beyond Achievement: How Teachers Affect Outcomes Other than Test Scores

Research shows that teachers matter for both test and nontest score outcomes. Teachers who excel at raising test scores do not necessarily excel at improving other outcomes.

Dec 4, 2019
Report

Report

Measuring Teacher Effectiveness: Understanding Common, Uncommon, and Combined Methods

The author describes the three most-common methods for measuring teacher effectiveness in the United States and discusses the importance of carefully considering the ways that measures are combined to create an overall index.

Dec 4, 2019

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RAND Topic:
Academic Achievement

Research conducted by

RAND Education and Labor