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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

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

Teachers Matter: Understanding Teachers' Impact on Student Achievement

The author articulates how research suggests that teachers are important to student achievement and how statistical methods can provide valuable but imprecise estimates of teacher effectiveness.

Dec 4, 2019
Report

Student Growth Percentiles 101: Using Relative Ranks in Student Test Scores to Help Measure Teaching Effectiveness

The author defines student growth percentiles (SGPs) and discusses how they are used to rank student test-score growth compared with peers and to produce a score for a teacher.

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
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

Teachers' Broad Impact: Understanding How Teachers Influence Students They Do Not Teach

The author discusses the potential ways that teachers can affect students whom they do not teach and how research suggests that a teacher's indirect reach could account for a large proportion of his or her overall contribution to student learning.

Dec 4, 2019
Report

Value-Added Modeling 101: Using Student Test Scores to Help Measure Teaching Effectiveness

The author discusses the use of value-added models (VAMs) to estimate teacher contribution to student progress, account for students' prior characteristics, and enable relative judgments, as well as the limitations of VAMs.

Dec 4, 2019
Report

How Prepared Are Educators to Support Diverse Students?

Most principals and teachers surveyed agreed that their preservice training prepared them to lead a school or teach in a classroom, but just over 60 percent of them felt prepared to support nonwhite and low-income students. White educators felt less prepared than their nonwhite peers.

Jul 25, 2019
Multimedia

Principal Pipelines: A Feasible, Affordable, and Effective Way to Improve Schools

A recent RAND report found that implementing “principal pipelines”—a strategic approach to the hiring, preparation, evaluation, and support of school leaders—can improve schools. In this congressional briefing, Susan Gates discusses the feasibility, effectiveness, and affordability of principal pipelines.

Jun 17, 2019
Report

Report

Raising the Bar for K–12 Academics: Early Signals on How Louisiana's Education Policy Strategies Are Working for Schools, Teachers, and Students

This report, part of a four-part series on the implementation and outcomes of Louisiana's education initiatives, focuses on Louisiana's strategies to support and improve K-12 academics.

Jun 11, 2019
Report

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
Research Brief

How Teacher Effectiveness Spills Over into Other Classrooms

Teachers' effectiveness ripples out beyond their own students and affects the experiences of their pupils' future peers. Ignoring these "spillover" effects underestimates a teacher's value by at least 30 percent.

May 28, 2019
Journal Article

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
News Release

News Release

Principal Pipelines Benefit Students, Reduce Principal Turnover

Districts can improve schools—including boosting student achievement in reading and math—by better preparing, selecting, evaluating, and supporting principals.

Apr 8, 2019

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RAND Topic:
Academic Achievement

Research conducted by

RAND Education and Labor