John Rice

About

John Rice is the Director of the Regional Educational Laboratory West (REL West). Prior to his tenure as REL West Director, he served as Deputy Director and led the Nevada Education Research Alliance for REL West, where he directed collaborative research and analytic technical assistance projects in partnership with Clark County School District and Washoe County School District. In addition, he has led and managed large a number of evaluations at WestEd, including a statewide multi-year, mixed-methods evaluation of California’s Resource and Referral Centers for childcare providers, an evaluation of Michigan's School Improvement Grants that used a regression discontinuity design, and an evaluation of California’s Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) grant that used student growth modeling. Prior to joining WestEd, he managed evaluations of federal education programs at Institute of Education Sciences. He received a PhD in developmental psychology from the University of California, Irvine.
John Rice: jrice@wested.org

Associated IES Content

About REL West

Regional Educational Lab (REL) West partners with key stakeholders in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah to develop evidence that can inform consequential decisions about policy, programs, and practice.

Blog

New REL West Equity-Focused Partnerships Launching in 2022

The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) recently awarded the Regional Educational Laboratory West (REL West) contract for the 2022-2027 cycle. The REL?West team is looking forward to working in partnership with regional?education practitioners and policymakers over the next five years. Together, we will use data and research to address pressing issues to improve the lives of students, particularly students of color, English learners, and those who are economically disadvantaged.

Date published:

Feb 14, 2022

report Descriptive Study

California's Special Education Local Plan Areas: Funding Patterns, Inclusion Rates, and Student Outcomes

This study examined publicly available data from the 2016/17 school year. Since 2016/17, California's special education funding and policy contexts have continued to evolve. However, California may want to further examine which regionalized special education programs are implemented by SELPAs of different configurations and how they might benefit students in small districts. The state may also want to gather data to use in more complex analyses to better understand the outcomes that may be du...

Dec 27, 2021

Blog

A message from our director: REL West's COVID-19 response

As many of us involved with education continue to work from our homes, I want to let you know how REL West has been responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on our education systems. Our staff continue to be actively engaged with state and local education agencies in our region both directly and through our collaboration with the [Region 15 Comprehensive Center] (https://www.compcenternetwork.org/covid-19). Through the work of our nine partnerships, we are both moving forward with o...

Date published:

May 04, 2020

report Descriptive Study

Advanced Course Completion in Magnet and Comprehensive High Schools: A Study in Nevada's Clark County School District

The purpose of the study reported here was to explore the relationship between the type of high school attended (magnet versus comprehensive) and the likelihood of graduates having completed an advanced course, after accounting for students' prior achievement. In addition, the study examined the relationship between students' prior achievement and the likelihood of students completing an advanced course, and whether the nature of this relationship differs between different types of high schoo...

Nov 01, 2015

Grant

Blended Learning at Scale–Implementation and Analysis of Student Achievement in District of Columbia Public Schools

In this project, researchers from the University of Maryland at College Park (UMD) will partner with the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) to examine their district-wide implementation of blended learning in K-8 English Language Arts (ELA) classrooms. Blended learning that combines online and face-to-face instruction is a fast-rising strategy in public schools. However, blended learning programs can be implemented in many different ways, and with many different technology platforms...

Federal funding program:

Partnerships and Collaborations Focused on Problems of Practice or Policy

Award number:

R305H160071