RAND Corporation
Associated IES Content
Grant
CALDER Recruitment & Retention (CALDER-R&R)
CALDER-R&R examines policies addressing teacher shortages and their impact on teachers, student learning, and equity. Two important perspectives undergird the Center's work. First is the understanding that teacher shortages are not a single phenomenon. Instead, they exist in specific subject areas (for example, science and mathematics), among teachers from specific backgrounds (for example, teachers from historically marginalized racial and ethnic backgrounds), in specific schools (for e...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305C240007
Grant
Exploring Student Pathways Through Rural High Schools and Into Postsecondary Education
The project team will examine gaps between the educational experiences and attainment of students in rural and nonrural areas to identify policy leverage points and malleable factors that can improve geographic equity in student achievement and access to postsecondary education. Students in rural areas are less likely to earn a college degree than their peers in nonrural locales, and they often face unique constraints in access to school resources and postsecondary education. Despite compris...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A240147
Grant
Closing the Opportunity and Achievement Gaps in College and Career Readiness for Nevada Students
This project will examine the opportunity gaps that Nevada's Hispanic and English learner (EL) students face in reaching college and career readiness. EL and Hispanic students in the United States and Nevada have more limited access to advanced courses, lower levels of academic achievement, and lower high school graduation rates than their peers. They are also less likely to earn a college degree and often face constraints in accessing K-12 school resources (e.g., dollars per student spent o...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305S230005
Grant
Using Colorado Longitudinal Data to Address Food Insecurity and Support Equity in Postsecondary Education and Training
This project will inform Colorado's efforts to increase college attainment by supporting students' needs for food and related human services. Many college students struggle with food insecurity, and evidence increasingly suggests that food insecurity can act as a barrier to postsecondary success. Colorado state agencies and postsecondary institutions are looking for ways to expand student participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to ensure that students receive nu...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305S230002
Grant
Efficacy of Zearn Math
Zearn Math has shown promise for improving student mathematics achievement, but its efficacy has not yet been established through a rigorous, well-powered evaluation. Researchers at the non-profit RAND Corporation (RAND) will evaluate the efficacy of Zearn Math for improving student mathematics outcomes in grades 3 to 5. The study will employ a randomized controlled trial, complemented by studies of implementation and cost. RAND will conduct this evaluation independently of Zearn, the non-pr...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A230170
Grant
Promoting Adolescents' Social, Emotional, and Academic Development with a Blended Curriculum: An Early Efficacy Study
Programs to support social and emotional learning (SEL) in high school are critical. High school students often report that social and emotional problems make learning difficult, and positive SEL may play a key role in reducing problem behaviors, improving attendance, and promoting academic achievement. However, high school SEL programs are generally less effective than programs geared towards elementary students, which may reflect the fact that many programs offered in high schools are modi...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A220384
Grant
Effectiveness Replication of Enhanced Core Reading Instruction (ECRI)
The goal of this project is to conduct a replication study of Enhanced Core Reading Instruction (ECRI), a comprehensive approach to early reading instruction and intervention for students from kindergarten through second grade. ECRI has been implemented in thousands of schools across the U.S., and prior efficacy studies have shown beneficial impacts on broad measures of students' reading outcomes. However, the impact of ECRI has not been evaluated under routine implementation conditions. The...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R324R210009
Contract
Study of Strategies to Address Unfinished Learning in Math
The coronavirus pandemic led to substantial unfinished learning in math and an important debate about how best to address it. Traditionally, policymakers and educators have advocated a "broad foundation skill building" approach, which systematically reteaches all below-grade content where there are knowledge gaps. "Just-in-time skill building" has received attention more recently, including in the U.S. Department of Education's <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/documents/coronavirus/reopening-2.pdf
Federal funding program:
Contract number:
91990021D0001
Grant
An Evaluation of the Efficacy of Virtual Enterprises
For this project, the research team will provide evidence on the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of Virtual Enterprises (VE), a virtual work-based learning (WBL) program. Many high schools are struggling to ensure that all graduates are prepared for college and the workforce, and employers consistently report difficulty in finding workers with sufficient employability skills, such as teamwork and communication. A growing number of education practitioners and researchers have argued that inco...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A210198
Grant
Using Student Achievement Data to Monitor Progress and Performance: Methodological Challenges Presented by COVID-19
The RAND Corporation and the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) identified promising analytic methods for practitioners, policymakers, and researchers to adapt and respond to COVID-19-induced disruptions to student assessment programs. These methods are to help with decisions often based on student test scores regarding -
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305U200006
Grant
Connecting Community College Students to Public and Community Resources: An Experimental Evaluation of Single Stop
Studies indicate that many college students face major issues with financial and basic needs insecurity. Colleges are increasingly looking for ways to help students to address the life challenges they face that act as barriers to successful degree and certificate completion. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the implementation, impact, and costs of a widely used intervention designed to support such students called Single Stop.
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A200101
Grant
Using Machine Learning Methods to Improve Regression Discontinuity Designs
The purpose of this project is to develop an approach that incorporates machine learning methods into a regression discontinuity design to improve precision and reduce bias in the treatment effect estimates.
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305D200008
Grant
Does Incentivizing Value-Added Make it More or Less Meaningful?
The purpose of this project was to explore how the malleable incentives implicit in teacher tenure policy are related to teacher practice and student achievement by estimating whether the predictiveness of the incentivized measures changes after they become incentivized.
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A190148
Grant
Mapping Workforce Certificate and Degree Pathways in Ohio: Are Postsecondary Training Opportunities Setting Students Up for Success?
This project sought to improve student progression through stackable credential pipelines -sequences of aligned credentials that connect from short-term certificates to a bachelor's degree and beyond in a chosen field. The partnership team assessed growth in stackable credential programs in health, manufacturing, and information technology; patterns of credential-stacking; and earnings outcomes for individuals who stacked credentials. Based on these findings, the team developed an agenda for...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305H190033
Grant
The Evaluation of Career and College Promise
In this project, the partnership will examine the implementation, impact, and cost of all components of Career and College Promise (CCP), a set of three structured dual enrollment pathways in North Carolina (College Transfer, Career and Technical Education, and Cooperative Innovative High Schools, which includes early colleges). The partnership will build the capacity of the participating state agencies to support a cross-sector research agenda; allow for an in-depth and comprehensive respon...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305H190036
Grant
Efficacy of Viridis Learning Tool: A Technology-Based Approach to Advising and Job Matching
The purpose of this project is to assess the efficacy of the Viridis tool, a multi-platform software application designed to facilitate credential completion and subsequent job placement for community college students enrolled in one-year occupational certificate programs. Although significant increases in wages and job quality are associated with certificate completion, many students do not complete a credential of any kind before exiting community college. Unfinished occupational credentia...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A180377
Grant
An Experimental Evaluation of Corequisite Developmental Education in Texas
The partnership assessed whether placing incoming college students testing near college-ready in writing into a corequisite model that paired a college-level English Composition I course with a concurrent developmental education support produced higher rates of college success than requiring these students to complete a developmental (remedial) Integrated Reading and Writing course prior to enrolling in credit-bearing courses. The evaluation responded to prior research evidence showing that ...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305H170085
Grant
The Impact of New Mexico's Teacher Evaluation System on Student Academic Outcomes
Twenty-six States and the District of Columbia use high-stakes teacher evaluation systems to assign teachers who are rated "ineffective" and "minimally effective" to mandatory professional growth plans (PGPs). However, evidence on the impact of these policies on student academic and socio-behavioral outcomes is limited. Researchers will examine the impact of teachers being assigned PGPs on the outcomes of K-12 students and their teachers throughout the State of New Mexico. Researchers will a...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A160223
Grant
Continuous Improvement Research to Support the Implementation of a Statewide Reform to Postsecondary Developmental Education—A RAND-THECB Research Partnership
This partnership engaged in continuous improvement strategies and research to help Texas colleges develop and implement effective approaches to complying with the state's developmental education reform policy. Historically, institutions have committed substantial resources to developmental education to prepare students for college-level coursework, yet many students never completed their developmental course sequence or moved on to credit-bearing coursework. Low rates of success in developme...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305H150069
Grant
Efficacy of ALEKS for Improving Student Algebra Achievement
The purpose of this project is to evaluate the efficacy of Assessment and LEarning in Knowledge Spaces (ALEKS), a fully developed digital curriculum supplement for Algebra 1. For an entire academic year, students will use ALEKS daily for approximately half of the district's 90-minute algebra class period. Remaining class time will be led by the classroom teacher, employing traditional classroom activities informed by data provided by ALEKS, based on the students' usage.
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A140221
Grant
Designing a RCT Experiment to Test the Impact of Innovative Interventions and Policies for Postsecondary Developmental Education: A RAND—TX Higher Education Coordinating Board Research Partnership
The primary aim of the proposed partnership was to bring together the THECB and RAND Corporation to conduct preliminary research to determine which DEDP programs appeared to be most effective. They recruited potential research sites for subsequent evaluations and developed successful IES proposals to support the improvement and evaluation of the efficacy of the interventions.
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305H130026
Grant
Evaluation of the Long-Term Effects of Retention under New York City's Student Promotion Policy
A growing number of states and school districts have established policies that link grade promotion decisions to standardized test performance. The assumption underlying such policies is that an additional year of instruction in the same grade will help struggling students acquire the skills needed to succeed in future grades. Grade retention remains highly controversial and considerable uncertainty exists regarding the causal effect of retention on student outcomes. The researchers will ex...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305E120006
Grant
The Effect of Dual-Language Immersion on Student Achievement in the Portland Public Schools
Dual-language immersion programs seek to help the growing number of language minority students learn English and achieve academically, while giving language majority students the opportunity to develop proficiency in another language. These programs differ fundamentally from traditional foreign language programs in two important ways: 1) teachers deliver regular curricular content through a "partner language" (such as Spanish or Russian), but do not generally teach the partner language direc...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305E120003
Grant
Estimation and Inference in Education Research when Actions by Participants Impact Validity and Availability of Data
The project developed methods for estimation and inference in education research when actions by participants impact validity and availability of data. Specifically, the researchers addressed the impacts of participant actions in two research designs: differential attrition in lottery designs and manipulation of the assignment variable in regression discontinuity designs. The researchers used data from the Pittsburgh Public School’s magnet program to address attrition in lottery design...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305D090016
Grant
Reducing Bias and Improving Efficiency of Estimated Teacher Effects from Value-Added Models
Value-added models (VAMs) use longitudinal student-level test score data and complex statistical models to generate estimates of the effects of individual teachers on student learning. This holds the promise of providing fair comparisons of teachers teaching different types of students. These estimates have heightened interest in teachers' roles in student academic outcomes. There has been rapidly growing interest among policymakers to use these measures for high-stakes decisions about teach...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305D090011
Grant
Modeling Longitudinal Effects of New York City's 5th Grade Promotion Policy on Student Achievement through a Regression Discontinuity Design
This project will examine the effects of grade retention and supportive interventions under the promotion policy currently in place for 5th graders in New York City. This project is taking place within an already existing larger evaluation of the New York City promotion policy and is focusing specifically on the subset of at-risk students who qualify for support in both English and math. These students have been left out of similar past studies but are to be included in this study through th...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A090039
Grant
Simultaneous Statistical Inference in Evaluating Teacher Performance
There is widespread interest in using student achievement data to evaluate the performance of individual schools for accountability. Such evaluations are the capstone of many federal and state education policies. Currently there is also increasing interest in using sophisticated value-added models (VAM) as a part of the evaluations for individual teachers as well as schools, and using the measures for a variety of purposes including merit pay. Evaluation systems based on value-added measures...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305U080003
Grant
Effectiveness of Cognitive Tutor Algebra One Implemented at Scale
The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of the Cognitive Tutor® Algebra I curriculum on mathematics achievement when the curriculum was implemented at scale. Although many educators recognize the need for improved mathematics instruction, school staff currently have few evidence-based options from which to choose. Therefore, this study addresses the need for scale-up evaluations of mathematics curriculums.
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A070185
Grant
National Center for Performance Incentives (Policy-NCPI)
The purpose of the National Center on Performance Incentives (NCPI) was to conduct a focused program of education research on the impact of teacher incentives on student and teacher outcomes.
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A060034
Grant
Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST)
The National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) has been at the forefront of efforts to improve the quality of education and learning in America. Located within UCLA's Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, CRESST contributes to the development of scientifically based evaluation and testing techniques, encourages the development, validation and use of sound data for improved accountability and decision making, and explores technological ap...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A050004
Grant
Experimental Field Study of Cognitive Tutor Geometry Curriculum
In this study, researchers obtained evidence on the effectiveness of Cognitive Tutor Geometry, a high school geometry curriculum that has shown promise in earlier quasi-experimental studies. The program combines individualized tutorial software with teacher-guided group work and problem-solving. As of the early 2000s, data from the National Assessment of Education Progress showed very low mathematics proficiency among high school students, with large gaps in the performance of students of di...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305F050122
Grant
Enhanced Value-Added Models for Estimating Teacher Effects
This research examined the performance of a class of value-added models for longitudinal student achievement data where we introduce and use latent student parameters to enrich other features of the model.
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305U040005
Grant
Teacher Licensure Tests and Student Achievement
In the early 2000s, one approach to improving the quality of instruction in U.S. elementary and secondary schools was to screen out potential candidates for teaching positions based on teacher licensure tests and teacher testing in general. However, at the time, little was known about associations between teacher test performance and student outcomes.
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305M040186
Grant
Analysis of Central City NAEP
This project will use the expanded sample of central city schools available from the 2002 and 2003 NAEP to study the achievement of students in these important schools. The study will compare the achievement of center city students to that of other students taking NAEP with and without controls for race, ethnicity, and family circumstances.
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R902B030007
External Person
Brian M. Stecher
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