This new practice guide, developed by the What Works Clearinghouse™ (WWC) in conjunction with an expert panel, distills contemporary early childhood and preschool education research into seven easily comprehensible and practical recommendations that preschool educators can use to prepare young children for school. The seven recommendations in this practice guide will also be useful for administrators along with parents, caregivers, and guardians.

This practice guide provides four evidence-based recommendations that teachers can use to deliver reading interventions to meet the needs of their students.

This practice guide provides four evidence-based recommendations for designing and delivering comprehensive, integrated advising to support students’ educational success.

This practice guide provides evidence-based practices that can help teachers tailor their instructional approaches and/or their mathematics intervention programs to meet the needs of their students.

This practice guide provides school educators and administrators with four evidence-based recommendations for reducing dropout rates in middle and high schools and improving high school graduation rates. Each recommendation provides specific, actionable strategies; examples of how to implement the recommended practices in schools; advice on how to overcome potential obstacles; and a description of the supporting evidence.

This practice guide presents three evidence-based recommendations for helping students in grades 6–12 develop effective writing skills. Each recommendation includes specific, actionable guidance for educators on implementing practices in their classrooms. The guide also summarizes and rates the evidence supporting each recommendation, describes examples to use in class, and offers the panel’s advice on how to overcome potential implementation obstacles. This guide is geared towards administrators and teachers in all disciplines who want to help improve their students’ writing.

This practice guide provides four recommendations for teaching foundational reading skills to students in kindergarten through 3rd grade. Each recommendation includes implementation steps and solutions for common obstacles. The recommendations also summarize and rate supporting evidence. This guide is geared towards teachers, administrators, and other educators who want to improve their students’ foundational reading skills, and is a companion to the practice guide, Improving Reading Comprehension in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade.

This practice guide provides four recommendations that address what works for English learners during reading and content area instruction. Each recommendation includes extensive examples of activities that can be used to support students as they build the language and literacy skills needed to be successful in school. The recommendations also summarize and rate supporting evidence. This guide is geared toward teachers, administrators, and other educators who want to improve instruction in academic content and literacy for English learners in elementary and middle school.

This practice guide provides four recommendations for improving elementary students’ writing. Each recommendation includes implementation steps and solutions for common roadblocks. The recommendations also summarize and rate supporting evidence. This guide is geared toward teachers, literacy coaches, and other educators who want to improve the writing of their elementary students.

This practice guide provides five recommendations for improving students’ mathematical problem solving in grades 4 through 8. This guide is geared toward teachers, math coaches, other educators, and curriculum developers who want to improve the mathematical problem solving of students.

This practice guide provides community colleges with five specific recommendations for supporting occupational skills training through career pathways.

This practice guide provides higher education instructors, instructional designers, administrators, and other staff with five recommendations for supporting learning through the effective use of technology.

This practice guide presents six evidence-based recommendations for college and university faculty, administrators, and advisors working to improve the success of students academically underprepared for college. Each recommendation includes an overview of the practice, a summary of evidence used in support of the evidence rating, guidance on how to carry out the recommendation, and suggested approaches to overcome potential roadblocks. Each recommendation includes an implementation checklist as guidance for getting started with implementing the recommendation.

This practice guide provides three recommendations for teaching algebra to students in middle school and high school. Each recommendation includes implementation steps and solutions for common roadblocks. The recommendations also summarize and rate supporting evidence. This guide is geared toward teachers, administrators, and other educators who want to improve their students’ algebra knowledge.

This practice guide provides five recommendations for teaching math to children in preschool, prekindergarten, and kindergarten. Each recommendation includes implementation steps and solutions for common roadblocks. The recommendations also summarize and rate supporting evidence. This guide is geared toward teachers, administrators, and other educators who want to build a strong foundation for later math learning.

This practice guide presents five recommendations intended to help educators improve students’ understanding of fractions. Recommendations include strategies to develop young children’s understanding of early fraction concepts and ideas for helping older children understand the meaning of fractions and the computations involved. The guide also highlights ways to build on students’ existing strategies to solve problems involving ratios, rates, and proportions.

Students who read with understanding at an early age gain access to a broader range of texts, knowledge, and educational opportunities, making early reading comprehension instruction particularly critical. This guide recommends five specific steps that teachers, reading coaches, and principals can take to successfully improve reading comprehension for young readers.

Access to higher education remains a challenge for many students who face academic and informational barriers to college entry.

Out-of-school time programs can enhance academic achievement by helping students learn outside the classroom.

Taking early action may be key to helping students struggling with mathematics.

This guide offers five specific recommendations to help educators identify struggling readers and implement evidence-based strategies to promote their reading achievement.

Designed for elementary school educators and school- and district-level administrators, this guide offers prevention, implementation, and schoolwide strategies that can be used to reduce problematic behavior that interferes with the ability of students to attend to and engage fully in instructional activities.

Geared toward educators, administrators, and policymakers, this guide provides recommendations that focus on reducing high school dropout rates.

This guide presents strategies that classroom teachers and specialists can use to increase the reading ability of adolescent students.

The target audience for this guide is a broad spectrum of school practitioners such as administrators, curriculum specialists, coaches, staff development specialists and teachers who face the challenge of providing effective literacy instruction for English language learners in the elementary grades.

The objective of this guide is to provide teachers with specific recommendations that can be carried out in the classroom without requiring systemic change.

This guide includes a set of concrete actions relating to the use of instructional and study time that are applicable to subjects that demand a great deal of content learning, including social studies, science, and mathematics.

This guide offers five recommendations to help educators effectively use data to monitor students’ academic progress and evaluate instructional practices.

This guide identifies practices that can improve the performance of chronically low-performing schools—a process commonly referred to as creating "turnaround schools."

Pre-K Mathematics is a supplemental curriculum designed to develop informal mathematical knowledge and skills in preschool children. Specific mathematical concepts and skills from each unit are taught in the classroom through teacher-guided, small-group activities using concrete manipulatives. Take-home activities with materials that parallel the small-group classroom activities are designed to help caregivers support their children’s mathematical development at home.

Good Behavior Game is a classroom management strategy that aims to improve social skills, minimize disruptive behaviors, and create a positive learning environment. Teachers place students into teams and reward them for demonstrating appropriate behaviors and following classroom rules.

Class-Wide Function-Related Intervention Teams (CW-FIT) is a classroom management strategy designed to help teachers create a positive learning environment by decreasing disruptive behavior and improving social skills and prosocial behaviors among students.

Year Up provides six months of occupational and technical training in the information technology and financial service sectors followed by six-month internships, together with other supports that ensures students have strong connections to employment.

Project QUEST (Quality Employment through Skills Training) provides comprehensive support services to help participants complete occupational training programs at local community colleges and professional training institutes, pass certification exams, and obtain well-paying jobs in targeted sectors of the local economy.

Dana Center Mathematics Pathways offers multiple math pathways aligned to programs of study, accelerated enrollment in credit-bearing college math courses, integrated student supports, and math instruction that incorporates evidence-based curricula and pedagogy.

Washington State’s Integrated Basic Education Skills and Training (I-BEST) program provides integrated basic skills and occupational training that allows students to complete their training program faster than traditional programs, and provides supports to ensure students stay engaged in training. Washington State’s I-BEST program was developed by the Washington State Board of Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) and was first implemented in the 2006–2007 school year. Since its creation, I-BEST has been replicated in other locations, sometimes under different names, including Accelerating Opportunity and the Accelerating Connections to Employment (ACE) program.

Web-Based Intelligent Tutoring for the Structure Strategy (ITSS) is a supplemental web-based program for students in grades K-8. It is intended to develop literacy skills needed to understand factual texts encountered in classrooms and everyday life. The program teaches students how to follow the logical structure of factual text and to use text structure to improve understanding and recall. In particular, ITSS highlights five main text structures that are used to (1) make comparisons; (2) present problems and solutions; (3) link causes and effects; (4) present sequences; and (5) describe things, people, creatures, places, or events. The program helps students classify the structure of a passage by identifying certain key words, such as “solution” and “in contrast,” that clue readers in to the type of arguments the text is making.

ASAP is a three-year program that is designed to remove barriers to college success and completion for students seeking associate degrees. ASAP offers students financial, academic, and personal supports. ASAP students are required to enroll full time and are encouraged to take any required developmental education courses in the first semester.

The Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) is a nationwide network of free open-enrollment college-preparatory schools in under-resourced communities throughout the United States. KIPP schools are usually established under state charter school laws and KIPP is America’s largest network of charter schools. KIPP Aims to prepare poor and minority students to succeed in a college preparatory curriculum. It provides training for principals and offers them greater autonomy over budget and hiring decisions. KIPP schools provide about 60% more instructional time than traditional public schools—through a longer school day and additional instructional days on Saturdays and in the summer.

Leveled Literacy Intervention (LLI) is a short-term, supplementary, small-group literacy intervention designed to help struggling readers achieve grade-level competency. The intervention provides explicit instruction in phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, reading comprehension, oral language skills, and writing. LLI helps teachers match students with texts of progressing difficulty and deliver systematic lessons targeted to a student’s reading ability.

Success for All (SFA®) is a whole-school reform model (that is, a model that integrates curriculum, school culture, family, and community supports) for students in prekindergarten through grade 8. SFA® includes a literacy program, quarterly assessments of student learning, a social-emotional development program, computer-assisted tutoring tools, family support teams for students’ parents, a facilitator who works with school personnel, and extensive training for all intervention teachers. The literacy program emphasizes phonics for beginning readers and comprehension for all students. Teachers provide reading instruction to students grouped by reading ability for 90 minutes a day, 5 days a week. In addition, certified teachers or paraprofessionals provide daily tutoring to students who have difficulty reading at the same level as their classmates.

Dual enrollment programs allow high school students to take college courses and earn college credits while still attending high school. Such programs, also referred to as dual credit or early college programs, are designed to boost college access and degree attainment, especially for students typically underrepresented in higher education. Dual enrollment programs support college credit accumulation and degree attainment via at least three mechanisms. First, allowing high school students to experience college-level courses helps them prepare for the social and academic requirements of college while having the additional supports available to high school students; this may reduce the need for developmental coursework. Second, students who accumulate college credits early and consistently are more likely to attain a college degree. Third, many dual enrollment programs offer discounted or free tuition, which reduces the overall cost of college and may increase the number of low socioeconomic status students who can attend and complete college.

READ 180® is a reading program designed for struggling readers who are reading 2 or more years below grade level. It combines online and direct instruction, student assessment, and teacher professional development. READ 180® is delivered in 90-minute sessions that include whole-group instruction, three small-group rotations, and whole-class wrap-up. Small-group rotations include individualized instruction using an adaptive computer application, small-group instruction, and independent reading. READ 180® is designed for students in elementary through high school.

Test preparation programs—sometimes referred to as test coaching programs—have been implemented with the goal of increasing student scores on college entrance tests. They generally (a) familiarize students with the format of the test; (b) introduce general test-taking strategies (e.g., get a good night’s sleep); (c) introduce specific testtaking strategies (e.g., whether the test penalizes incorrect answers, and what this means for whether or not one should guess an answer if it is not known); and (d) specific drills (e.g., practice factoring polynomial expressions). The programs can be delivered in person or online, and in whole class settings, in small groups, and individually.

Teach For America (TFA) is a highly selective route to teacher certification that aims to place non-traditionally trained teachers in high-need public schools. Many TFA teachers hold bachelors’ degrees from selective colleges and universities, in fields outside of education. TFA teachers commit to teach for at least 2 years. TFA teachers receive 5–7 weeks of in-person training over the summer before they begin teaching, then continue to receive professional development and one-on-one coaching from TFA while teaching, in addition to support provided by their schools and districts. As full-time employees of the public schools where they work, TFA teachers receive the same salary and benefits as other first- or second-year teachers in their school or district.

Cognitive Tutor^®, published by Carnegie Learning, is a math curricula that combines textbooks and interactive software.

Pre-K Mathematics is a supplemental curriculum designed to develop informal mathematical knowledge and skills in preschool children. Specific mathematical concepts and skills from each unit are taught in the classroom through teacher-guided, small-group activities using concrete manipulatives. Take-home activities with materials that parallel the small-group classroom activities are designed to help caregivers support their children’s mathematical development at home.

Literacy Express is a preschool curriculum designed for three- to five-year-old children. It is structured around units on oral language, emergent literacy, basic math, science, general knowledge, and socioemotional development. It can be used in half-or full-day programs with typically developing children and children with special needs. It provides professional development opportunities for staff; teaching materials; suggested activities; and recommendations for room arrangement, daily schedules, and classroom management.

Reading Recovery® is an intervention that provides one-on-one tutoring to students in grade 1 with low literacy achievement. This supplemental program aims to improve student reading and writing skills by providing one-on-one tutoring, tailoring the content of each lesson to each student based on observations and analyses of the student strengths and weaknesses from prior lessons. Trained Reading Recovery® teachers deliver tutoring daily in 30-minute one-on-one sessions over the course of 12 to 20 weeks. Reading Recovery® teachers incorporate instruction in topics such as phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, writing, oral language, and motivation depending on student needs.

Reading Apprenticeship® is a professional development program that aims to help teachers improve their students’ literacy skills. The program also aims to improve student social-emotional learning outcomes such as belonging, social awareness, growth mindset, and self-efficacy. Reading Apprenticeship® trains teachers to model reading comprehension strategies and help students practice these strategies in their classrooms.

A classroom-based, self-regulation intervention consisting of music- and movement-based circle time games designed to systematically increase in cognitive complexity.

Dual language programs are long-term instructional programs that provide content and literacy instruction to all students through two languages—English and a partner language—with the goals of promoting academic achievement, bilingualism and biliteracy, and sociocultural competence. Dual language programs can be implemented with students from one language group (in one-way programs) or with students from two language groups (in two-way programs).

Growth Mindset interventions aim to improve college persistence and academic achievement by encouraging students to view intelligence as a “malleable” characteristic that grows with effort, and to view academic challenges as temporary setbacks that they can overcome.

The Pathway to Academic Success Project trains teachers to improve the reading and writing abilities of English learners who have an intermediate level of English proficiency by incorporating cognitive strategies into reading and writing instruction. The cognitive strategies include goal setting, tapping prior knowledge, asking questions, making predictions, articulating and revising understanding of text, and evaluating writing.

Single Stop helps connect students and their families to public benefits by offering screening and application support. They also connect students and their families to wraparound services, such as tax preparation, child care, and immigration consultation through “one-stop shops” located within community colleges. Single Stop services are open to all students enrolled at the community colleges in which they are located. Site coordinators meet with students at the local Single Stop office on campus. Students may also choose to self-serve through the use of Single Stop software.

Success Boston Coaching is a coaching intervention for students who are traditionally underrepresented in college to help them transition from high school to college and progress in college. Students are paired with a dedicated coach starting as early as the spring of their senior year of high school and receive coaching through their first two years in college. As Boston’s citywide college completion initiative, Success Boston partners with existing nonprofit organizations focused on coaching and mentoring to deliver these one-on-one coaching services. Nonprofit coaching partners may also provide students with other direct services such as tutoring and career readiness support, and financial support that includes scholarships, transportation subsidies, and funding for school-related materials and supplies.

The eMINTS Comprehensive Program aims to help teachers improve their practice and the outcomes of their students by offering structured professional development, coaching, and support for integrating technology into the classroom. The program’s goals include supporting teachers in using classroom technology to implement high-quality, inquiry-based learning, in which students develop understanding and knowledge of content matter by engaging in meaningful investigations that require reasoning, judgement, and decision making. The intervention can provide support to teachers in any subject area, including math, literacy, and science.

Achieve3000® is a supplemental online literacy program that provides nonfiction reading content to students in grades preK–12 and focuses on building phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, reading comprehension, vocabulary, and writing skills. Achieve3000® is designed to help students advance their nonfiction reading skills by providing differentiated online instruction. Teachers use the program with an entire class but the assignments are tailored to each student’s reading ability level. For example, teachers assign an article and related activities to an entire class; the program then tailors the version of the article to each student by automatically increasing the difficulty of text when a student is ready for more challenging text. Achieve3000® provides lessons that follow a five-step routine: (1) respond to a Before Reading Poll, (2) read an article, (3) answer activity questions, (4) respond to an After Reading Poll, and (5) answer a Thought Question. Progress reports and student usage data, provided by the online tool, enable teachers to track both whole-class and individual student progress. The program is designed for diverse student groups, including general education students, struggling readers in need of intensive tutoring, and English learners.

Odyssey® Math is a web-based program developed by Compass Learning® for mathematics instruction in grades K–8. The online program includes a mathematics curriculum and formative assessments designed to support differentiated and data-driven instruction. Based on assessment results, the program generates an individualized sequence of mathematics topics and skills—a “learning path.” Odyssey® Math is often used as a prescriptive tool, where students can start by taking a diagnostic assessment aligned with local or state standards. Teachers can modify learning paths to match their lesson plans or to align them with district scopes and sequences.

First year experience courses, often referred to as college success courses or freshman seminars, are courses for first-year students in 2-year and 4-year colleges. The general goals of first year experience courses are to support the academic performance, social development, persistence, and degree completion of college students. Additionally, first year experience courses often aim to increase students’ sense of campus community and connection to their institutions, while giving students the opportunity to interact with faculty and peers.

Linked learning communities in postsecondary education are programs defined by having social and curricular linkages that provide undergraduate students with intentional integration of the themes and concepts that they are learning. Linked learning communities are based on the theory that active learning in a community-based setting can improve academic outcomes by increasing social and academic integration. Linked learning communities tend to have a shared intellectual theme with a linked or integrated curriculum and a community or common cohort of learners.

Doors to Discovery™ is a preschool literacy curriculum that uses eight thematic units of activities to help children build fundamental early literacy skills in oral language, phonological awareness, concepts of print, alphabet knowledge, writing, and comprehension. The eight thematic units cover topics such as nature, friendship, communities, society, and health. Each unit is available as a kit that includes various teacher resources.

Early Risers is a multi-year prevention program for elementary school children demonstrating early aggressive and disruptive behavior. The intervention model includes two child-focused components and two parent/family components. The Child Skills component is designed to teach skills that enhance children’s emotional and behavioral self-regulation, positive peer relationships, and academic success. The Child School Support component aims to identify areas of difficulty in the classroom and creates individualized plans to address those difficulties during the course of normal school activities. The Parent Skills component is delivered in “family night” group sessions and is intended to promote parents’ abilities to support their children’s healthy development by teaching skills that address positive parent–child relations, effective discipline practices, and parent involvement in school. The Family Support component is delivered via home visits to identify basic needs and health concerns and then implement plans designed to assist families in achieving and maintaining healthy lifestyles.

Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition^® (CIRC^®) is a comprehensive reading and writing program for students in grades 2–8. It includes story-related activities, direct instruction in reading comprehension, and integrated reading and language arts activities. Pairs of students (grouped either by or across ability levels) read to each other, predict how stories will end, summarize stories, write responses, and practice spelling, decoding, and vocabulary. Within cooperative teams of four, students work to understand the main idea of a story and work through the writing process. The CIRC^® process includes teacher instruction, team practice, peer assessment, and team/partner recognition. A Spanish version of the program was also designed for grades 2–5.

Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies is a peer-tutoring program for grades K–6 that aims to improve student proficiency in several disciplines. During the 30-35 minute peer-tutoring sessions, students take turns acting at the tutor, coaching and correcting one another as they work through problems. The designation of tutoring pairs and skill assignment is based on teacher judgement of student needs and abilities, and teachers reassign tutoring pairs regularly.  

Science Teachers Learning through Lesson Analysis (STeLLA®) is a professional development program, developed by BSCS Science Learning, that aims to improve students’ science achievement by improving teachers’ science content knowledge and their abilities to (a) explain science concepts to students, (b) clearly identify to students the science concepts used in student learning activities, and (c) engage students in thinking about science.

Bottom Line provides intensive advising for high school students from low-income households, most of whom are the first in their family to go to college. The advising is designed to help students apply for college and financial aid and select a high-quality affordable institution. For students who attend one of their target colleges, Bottom Line continues to provide regular support to students on campus for up to six years.

Fraction Face-Off! is a supplemental math program developed to support fourth-grade students who need assistance solving fraction problems. Teachers use program materials with individual students or small groups to promote understanding of the magnitude of fractions, to compare two fractions, to put three fractions in order, and to place fractions on a number line.

Balanced Leadership® is a professional development program for school principals and other current and aspiring school leaders in schools serving kindergarten through grade 12. School leaders participate in professional development sessions with trained facilitators over one or two years, practice what they learn between sessions, and can receive additional coaching and online support. McREL International, the company that developed the Balanced Leadership® program, based the framework and content of the professional development on research identifying key actions and behaviors of school leaders that are associated with improved student outcomes.

The Open Learning Initiative (OLI) is a grant-funded group at Carnegie Mellon University, offering innovative online courses to anyone who wants to learn or teach. The aim of the program is to create high-quality courses and contribute original research to improve learning and transform higher education.

InsideTrack© Coaching provides proactive, personalized coaching to help students identify and overcome both academic and non-academic barriers to college persistence and graduation. InsideTrack© partners with universities to deliver its coaching to students through phone, video, email, text, and mobile apps.

FLIGHT is a program based on partnership of a private non-profit (Taking Stock in Children) and local educational agencies with the goal of increasing the extent to which low-income students with academic promise are prepared for, enrolled in, and successful in college. Specifically, FLIGHT provides school-based mentoring, college prep, and wrap-around services for at-risk students who show potential to be successful in postsecondary education endeavors.

The summer counseling intervention was intended to reduce what study authors call the summer “melt,” a phenomenon in which students have been accepted to college but fail to matriculate. These summer counseling services, delivered during the months between high school graduation and college enrollment, involve outreach by college counselors or peer mentors via text messaging campaigns, e-mail, phone, in-person meetings, instant messaging, or social media. These intervention services provide college-intending individuals with information about tasks required for college enrollment, such as taking placement tests, arranging for housing, acquiring medical insurance, obtaining financial aid, and registering for courses. Summer counseling was also provided to help students overcome unanticipated financial, informational, and socio-emotional barriers that prevent college enrollment.

Green Dot Public Schools is a nonprofit organization that operates more than 20 public charter middle and high schools in California, Tennessee, and Washington. The Green Dot Public Schools are regulated and monitored by the local school district, but operate outside of the district’s direct control. The Green Dot Public Schools model emphasizes high quality teaching, strong school leadership, a curriculum that prepares students for college, and partnerships with the community. Any student may enroll in a Green Dot Public School if there is space available. Many Green Dot Public Schools operate with unionized teachers and staff. Several of the Green Dot Public Schools were chartered in existing public schools which were performing below district or community expectations. Funding for Green Dot Public Schools operations comes through public federal, state, and local finances, while some transformations of existing district-run schools into charter schools have been funded partly by private foundations.

Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) is an intervention designed to improve students’ academic skills through a six-step process that teaches students specific academic strategies and self-regulation skills. The practice is especially appropriate for students with learning disabilities. The intervention begins with teacher direction and ends with students independently applying the strategy, such as planning and organizing ideas before writing an essay. More specifically, the six steps involve the teacher providing background knowledge, discussing the strategy with the student, modeling the strategy, helping the student memorize the strategy, supporting the strategy, and then watching as the student independently performs the strategy. A key part of the process is teaching self-regulation skills, such as goal-setting and self-monitoring, which aim to help students apply the strategy without guidance. The steps can be combined, changed, reordered, or repeated, depending on the needs of the student. The SRSD model can be used with students in grades 2 through 12 in individual, small group, or whole classroom settings.

I CAN Learn® is a computer-based math curriculum for students in middle school, high school, and college. It provides math instruction through a series of interactive lessons that students work on individually at their own computers. Students move at their own pace and must demonstrate mastery of each concept before progressing to the next one. Classroom teachers may provide individual, small-group, or whole-class instruction based on students’ performance on the software program.

Functional behavioral assessment (FBA) is an individualized problem-solving process for addressing student problem behavior. An assessment is conducted to identify the purpose or function of a student's problem behavior. This assessment process involves collecting information about the environmental conditions that precede the problem behavior and the subsequent rewards that reinforce the behavior. The information that is gathered is then used to identify and implement individualized interventions aimed at reducing problem behaviors and increasing positive behaviors. Accordingly, the studies evaluating FBA examine different FBA-based interventions identified for each student. FBA-based interventions can be used to address diverse problem behaviors, such as disruptive and off-task behaviors, noncompliance, and inappropriate social interactions.

Summer bridge programs are designed to ease the transition to college and support postsecondary success by providing students with the academic skills and social resources needed to succeed in a college environment. These programs occur in the summer “bridge” period between high school and college. Although the content of summer bridge programs can vary across institutions and by the population served, they typically last 2–4 weeks and involve (a) an in-depth orientation to college life and resources, (b) academic advising, (c) training in skills necessary for college success (e.g., time management and study skills), and/or (d) accelerated academic coursework.

University of Chicago School Mathematics Project (UCSMP) Algebra, designed to increase students’ skills in algebra, is appropriate for students in grades 7–10, depending on the students’ incoming knowledge. This 1-year course highlights applications, uses statistics and geometry to develop the algebra of linear equations and inequalities, and includes probability concepts in conjunction with algebraic fractions. The curriculum emphasizes graphing, delaying manipulation with rational algebraic expressions until later courses. This curriculum uses the UCSMP textbook.

UCSMP is a core mathematics curriculum that emphasizes problem solving, real-world applications, and the use of technology. The curriculum is based on a student-centered approach with a focus on active learning that incorporates reading and uses a flexible lesson organization.

The Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing® (LiPS®) program (formerly called the Auditory Discrimination in Depth® [ADD] program) is designed to teach students the skills they need to decode words and to identify individual sounds and blends in words. LiPS® is designed for emergent readers in kindergarten through grade 3 or for struggling, dyslexic readers. The program is individualized to meet students’ needs and is often used with students who have learning disabilities or difficulties. Initial activities engage students in discovering the lip, tongue, and mouth actions needed to produce specific sounds. After students are able to produce, label, and organize the sounds with their mouths, subsequent activities in sequencing, reading, and spelling use the oral aspects of sounds to identify and order them within words. The program also offers direct instruction in letter patterns, sight words, and context clues in reading.

Everyday Mathematics® is a core curriculum for students in prekindergarten through grade 6. At each grade level, the Everyday Mathematics® curriculum provides students with multiple opportunities to learn concepts and practice skills. Across grade levels, concepts are reviewed and extended in varying instructional contexts. The distinguishing features of Everyday Mathematics® are its focus on real-life problem solving, student communication of mathematical thinking, and appropriate use of technology. This curriculum also emphasizes balancing different types of instruction (including collaborative learning), using various methods for skills practice, and fostering parent involvement in student learning.

Career Academies are school-within-school programs operating in high schools. Students in Career Academies take both career-related and academic courses and acquire work experience through partnerships with local employers.

Head Start is a national, federally-funded program that provides services to promote school readiness for children from birth to age 5 from predominantly low-income families. These services are provided to both children and their families and include education, health and nutrition, family engagement, and other social services. Head Start program administrators are given the flexibility to design service delivery to be responsive to cultural, linguistic, and other contextual needs of local communities, leading to considerable variability in the services offered. Head Start service models also vary according to family needs, such that children and families may be served through center-based or family child care, home visits, or a combination of programs that operate full or half days for 8–12 months per year.

MyTeachingPartner–Secondary (MTP-S) is a professional development program that aims to increase student learning and development through improved teacher–student interactions. Through the program, middle and high school teachers access a video library featuring examples of high-quality interactions and receive individualized, web-based coaching approximately twice per month during the school year. MTP-S uses the secondary school version of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System®–Secondary (CLASS-S) to define and observe effective teaching practices.

Check & Connect is a dropout prevention strategy that relies on close monitoring of school performance, mentoring, case management, and other supports. The program has two main components: “Check” and “Connect.” The Check component is designed to continually assess student engagement through close monitoring of student performance and progress indicators. The Connect component involves program staff giving individualized attention to students, in partnership with school personnel, family members, and community service providers. Students enrolled in Check & Connect are assigned a “monitor” who regularly reviews their performance (in particular, whether students are having attendance, behavior, or academic problems) and intervenes when problems are identified. The monitor also advocates for students, coordinates services, provides ongoing feedback and encouragement, and emphasizes the importance of staying in school.

Open Court Reading© is a reading program for grades K–6 that is designed to teach decoding, comprehension, inquiry, and writing in a three-part progression. Part One of each unit, Preparing to Read, focuses on phonemic awareness, sounds and letters, phonics, fluency, and word knowledge. Part Two, Reading and Responding, emphasizes reading literature for understanding, comprehension, inquiry, and practical reading applications. Part Three, Language Arts, focuses on writing, spelling, grammar, usage, mechanics, and basic computer skills.

Fast Track is a comprehensive intervention program designed to reduce conduct problems and promote academic, behavioral, and social improvement. Prior to grade 1, students are identified as being at risk for long-term antisocial behavior through teacher and parent reports of conduct problems. Delivery of the program begins in grade 1 and continues through grade 10. After the first year, the frequency of the supports is reduced based on the assessed functioning of the students and their families. Fast Track consists of seven integrated intervention components: the Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) curriculum, parent groups, parent–child sharing time, child social skills training groups, home visiting, child peer-pairing, and academic tutoring.

Repeated reading is an academic practice that aims to increase oral reading fluency. Repeated reading can be used with students who have developed initial word reading skills but demonstrate inadequate reading fluency for their grade level. During repeated reading, a student sits in a quiet location with a teacher and reads a passage aloud at least three times. Typically, the teacher selects a passage of about 50 to 200 words in length. If the student misreads a word or hesitates for longer than 5 seconds, the teacher reads the word aloud, and the student repeats the word correctly. If the student requests help with a word, the teacher reads the word aloud or provides the definition. The student rereads the passage until he or she achieves a satisfactory fluency level.

Spelling Mastery is designed to explicitly teach spelling skills to students in grades 1–6. One of several Direct Instruction curricula from McGraw-Hill that precisely specify how to teach incremental content, Spelling Mastery includes phonemic, morphemic, and whole-word strategies.

DreamBox Learning is a supplemental online mathematics program that provides adaptive instruction for students in grades K–5 and focuses on number and operations, place value, and number sense. The program aims to individualize instruction for each student using unique paths through the curriculum ihat match each student’s level of comprehension and learning style.

Reading Recovery® is an intervention that provides one-on-one tutoring to students in grade 1 with low literacy achievement. This supplemental program aims to improve student reading and writing skills by providing one-on-one tutoring, tailoring the content of each lesson to each student based on observations and analyses of the student strengths and weaknesses from prior lessons. Trained Reading Recovery® teachers deliver tutoring daily in 30-minute one-on-one sessions over the course of 12 to 20 weeks. Reading Recovery® teachers incorporate instruction in topics such as phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, writing, oral language, and motivation depending on student needs.

Read Naturally is an elementary and middle school supplemental reading program designed to improve reading fluency using a combination of books, audiotapes, and computer software. The program has three main strategies: repeated reading of text for developing oral reading fluency, teacher modeling of story reading, and systematic monitoring of student progress by teachers and the students themselves. Students work at a reading level appropriate for their achievement level, progress through the program at their own rate, and, for the most part, work on an independent basis. Read Naturally® can be used in a variety of settings, including classrooms, resource rooms, or computer or reading labs. Although the program was not originally developed for English language learners, additional materials for these students are currently available.

Bright Beginnings is an early childhood curriculum, based in part on High/Scope and Creative Curriculum, with an additional emphasis on literacy skills. The curriculum consists of nine thematic units designed to enhance children’s cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development. Each unit includes concept maps, literacy lessons, early childhood center activities, and home activities. Special emphasis is placed on the development of early language and literacy skills. Parent involvement is a key component of the program.

Social skills training is not a specific curriculum, but rather a collection of practices that utilize a behavioral approach to teaching preschool children age-appropriate social skills and competencies, including communication, problem solving, decision making, self-management, and peer relations. Social skills training can occur in both regular and special education classrooms.

 

SpellRead™ (formerly known as SpellRead Phonological Auditory Training®) is a literacy program for struggling readers in grade 2 or above, including special education students, English language learners, and students more than 2 years below grade level in reading. SpellRead integrates the auditory and visual aspects of the reading process and emphasizes specific skill mastery through systematic and explicit instruction. Students are taught to recognize and manipulate English sounds; to practice, apply, and transfer their skills using texts at their reading level; and to write about their reading.

Great Explorations in Math and Science^® (GEMS^®) Space Science Sequence is an instructional curriculum for grades 3–5 that covers fundamental concepts, including planetary sizes and distance, the earth’s shape and movement, gravity, and moon phases and eclipses. Part of the GEMS^® core curriculum, GEMS^® Space Science Sequence uses the solar system as the focal point for learning. The sequence uses models, hands-on investigations, peer-to-peer discussions, reflection, and informational student readings. Students complete four units, each lasting between four and nine sessions. Each unit builds upon knowledge from previous units and can be used independently or in conjunction with one another for an overall learning progression.

Phonological Awareness Training is a general practice aimed at enhancing young children’s phonological awareness abilities. Phonological awareness refers to the ability to detect or manipulate the sounds in words independent of meaning and is considered a precursor to reading. Phonological Awareness Training can involve various training activities that focus on teaching children to identify, detect, delete, segment, or blend segments of spoken words (i.e., words, syllables, onsets and rimes, phonemes) or that focus on teaching children to detect, identify, or produce rhyme or alliteration.

Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies is a peer-tutoring program for grades K–6 that aims to improve student proficiency in several disciplines. During the 30-35 minute peer-tutoring sessions, students take turns acting at the tutor, coaching and correcting one another as they work through problems. The designation of tutoring pairs and skill assignment is based on teacher judgement of student needs and abilities, and teachers reassign tutoring pairs regularly.  

Technology Enhanced Elementary and Middle School Science (TEEMSS) is a physical science curriculum for grades 3–8 that uses computers, sensors, and interactive models to support investigations of real-world phenomena. Through 15 inquiry-based instructional units, students interact with computers, gather and analyze data, and formulate ideas for further exploration. This information is managed by software in a handheld computer and transmitted to other students and to the teacher. The program includes a web-based teacher-reporting tool that allows teachers to review student portfolios and gather student responses for assessment and class discussion.

Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies is a peer-tutoring program for grades K–6 that aims to improve student proficiency in several disciplines. During the 30-35 minute peer-tutoring sessions, students take turns acting at the tutor, coaching and correcting one another as they work through problems. The designation of tutoring pairs and skill assignment is based on teacher judgement of student needs and abilities, and teachers reassign tutoring pairs regularly.  

Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies is a peer-tutoring program for grades K–6 that aims to improve student proficiency in several disciplines. During the 30-35 minute peer-tutoring sessions, students take turns acting at the tutor, coaching and correcting one another as they work through problems. The designation of tutoring pairs and skill assignment is based on teacher judgement of student needs and abilities, and teachers reassign tutoring pairs regularly.  

Sound Partners is a phonics-based tutoring program that provides supplemental reading instruction to elementary school students grades K–3 with below-average reading skills. The program is designed for use by tutors with minimal training and experience. Instruction emphasizes letter–sound correspondences, phoneme blending, decoding and encoding phonetically regular words, and reading irregular high-frequency words. It includes oral reading to practice applying phonics skills in text. The program consists of a set of scripted lessons in alphabetic and phonics skills and uses Bob Books beginning reading series as one of the primary texts for oral reading practice. The tutoring can be provided as a pull-out or after-school program or by parents who homeschool their children.

The National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program is a residential education and training program designed for youth ages 16–18 who have dropped out of or been expelled from high school. During a 22-week residential period, participants are offered GED (General Educational Development) preparation classes and other program services intended to promote positive youth development, such as leadership, job skills, and service to the community. The residential period is quasi-military (youth live in barracks, wear uniforms, and experience military-style discipline), but there are no requirements for military service. After the residential period, trainees participate in a 1-year structured mentoring program. Trainees select their own mentors. After selection, mentors are screened and trained by the program.

Reading Plus® is a web-based reading intervention that uses technology to provide individualized scaffolded silent reading practice for students in grades 3 and higher. Reading Plus® aims to develop and improve students’ silent reading fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary. Reading Plus® is designed to adjust the difficulty of the content and duration of reading activities so that students proceed at a pace that corresponds to their reading skill level. The intervention includes differentiated reading activities, computer-based reading assessments, tools to monitor student progress, ongoing implementation support, and supplemental offline activities.

Core-Plus Mathematics is a 4-year curriculum that replaces the traditional sequence with courses that each feature interwoven strands of algebra and functions, statistics and probability, geometry and trigonometry, and discrete mathematics. The curriculum emphasizes mathematical modeling, using technology to emphasize reasoning with multiple representations (verbal, numerical, graphical, and symbolic) and to focus on goals in which mathematical thinking and problem solving are central. Instructional materials promote active learning and teaching centered around collaborative small-group investigations of problem situations, followed by teacher-led whole-class summarizing activities that lead to analysis, abstraction, and further application of underlying mathematical ideas.

Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition^® (CIRC^®) is a comprehensive reading and writing program for students in grades 2–8. It includes story-related activities, direct instruction in reading comprehension, and integrated reading and language arts activities. Pairs of students (grouped either by or across ability levels) read to each other, predict how stories will end, summarize stories, write responses, and practice spelling, decoding, and vocabulary. Within cooperative teams of four, students work to understand the main idea of a story and work through the writing process. The CIRC^® process includes teacher instruction, team practice, peer assessment, and team/partner recognition. A Spanish version of the program was also designed for grades 2–5.

Fast ForWord® is a computer-based reading program intended to help students develop and strengthen the cognitive skills necessary for successful reading and learning. The program, which is designed to be used 30 to 100 minutes a day, five days a week, for 4 to 16 weeks, includes two components.

Reading Mastery is designed to provide systematic reading instruction to students in grades K–6. Reading Mastery can be used as an intervention program for struggling readers, as a supplement to a school’s core reading program, or as a stand-alone reading program, and is available in three versions. During the implementation of Reading Mastery, students are grouped with other students at a similar reading level, based on program placement tests. The program includes a continuous monitoring component.

Accelerated Reader™ is a computerized supplementary reading program that provides guided reading instruction to students in grades K–12. It aims to improve students’ reading skills through reading practice and by providing frequent feedback on students’ progress to teachers. The Accelerated Reader™ program requires students to select and read a book based on their area of interest and reading level. Upon completion of a book, students take a computerized quiz based on the book’s content and vocabulary. Quiz performance allows teachers to monitor student progress and to identify students who may need additional reading assistance.

The Lovaas Model of Applied Behavior Analysis is a type of behavioral therapy that initially focuses on discrete trials: brief periods of one-on-one instruction, during which a teacher cues a behavior, prompts the appropriate response, and provides reinforcement to the child. Children in the program receive an average of 35–40 hours of intervention per week that consists of in-home one-to-one instruction, facilitated peer play, inclusion and support in regular education classrooms, and generalization activities for transfer of skills to natural environments. In addition, parents are trained in instructional techniques. The intervention generally lasts about 3 years.

Read Naturally is an elementary and middle school supplemental reading program designed to improve reading fluency using a combination of books, audiotapes, and computer software. The program has three main strategies: repeated reading of text for developing oral reading fluency, teacher modeling of story reading, and systematic monitoring of student progress by teachers and the students themselves. Students work at a reading level appropriate for their achievement level, progress through the program at their own rate, and, for the most part, work on an independent basis. Read Naturally® can be used in a variety of settings, including classrooms, resource rooms, or computer or reading labs. Although the program was not originally developed for English language learners, additional materials for these students are currently available.

Reading Apprenticeship® is a professional development program that aims to help teachers improve their students’ literacy skills. The program also aims to improve student social-emotional learning outcomes such as belonging, social awareness, growth mindset, and self-efficacy. Reading Apprenticeship® trains teachers to model reading comprehension strategies and help students practice these strategies in their classrooms.

Project CRISS® (CReating Independence through Student-owned Strategies) is a professional development program for teachers that aims to improve reading, writing, and learning for students in grades 3–12. The implementation of Project CRISS® does not require a change in the curriculum or materials being used in the classroom, but instead calls for a change in teaching style to focus on three primary concepts derived from cognitive psychology and brain research. These three concepts include students (1) monitoring their learning to assess when they have understood content, (2) integrating new information with prior knowledge, and (3) being actively involved in the learning process through discussing, writing, organizing information, and analyzing the structure of text to help improve comprehension.

Read Well® is a reading curriculum to increase the literacy abilities of students in kindergarten and grade 1. The program provides instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency. Students are given opportunities to discuss the vocabulary concepts that are presented in each story. The program is based on the tenets of scaffolded instruction, where teachers begin by presenting models, and gradually decrease their support by providing guided practice, before students are asked to complete the skill or strategy independently. For example, the student and teacher read new text aloud, with the teacher reading the difficult or irregular words. As student skills (and motivation) increase, the amount of teacher-read text decreases, and the student is given greater independence. The program combines daily whole class activities with small group lessons.

Dialogic Reading is an interactive shared picture book reading practice designed to enhance young children’s language and literacy skills. During the shared reading practice, the adult and the child switch roles so that the child learns to become the storyteller with the assistance of the adult, who functions as an active listener and questioner.

The Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing® (LiPS®) program (formerly called the Auditory Discrimination in Depth® [ADD] program) is designed to teach students the skills they need to decode words and to identify individual sounds and blends in words. LiPS® is designed for emergent readers in kindergarten through grade 3 or for struggling, dyslexic readers. The program is individualized to meet students’ needs and is often used with students who have learning disabilities or difficulties. Initial activities engage students in discovering the lip, tongue, and mouth actions needed to produce specific sounds. After students are able to produce, label, and organize the sounds with their mouths, subsequent activities in sequencing, reading, and spelling use the oral aspects of sounds to identify and order them within words. The program also offers direct instruction in letter patterns, sight words, and context clues in reading.

Headsprout Early Reading is an online supplemental early literacy curriculum consisting of eighty 20-minute animated episodes. The episodes are designed to teach phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. The program adapts to a child’s responses, providing additional instruction and review if a child does not choose the correct answer. Teachers may use stories based on the episodes to reinforce instruction provided in the lessons.

Lexia Reading is a computerized reading program that provides phonics instruction and gives students independent practice in basic reading skills. Lexia Reading is designed to supplement regular classroom instruction and to support skill development in the five areas of reading instruction identified by the National Reading Panel.

Earobics® is an interactive software that provides students in prekindergarten through grade 3 with individual, systematic instruction in early literacy skills as students interact with animated characters. Earobics® Foundations is the version for prekindergaten, kindergarten, and grade 1. Earobics® Connections is for grades 2 and 3 and older struggling readers. The program builds students’ skills in phonemic awareness, auditory processing, and phonics, as well as the cognitive and language skills required for comprehension. Each level of instruction addresses recognizing and blending sounds, rhyming, and discriminating phonemes within words, adjusting to each student’s ability level. The software is supported by music, audiocassettes, and videotapes, and includes picture/word cards, letter–sound decks, big books, little books, and leveled readers for reading independently or in groups.

Curiosity Corner is a comprehensive early childhood curriculum designed to help children at risk of school failure because of poverty. The program offers children experiences that develop the attitudes, skills, and knowledge necessary for later school success, with a special emphasis on children’s language and literacy skills. Curiosity Corner has two sets of 38 weekly thematic units, one set for 3-year-olds and one set for 4-year-olds. Each day, the program staff present children with learning experiences through sequential daily activities. The program provides training, support, and teaching materials for teaching staff and administrators. Parents are encouraged to participate in children’s learning through activities in and out of the classroom.

Early Intervention in Reading (EIR)® is a program designed to provide extra instruction to groups of students at risk of failing to learn to read. The program uses picture books to stress instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, and contextual analysis, along with repeated reading and writing. In grades K–2, the program includes whole-class instruction followed by small-group instruction for students who score low on oral reading and literacy skills. In grades 3 and 4, the program consists of small group instruction for 20 minutes, 4 days a week. Teachers are trained for 9 months using workshops and an Internet-based professional development program.

Ready, Set, Leap!® is a comprehensive preschool curriculum that focuses on early reading skills, such as phonemic awareness, letter knowledge, and letter-sound correspondence using multi-sensory technology that incorporates touch, sight, and sound. Teachers may adopt either a theme-based or a literature-based teaching approach. For each approach, the curriculum provides lesson plans, learning objectives, and assessment tools.

Accelerated middle schools are self-contained academic programs designed to help middle school students who are behind grade level catch up with their peers. The program aims to ensure students stay in school and graduate by encouraging them to begin high school with other students their age. The programs serve students who are one to two years behind grade level, giving students the opportunity to cover an additional year of curriculum over 1–2 years in the program. Accelerated middle schools can be structured as separate schools or as schools within a traditional middle school.

Job Corps, a federally funded education and job training program for economically disadvantaged youth, offers remedial education, GED (General Educational Development) preparation, vocational training, job placement assistance, and other supports. Job Corps participants typically reside in a Job Corps center while enrolled in the program and can remain in the program for up to 2 years.

JOBSTART is an alternative education and training program designed to improve the economic prospects of young, disadvantaged high school dropouts by increasing educational attainment and developing occupational skills. The program has four main components: (1) basic academic skills instruction with a focus on GED (General Educational Development) preparation, (2) occupational skills training, (3) training-related support services (such as transportation assistance and child care), and (4) job placement assistance. Participants receive at least 200 hours of basic education and 500 hours of occupational training.

New Chance, a program for young welfare mothers who have dropped out of school, aims to improve both their employment potential and their parenting skills. Participants take GED (General Educational Development) preparation classes and complete a parenting and life skills curriculum. Once they complete this first phase of the program, they can receive occupational training and job placement assistance from New Chance, which also offers case management and child care.

The Voyager Universal Literacy System® is a core reading program designed to help students learn to read at or above grade level by the end of grade 3. This program uses strategies such as individual reading instruction, higher-level comprehension activities, problem solving, and writing. Students are also exposed to computer-based practice and reinforcement in phonological skills, comprehension, fluency, language development, and writing. The program uses whole classroom, small group, and independent group settings. Voyager Universal Literacy System® emphasizes regular assessments, with biweekly reviews for struggling students and quarterly assessments for all students.

Ladders to Literacy is a supplemental early literacy curriculum published in Ladders to Literacy: A Kindergarten Activity Book. The program targets children at different levels and from diverse cultural backgrounds. The activities are organized into three sections with about 20 activities each: print awareness, phonological awareness skills, and oral language skills.

Waterford Early Reading Level One™ is an emergent literacy curriculum that uses computer-based technology to prepare children for reading. It begins with a tutorial to familiarize the child with the computer and mouse and a reading placement evaluation to assess and determine whether a child should work on Level One objectives: capital letters, lowercase letters, or beginning decoding skills. The computerized instruction is supplemented by activities for phonological and phonemic awareness, letter recognition, knowledge of story and print concepts, and general readiness skills.

Waterford Early Reading Program™ is a software-based curriculum for students in kindergarten through grade 2. The curriculum is designed to promote reading, writing, and typing, incorporating literacy skills such as letter mastery, language stories, spelling, basic writing skills, reading and listening development, and comprehension strategies. It can be used as a supplement to the regular reading curriculum. Program materials include classroom lessons and take-home materials in addition to the Waterford software. Waterford Early Reading Program™ offers pretest placement and posttest assessments, in addition to ongoing assessments throughout the program.

Building Blocks for Math is a supplemental mathematics curriculum designed to develop preschool children’s early mathematical knowledge through various individual and small- and large-group activities. It uses Building Blocks for Math PreK software, manipulatives, and print material. Building Blocks for Math embeds mathematical learning in children’s daily activities, ranging from designated math activities to circle and story time, with the goal of helping children relate their informal math knowledge to more formal mathematical concepts.

ClassWide Peer Tutoring (CWPT) is a peer-assisted instructional strategy designed to be integrated with most existing reading curricula. This approach provides students with increased opportunities to practice reading skills by asking questions and receiving immediate feedback from a peer tutor. Pairs of students take turns tutoring each other to reinforce concepts and skills initially taught by the teacher. The teacher creates age-appropriate peer teaching materials for the peer tutors; these materials take into account tutees’ language skills and disabilities.

Peer Tutoring and Response Groups aims to improve the language and achievement of English learners by pairing or grouping students to work on a task. The students may be grouped by age or ability, or the groups may be mixed. Peer tutoring typically consists of two students assuming the roles of tutor and tutee, or “coach and player” roles. Peer response groups give four or five students shared responsibility for a task, such as editing a passage or reading and answering comprehension questions. Both peer tutoring pairs and peer response groups emphasize peer interaction and discussion to complete a task.

The Wilson Reading System® is a reading and writing program. It provides a curriculum for teaching reading and spelling to individuals of any age who have difficulty with written language. The Wilson Reading System® directly teaches the structure of words in the English language, aiming to help students learn the coding system for reading and spelling. The program provides interactive lesson plans and uses a sequential system with extensive controlled text. The Wilson Reading System® is structured to progress from phoneme segmentation to more challenging tasks, and seeks to improve sight word knowledge, fluency, vocabulary, oral expressive language development, and reading comprehension.

Failure Free Reading is a language development program designed to improve vocabulary, fluency, word recognition, and reading comprehension for students in kindergarten through grade 12 who score in the bottom 15% on standardized tests and who have not responded to conventional beginning reading instruction. The three key dimensions of the program are: 1) repeated exposure to text, 2) predictable sentence structures, and 3) story concepts that require minimal prior knowledge. The program combines systematic, scripted teacher instruction; talking software; workbook exercises; and independent reading activities.

Corrective Reading is designed to promote reading accuracy (decoding), fluency, and comprehension skills of students in grade 3 or higher who are reading below their grade level. The program has four levels that correspond to students’ decoding skills. All lessons in the program are sequenced and scripted. Corrective Reading can be implemented in small groups of 4–5 students or in a whole-class format. Corrective Reading is intended to be taught in 45-minute lessons 4–5 times a week.

SpellRead™ (formerly known as SpellRead Phonological Auditory Training®) is a literacy program for struggling readers in grade 2 or above, including special education students, English language learners, and students more than 2 years below grade level in reading. SpellRead integrates the auditory and visual aspects of the reading process and emphasizes specific skill mastery through systematic and explicit instruction. Students are taught to recognize and manipulate English sounds; to practice, apply, and transfer their skills using texts at their reading level; and to write about their reading.

Fluency Formula™ is a supplemental curriculum designed to promote reading fluency in grades 1–6. The program emphasizes automatic recognition of words, decoding accuracy, and oral expressiveness as the foundations for building reading fluency. A daily 10- to 15-minute lesson is delivered in the classroom. Students participate in whole-class, small-group, and individual practice activities using workbooks, read-aloud anthologies, library books, fluency activity cards, and audio CDs. The curriculum encourages at-home practice and includes a Fluency Formula™ Assessment System, which allows teachers to assess student fluency using 1-minute grade-level passages and a timer.

Start Making a Reader Today® (SMART®) is a volunteer tutoring program for students in grades K–2 who are at risk of reading failure. The program is designed to be a low-cost, easy-to-implement intervention. Volunteer tutors go into schools where at least 40% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch and read one-on-one with students twice a week for 30 minutes. Typically, one volunteer works with two students on four types of activities: reading to the student, reading with the student, re-reading with the student, and asking the student questions about what has been read. The program also gives each student two new books a month to encourage families to read together.

Stepping Stones to Literacy (SSL) is a supplemental curriculum designed to promote listening, print conventions, phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and serial processing/rapid naming (quickly naming familiar visual symbols and stimuli, such as letters or colors). The program targets older preschool and kindergarten students who are considered to be underachieving readers, based on teacher’s recommendations, assessments, and systematic screening. Students participate in 10- to 20-minute daily lessons in a small group or individually. The curriculum consists of 25 lessons, for a total of 9–15 hours of instructional time.

The Little Books are a set of books designed for interactive book reading between parents and children or between teachers and students. The books use thematic topics familiar to children. They are written with high-frequency words and use simple phrases and sentences. The books also have strong links between illustrations and text.

Caring School Community™ (CSC) is a modified version of a program formerly known as the Child Development Project. CSC is a multiyear school improvement program that involves all students in grades K–6. The program aims to promote core values, prosocial behavior, and a schoolwide feeling of community. The program consists of four elements originally developed for the Child Development Project: class meeting lessons, cross-age “buddies” programs, “homeside” activities, and schoolwide community. Class lessons provide teachers and students with a forum to get to know one another, discuss issues, identify and solve problems collaboratively, and make a range of decisions that affect classroom life. Cross-age buddies activities pair whole classes of older and younger students for academic and recreational activities that build caring cross-age relationships and create a schoolwide climate of trust. Homeside activities include short conversational activities that are sent home with students for them to do with parents or caregivers and then to discuss back in their classroom. The activities incorporate the families’ perspectives, cultures, and traditions, thereby promoting interpersonal understanding. Schoolwide community-building activities bring students, parents, and school staff together to create new school traditions.

Positive Action, at its core, teaches the philosophy that you feel good about yourself when you do positive actions and there is always a positive way to do everything. It is illustrated by the the Thoughts-Actions-Feelings about self Circle where positive thoughts lead to positive actions, which in turn lead to positive feelings about oneself. It also teaches the positive actions for physical, intellectual, social and emotional areas—the whole self. It is a Pre-K-12 school-based program that aims to promote good behavior while disrupting problem behaviors, improves academics, and develops social-emotional and character skills while improving mental and physical health and self-concept. Lessons are scripted and use a wide variety of strategies: classroom discussion, role-play, games, songs, journals, manipulatives and activity sheets and text booklets.

Building Decision Skills aims to raise middle and high school students’ awareness of ethics, help them gain experience developing core values, and give them strategies for dealing with ethical dilemmas. Building Decision Skills consists of 10 lessons that can fill 2 consecutive weeks of daily lessons or be drawn out over a longer period. Using readings, handouts, and overheads, the teacher covers key concepts. Students are encouraged to think about the key concepts through small-group activities, class discussions, and homework assignments. The program also includes schoolwide components such as group discussions, seminars, and assemblies, and can be combined with service learning.

High School Redirection is an alternative high school program for youth considered at risk of dropping out. The program emphasizes basic skills development (with a particular focus on reading skills) and offers limited extra-curricular activities. The schools operate in economically disadvantaged areas and serve students who have dropped out in the past, who are teen parents, who have poor test scores, or who are over-age for their grade. To foster a sense of community, the schools are small, and teachers are encouraged to act as mentors as well as instructors.

Twelve Together is a 1-year peer support and mentoring program for middle and early high school students that offers weekly after-school discussion groups led by trained volunteer adult facilitators. Each peer discussion group consists of about 12 participants who are a mix of students at high- and low-risk of academic failure. Group discussions are based on topics of student interest, usually focusing on personal, family, and social issues. The program also offers homework assistance, trips to college campuses, and an annual weekend retreat.

The Bilingual Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (BCIRC) program, an adaptation of the Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (CIRC) program, was designed to help Spanish-speaking students succeed in reading Spanish and then making a successful transition to English reading. In the adaptation, students complete tasks that focus on reading, writing, and language activities in Spanish and English, while working in small cooperative learning groups. The intervention focuses on students in grades 2–5.

Dialogic Reading is an interactive shared picture book reading practice designed to enhance young children’s language and literacy skills. During the shared reading practice, the adult and the child switch roles so that the child learns to become the storyteller with the assistance of the adult, who functions as an active listener and questioner.

Phonological Awareness Training is a general practice aimed at enhancing young children’s phonological awareness abilities. Phonological awareness refers to the ability to detect or manipulate the sounds in words independent of meaning and is considered a precursor to reading. Phonological Awareness Training can involve various training activities that focus on teaching children to identify, detect, delete, segment, or blend segments of spoken words (i.e., words, syllables, onsets and rimes, phonemes) or that focus on teaching children to detect, identify, or produce rhyme or alliteration.

Phonological Awareness Training plus Letter Knowledge Training is a general practice aimed at enhancing young children’s phonological awareness, print awareness, and early reading abilities. Phonological awareness, the ability to detect or manipulate the sounds in words independent of meaning, is considered to be a precursor to reading. Phonological awareness training (without letter knowledge training) can involve various training activities that focus on teaching children to identify, detect, delete, segment, or blend segments of spoken words (i.e., words, syllables, onsets and rimes, phonemes) or that focus on teaching children to detect, identify, or produce rhyme or alliteration. The added letter knowledge training component includes teaching children the letters of the alphabet and making an explicit link between letters and sounds.

Talent Search aims to help low-income and first-generation college students (those whose parents do not have 4-year college degrees) complete high school and gain access to college through a combination of services designed to improve academic achievement and increase access to financial aid. Services include test taking and study skills assistance, academic advising, tutoring, career development, college campus visits, and financial aid application assistance.

Financial incentives for teen parents are components of state welfare programs intended to encourage enrollment, attendance, and completion of high school as a means of increasing employment and earnings and reducing welfare dependence. The incentives take the form of bonuses and sanctions to the welfare grant related to school enrollment, performance, and completion. The programs typically provide case management and social services to supplement financial incentives.

The goal of Instructional Conversations is to help English learners develop reading comprehension ability along with English language proficiency. Acting as facilitators, teachers engage students in discussions about stories, key concepts, and related personal experiences, allowing students to appreciate and build on each others’ experiences, knowledge, and understanding. Literature Logs require students to respond in writing to prompts or questions related to sections of stories. These responses are then shared in small groups or with a partner.

The Expert Mathematician is designed to help middle school students develop the thinking processes for mathematical applications and communication. A 3-year program of instruction, The Expert Mathematician uses a software and print materials package with 196 lessons that teach the Logo programming language. Each lesson ranges from 40–120 minutes. A test of unit concepts is administered at the end of each instructional unit. The curriculum covers general mathematics, pre-algebra, and algebra I.

ALAS (Spanish for “wings”) is an intervention for middle and high school students that is designed to address student, school, family, and community factors that affect dropping out. Each student is assigned a counselor/mentor who monitors attendance, behavior, and academic achievement. The counselor/mentor provides feedback and coordinates interventions and resources to students, families, and teachers. Counselors/mentors also serve as advocates for students and intervene when problems are identified. Students are trained in problem-solving, self-control, and assertiveness skills. Parents are trained in parent-child problem solving, how to participate in school activities, and how to contact teachers and school administrators to address issues.

The Vocabulary Improvement Program for English Language Learners and Their Classmates (VIP) is a vocabulary development curriculum for English language learners and native English speakers in grades 4–6. The 15-week program includes 30–45 minute whole class and small group activities that aim to increase students’ understanding of target vocabulary words included in a weekly reading assignment.

Facing History and Ourselves aims to promote core character education values and to help middle and high school students develop moral reasoning skills. Students examine historical events; in particular, the events that led to World War II and the Holocaust. Teachers participate in professional development seminars and apply the content and approaches to their own teaching or school program. Facing History and Ourselves also includes optional schoolwide components (such as guest speakers and videos).

Too Good for Drugs and Violence is designed to promote high school students’ pro-social skills, positive character traits, and violence- and drug-free norms. The curriculum consists of 14 core lessons, as well as an additional 12 lessons that can be infused into other subject areas (such as English, science, and social studies). Teachers participate in 10 staff development lessons. The program includes optional elements of family and community involvement.

Arthur, is a book-based educational television program designed for children ages 4–8. The program is based on the storybooks by Marc Brown about Arthur, an 8-year-old aardvark. Each show is 30 minutes in length and includes two stories involving characters dealing with moral issues. The show has been used as a listening comprehension and language development intervention for English language learning students.

Too Good for Violence promotes character values, social-emotional skills, and healthy beliefs in elementary and middle school students. The program includes seven lessons per grade level for elementary school (K–5) and nine lessons per grade level for middle school (6–8). All lessons are scripted and engage students through role-playing and cooperative learning games, small group activities, and classroom discussions. Students are encouraged to apply these skills to different contexts. Too Good for Violence also includes optional parental and community involvement elements.

Connect with Kids aims to promote prosocial attitudes and positive behavior of elementary (grades 3–5) and secondary (grades 6–12) school students by teaching core character values. Lesson plans include videos, story summaries, discussion questions, student games, and activities for both core and supplemental character traits. The classroom curriculum is reinforced by a website component and schoolwide and community outreach components. The program can be incorporated into an existing curriculum or used as a standalone program. The school or teacher decides on the number of character traits covered in each session, so the program duration may vary from one semester to an entire academic year.

Lessons in Character is designed to promote elementary and middle school students’ knowledge about core character education values and, through that knowledge, shape children’s positive behaviors and support academic success. It consists of 24 lessons organized around weekly themes, writing activities, and class projects. Teachers introduce the theme with a story that shows a value in action; students then engage that topic with a variety of activities. The program also includes daily oral language development and weekly writing assignments, optional parts of the program’s implementation.

Too Good for Drugs™ is designed to promote elementary and middle school students’ life skills, character values, resistance skills to negative peer influence, and resistance to the use of illegal drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. The program is based on classroom discussions and structured activities that center on interactive learning and skill-building exercises. Students engage in role-play and cooperative learning games and are encouraged to apply the skills to different contexts. Too Good for Drugs™ also includes the optional elements of parental and community involvement.

Enhanced Proactive Reading, a comprehensive, integrated reading, language arts, and English language development curriculum, is targeted to first-grade English learners experiencing problems with learning to read through conventional instruction. The curriculum is implemented as small group daily reading instruction, during which instructors provide opportunities for participation from all students and give feedback on student responses.

Reading Mastery is designed to provide systematic reading instruction to students in grades K–6. Reading Mastery can be used as an intervention program for struggling readers, as a supplement to a school’s core reading program, or as a stand-alone reading program, and is available in three versions. During the implementation of Reading Mastery, students are grouped with other students at a similar reading level, based on program placement tests. The program includes a continuous monitoring component.

Fast ForWord® is a computer-based reading program intended to help students develop and strengthen the cognitive skills necessary for successful reading and learning. The program, which is designed to be used 30 to 100 minutes a day, five days a week, for 4 to 16 weeks, includes two components.

DaisyQuest is a software bundle that offers computer-assisted instruction in phonological awareness, targeting children 3–7 years old (or preschool to grade 2). The instructional activities, framed in a fairy tale involving a search for a friendly dragon named Daisy, teach children how to recognize words that rhyme; words that have the same beginning, middle, and ending sounds; and words that can be formed from a series of phonemes presented separately. Activities also teach children how to count the number of sounds in words.

DaisyQuest is a software bundle that offers computer-assisted instruction in phonological awareness, targeting children 3–7 years old (or preschool to grade 2). The instructional activities, framed in a fairy tale involving a search for a friendly dragon named Daisy, teach children how to recognize words that rhyme; words that have the same beginning, middle, and ending sounds; and words that can be formed from a series of phonemes presented separately. Activities also teach children how to count the number of sounds in words.

Social Belonging interventions for college students aim to reduce the impacts of negative stereotypes that may burden students in underrepresented groups and affect their persistence in college. Examples of such groups are racial or ethnic minority groups, women in engineering, and first-generation college students. There are different variations of Social Belonging interventions but they all have in common a goal of influencing students’ sense that they could be successful within a college setting.

The Leadership and Assistance for Science Education Reform (LASER) program is intended to build capacity for implementing inquiry-based science curricula in schools and districts. When participating in LASER, school or district teams attend leadership development institutes to plan the implementation of inquiry-based science curricula. These school or district teams receive support for key aspects of implementation such as professional development for teachers, access to instructional materials, and support for selecting appropriate assessments. LASER also helps schools and districts partner with scientists, science educators, and local business and community leaders who can promote and further support the implementation of inquiry-based science instruction.

Math Expressions is a curriculum for students in prekindergarten through sixth grade that aims to build students’ conceptual understanding of mathematics and to develop fluency in mathematical problem solving and computation. The curriculum encourages student learning of mathematics through real-world situations, visual supports such as drawings and manipulatives, multiple approaches to solving problems, and opportunities for students to explain their mathematical thinking.

University of Chicago School Mathematics Project (UCSMP) is a core mathematics curriculum that includes materials and a routinized instructional approach with an option for teacher training. The curriculum uses an inquiry-based approach with a focus on active learning where students frequently engage in hands-on activities and small-group activities. Pre-Transition Mathematics teaches arithmetic, algebra, geometry, probability, and statistics. Transition Mathematics teaches more advanced arithmetic, algebra, and geometry, and connects these areas to measurement, probability, and statistics.

Literacy Design Collaborative provides professional development, coaching, and resources to support teachers to work collaboratively in their schools to design and use high-quality, standards-aligned literacy instruction materials aimed at building students’ reading, research, and writing skills. Literacy Design Collaborative guides teachers to implement literacy modules they can use to teach students the content and literacy skills needed to complete a culminating writing task. Teachers implement existing modules and design new ones. Teachers across content areas—including English language arts, social studies, and science—can use the Literacy Design Collaborative program.

Xtreme Reading is a supplemental literacy curriculum designed to improve the literacy skills of struggling students in grades 6 to 12. The curriculum is primarily designed to help students improve their vocabulary, decoding, fluency, and reading comprehension skills. To ensure a productive learning environment, students initially learn social skills associated with creating a supportive learning community, including how to participate in certain class activities (for example, whole-group discussion, small-group work, partner work, transitions). They also participate in a motivational program whereby they discuss their hopes and dreams for the future and set personal goals related to reading and other life areas. The Xtreme Reading program includes teacher-led whole-group instruction, cooperative group work, paired practice, and independent practice.

The Promoting Alternative THinking Strategies (PATHS®) program is a curriculum that aims to promote emotional and social competencies and to reduce aggression and behavior problems in elementary school children. PATHS® is delivered through short lessons given two to three times a week over the school year. The program is based on the principle that understanding and regulating emotions are central to effective problem solving. The lessons focus on (1) self-control, (2) emotional literacy, (3) social competence, (4) positive peer relations, and (5) interpersonal problem-solving skills. There is a separate curriculum for each grade.

Word Generation is a supplemental program that aims to improve students’ reading comprehension by building students’ vocabulary, academic language, and perspective-taking skills through classroom discussion and debate. Word Generation was developed for all students; however, English learners in particular could benefit from its focus on academic language. Word Generation consists of a series of interdisciplinary units with daily lessons focused on a high-interest issue to increase student engagement. Each unit targets a small number of academic vocabulary words that are integrated into texts, activities, writing tasks, debates, and discussions across content areas. Several Word Generation programs exist. In the Word Generation Weekly (WordGen Weekly) and Word Generation Elementary (WordGen Elementary) programs, units are intended to be used across English language arts, math, science, and social studies in grades 6–8 and grades 4 and 5, respectively. In the Science Generation (SciGen) and Social Studies Generation (SoGen) programs, units can supplement or be used in place of regular science and social studies curriculum units in grades 6–8. The different Word Generation programs can be implemented separately or together.

Passport Reading Journeys is a supplemental literacy curriculum designed to help improve reading comprehension, vocabulary, word study, and writing skills of struggling readers in grades 6–12. Lessons incorporate both teacher-led instruction and technology, including whole-class and small-group instruction, independent reading, video segments, and independent computer-based practice. The curriculum includes a series of two-week, ten-lesson instructional sequences on topics in science, math, fine art, literature, and social studies. Each sequence is themed as an expedition or journey for students.

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) establishes standards for accomplished teachers and awards professional certification to teachers who can demonstrate that their teaching practices meet those standards. Educators and experts in child development and related fields established the organization, and these experts work to develop and refine the standards for accomplished teaching based on the knowledge and skills that effective teachers demonstrate. The standards reflect five core propositions: (1) effective teachers are committed to students and their learning, (2) effective teachers know the subjects they teach and how to teach those subjects to students, (3) effective teachers manage and monitor student learning, (4) effective teachers think systematically about their practice and learn from experience, and (5) effective teachers are members of learning communities. Those seeking certification from the NBPTS must complete a computer-based assessment and three portfolio entries. The certification process can take 1 to 5 years.

Achieve3000® is a supplemental online literacy program that provides nonfiction reading content to students in grades preK–12 and focuses on building phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, reading comprehension, vocabulary, and writing skills. Achieve3000® is designed to help students advance their nonfiction reading skills by providing differentiated online instruction. Teachers use the program with an entire class but the assignments are tailored to each student’s reading ability level. For example, teachers assign an article and related activities to an entire class; the program then tailors the version of the article to each student by automatically increasing the difficulty of text when a student is ready for more challenging text. Achieve3000® provides lessons that follow a five-step routine: (1) respond to a Before Reading Poll, (2) read an article, (3) answer activity questions, (4) respond to an After Reading Poll, and (5) answer a Thought Question. Progress reports and student usage data, provided by the online tool, enable teachers to track both whole-class and individual student progress. The program is designed for diverse student groups, including general education students, struggling readers in need of intensive tutoring, and English learners.

System of Least Prompts (SLP) is a practice that involves defining and implementing a hierarchy of prompts to assist students in learning a skill. A prompt is an action by the teacher or other practitioner—such as a verbal instruction to complete a task—that helps a student respond correctly during a learning activity. To use the procedure, the teacher or other practitioner systematically delivers the prompts to students in order, starting with the prompt that provides the least amount of assistance, and providing additional prompts with increasing levels of assistance until the student can correctly perform the task independently. For example, if a student does not independently complete a task following the initial instruction, a teacher may help the student by providing the least-intrusive prompt, such as restating the instruction. If the response still does not occur, the teacher may present the next most intrusive prompt, such as rephrasing the instruction. The teacher continues with more intrusive prompts, such as modeling how to do the task, until the desired response occurs reliably or all the prompts in the sequence have been used. The last prompt, often called the controlling prompt, should result in the student responding correctly. SLP is also known as “least-to-most prompting” or “least intrusive prompts.” SLP does not have a single developer that provides guidance or materials.

Accelerated Math®, published by Renaissance Learning, is a software tool that provides practice problems for students in grades K–12 and provides teachers with reports to monitor student progress. Accelerated Math® creates individualized student assignments, scores the assignments, and generates reports on student progress. The software is typically used with the math curriculum being used in the classroom to add practice for students and help teachers differentiate instruction through the program’s progress-monitoring data.

Accelerated Math®, published by Renaissance Learning, is a software tool that provides practice problems for students in grades K–12 and provides teachers with reports to monitor student progress. Accelerated Math® creates individualized student assignments, scores the assignments, and generates reports on student progress. The software is typically used with the math curriculum being used in the classroom to add practice for students and help teachers differentiate instruction through the program’s progress-monitoring data.

Prentice Hall/Pearson Literature© (2007–15) is an English language arts curriculum designed for students in grades 6–12 that focuses on building reading, vocabulary, literary analysis, and writing skills. It uses passages from fiction and nonfiction texts, poetry, and contemporary digital media. The curriculum is based on a textbook. The publisher also provides online components and other materials that enable teachers to provide personalized assignments, monitor students’ progress, and score writing assignments, enrich instruction, or provide additional practice to supplement the textbook.

I CAN Learn® is a computer-based math curriculum for students in middle school, high school, and college. It provides math instruction through a series of interactive lessons that students work on individually at their own computers. Students move at their own pace and must demonstrate mastery of each concept before progressing to the next one. Classroom teachers may provide individual, small-group, or whole-class instruction based on students’ performance on the software program.

TNTP Teaching Fellows is a highly selective route to teacher certification that aims to prepare people to teach in high-need public schools. The program recruits professionals seeking to change careers and recent college graduates who are not certified teachers. TNTP Teaching Fellows expects its participants to teach for many years, but does not require them to make a minimum time commitment to teaching. Program participants complete online coursework and receive 5–7 weeks of in-person training focused on foundational teaching skills during the summer before they begin teaching. They must demonstrate mastery of these core skills to be eligible to teach. They receive continued professional development and coaching from TNTP Teaching Fellows during their first year of teaching, and additional support provided by their schools and districts. As full-time employees of the public schools in which they work, new TNTP Teaching Fellows teachers receive the same salary and benefits as other beginning teachers in their school district.

Saxon Math is a curriculum for students in grades K–12. The amount of new math content students receive each day is limited and students practice concepts every day. New concepts are developed, reviewed, and practiced cumulatively rather than in discrete chapters or units.

Connected Mathematics Project (CMP) is a math curriculum for students in grades 6–8. It uses interactive problems and everyday situations to explore mathematical ideas, with a goal of fostering a problem-centered, inquiry-based learning environment. At each grade level, the curriculum covers numbers, algebra, geometry/measurement, probability, and statistics.

Pivotal response training (PRT) is an intervention designed for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. This practice focuses on pivotal (core) areas affected by autism, such as communication and responding to environmental stimuli. PRT sessions typically begin with a parent or teacher providing clear instructions to a child, having the child help choose a stimulus (such as a toy), and focusing the child’s attention. The parent or teacher then encourages the desired behavior (for example, asking for the toy or choosing “toy” from a list of words) by providing rewards if the child implements or attempts to implement the desired behavior. Parents and teachers often model the appropriate behavior or use the stimulus with the child. Activities that maintain existing behaviors are interspersed with activities eliciting new behaviors. The complexity of the required responses increases as training progresses. Parents, teachers, and peers collaboratively implement the practice at school, at home, and in the community. PRT can be used with autistic children aged 2–18. PRT is also known as Pivotal Response Therapy, Pivotal Response Treatment®, or Natural Language Paradigm.

Accelerated Reader™ is a computerized supplementary reading program that provides guided reading instruction to students in grades K–12. It aims to improve students’ reading skills through reading practice and by providing frequent feedback on students’ progress to teachers. The Accelerated Reader™ program requires students to select and read a book based on their area of interest and reading level. Upon completion of a book, students take a computerized quiz based on the book’s content and vocabulary. Quiz performance allows teachers to monitor student progress and to identify students who may need additional reading assistance.

Cognitive Tutor^®, published by Carnegie Learning, is a math curricula that combines textbooks and interactive software.

Saxon Math is a textbook series covering grades K–12 based on incremental development and continual review of mathematical concepts to give students time to learn and practice concepts throughout the year. The program is built on the premise that students learn best when instruction is incremental and explicit, previously learned concepts are continually reviewed, and assessment is frequent and cumulative. At each grade level, math concepts are introduced, reviewed, and practiced over time in order to move students from understanding to fluency.

First year experience courses for students in developmental education are designed to ease the transition to college for the large numbers of students in need of developmental (or remedial) education. The aim of these courses is to support the academic performance, social development, persistence, and degree completion of postsecondary students with developmental needs. Although first year experience courses vary in terms of content and focus, most are designed to introduce students to campus resources, provide training in time management and study skills, and address student development issues; for students in developmental courses, the courses are often linked with or taken concurrently with developmental courses.

The SuccessMaker program is a set of computer-based courses used to supplement regular classroom reading instruction in grades K–8. Using adaptive lessons tailored to a student’s reading level, SuccessMaker aims to improve understanding in areas such as phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and concepts of print.

TAP™ (formerly known as the Teacher Advancement Program) is a comprehensive educator effectiveness program that aims to improve student achievement through supports and incentives that attract, retain, develop, and motivate effective teachers. The program provides teachers with leadership opportunities and associated salary increases; ongoing, school-based professional development; rigorous evaluations; and annual performance bonuses based on a combination of teacher value added to student achievement and observations of their classroom teaching.

The New Teacher Center (NTC) Induction Model is a comprehensive and systemic approach to support beginning teachers (i.e., teachers new to the profession). The induction model aims to accelerate the effectiveness of beginning teachers at increasing student learning by providing one-on-one mentoring and professional development in a supportive school environment. The NTC works with school districts and state departments of education to design, develop, and implement induction programs that are aligned with both district priorities and NTC standards.

Shared Book Reading encompasses practices that adults can use when reading with young children to enhance language and literacy skills. During shared book reading, an adult reads a book to an individual child or to a group of children and uses one or more planned or structured interactive techniques to actively engage the children in the text. The adult may direct the children’s attention to illustrations, print, or word meanings. The adult may engage children in discussions focused on understanding the meaning or sequence of events in a story or on understanding an expository passage. Adults may ask children questions, give explanations, and draw connections between events in the text and those in the children’s own lives as a way of expanding on the text and scaffolding children’s learning experiences to support language development, emergent reading, and comprehension. Importantly, the adult engages in one or more interactive techniques to draw attention to aspects of the text being read.

Developmental summer bridge programs are designed to reduce the need for developmental education in college by providing students with accelerated developmental instruction. These programs occur in the summer “bridge” period between high school and college and typically incorporate accelerated developmental instruction with college preparation training.

Reading Mastery is designed to provide systematic reading instruction to students in grades K–6. Reading Mastery can be used as an intervention program for struggling readers, as a supplement to a school’s core reading program, or as a stand-alone reading program, and is available in three versions. During the implementation of Reading Mastery, students are grouped with other students at a similar reading level, based on program placement tests. The program includes a continuous monitoring component.

Reciprocal teaching is an interactive instructional practice that aims to improve students’ reading comprehension by teaching strategies to obtain meaning from a text. The teacher and students take turns leading a dialogue regarding segments of the text. Students discuss with their teacher how to apply four comprehension strategies—generating questions, summarizing, clarifying, and predicting—to passages of text. During the early stages of reciprocal teaching, the teacher assumes primary responsibility for modeling how to use these strategies. As students become more familiar with the strategies, there is a gradual shift toward student responsibility for talking through the application of the strategies to the text.

Let’s Begin with the Letter People® is an early education curriculum that uses thematic units to develop children’s language and literacy skills. A major focus is phonological awareness, including rhyming, word play, alliteration, and segmentation. Children are encouraged to learn in individual, small group, and whole-class settings. Both cognitive and socio-emotional development are presented as keys to learning.

Scott Foresman-Addison Wesley Elementary Mathematics is a core curriculum for students at all ability levels in kindergarten through grade 6. The program supports students’ understanding of key math concepts and skills, and it covers a range of mathematical content across grades. The curriculum focuses on questioning strategies, problem-solving skills, embedded assessment, and exercises tailored to students of different ability levels. The program provides explicit problem-solving instruction, hands-on activities, and opportunities to extend students’ mathematical understanding through reading and writing connections.

Read Naturally is an elementary and middle school supplemental reading program designed to improve reading fluency using a combination of books, audiotapes, and computer software. The program has three main strategies: repeated reading of text for developing oral reading fluency, teacher modeling of story reading, and systematic monitoring of student progress by teachers and the students themselves. Students work at a reading level appropriate for their achievement level, progress through the program at their own rate, and, for the most part, work on an independent basis. Read Naturally® can be used in a variety of settings, including classrooms, resource rooms, or computer or reading labs. Although the program was not originally developed for English language learners, additional materials for these students are currently available.

Fast ForWord® is a computer-based reading program intended to help students develop and strengthen the cognitive skills necessary for successful reading and learning. The program, which is designed to be used 30 to 100 minutes a day, five days a week, for 4 to 16 weeks, includes two components.

Ladders to Literacy is a supplemental early literacy curriculum published in Ladders to Literacy: A Kindergarten Activity Book. The program targets children at different levels and from diverse cultural backgrounds. The activities are organized into three sections with about 20 activities each: print awareness, phonological awareness skills, and oral language skills.

An early childhood curriculum that focuses on project-based investigations as a means for children to apply skills. It addresses four areas of development: social/emotional, physical, cognitive, and language.

Investigations in Number, Data, and Space is an activity-based, K–5 mathematics curriculum designed to help students understand number and operations, geometry, data, measurement, and early algebra. Each instructional unit focuses on a particular content area and lasts for 2–5.5 weeks. The curriculum encourages students to develop their own strategies for solving problems and engage in discussion about their reasoning and ideas. The lessons are activity-based in order to facilitate increased comprehension of basic math fundamentals. The curriculum is presented through a series of resource books called ”curriculum units” that provide teachers with guidance on implementation. One or more of the units for each year has a software program associated with it. Other materials include manipulatives, flash cards, overheads, and textbooks.

LANGUAGE!® is a language arts intervention designed for struggling learners in grades 3–12 who score below the 40th percentile on standardized literacy tests. The curriculum integrates English literacy acquisition skills into a six-step lesson format. During a daily lesson, students work on phonemic awareness and phonics (word decoding), word recognition and spelling (word encoding), vocabulary and morphology (word meaning), grammar and usage (understanding the form and function of words in context), listening and reading comprehension, and speaking and writing.

Talent Development Middle Grades Program (TDMG) is a whole school reform approach for large middle schools that face serious problems with student attendance, discipline, and academic achievement. The program includes both structural and curriculum reforms. It calls for schools to reorganize into small ”learning communities” of 200–300 students who attend classes in distinct areas of the school and stay together throughout their time in middle school. In addition to structural changes, schools adopting the program purchase one or more curricula that are intended to be developmentally appropriate and to engage students with culturally relevant content. For students who are behind in reading and math, the program provides additional periods devoted to these subjects that include group activities and computer-based lessons. To improve implementation, each school is assigned a team of “curriculum coaches” trained by the developer to work with school staff on a weekly basis to implement the program. In addition, teachers are offered professional development training, including monthly sessions designed to familiarize them with the program and demonstrate effective instructional approaches.

Great Explorations in Math and Science® (GEMS®) The Real Reasons for Seasons is a curriculum unit for grades 6–8 that focuses on the connections between the Sun and the Earth to teach students the scientific concepts behind the seasons. The unit utilizes models, hands-on investigations, peer-to-peer discussions, reflection, and informational student readings to help students understand science content and develop scientific investigation skills.

Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies is a peer-tutoring program for grades K–6 that aims to improve student proficiency in several disciplines. During the 30-35 minute peer-tutoring sessions, students take turns acting at the tutor, coaching and correcting one another as they work through problems. The designation of tutoring pairs and skill assignment is based on teacher judgement of student needs and abilities, and teachers reassign tutoring pairs regularly.  

Success for All (SFA®) is a whole-school reform model (that is, a model that integrates curriculum, school culture, family, and community supports) for students in prekindergarten through grade 8. SFA® includes a literacy program, quarterly assessments of student learning, a social-emotional development program, computer-assisted tutoring tools, family support teams for students’ parents, a facilitator who works with school personnel, and extensive training for all intervention teachers. The literacy program emphasizes phonics for beginning readers and comprehension for all students. Teachers provide reading instruction to students grouped by reading ability for 90 minutes a day, 5 days a week. In addition, certified teachers or paraprofessionals provide daily tutoring to students who have difficulty reading at the same level as their classmates.

Open Court Reading© is a reading program for grades K–6 that is designed to teach decoding, comprehension, inquiry, and writing in a three-part progression. Part One of each unit, Preparing to Read, focuses on phonemic awareness, sounds and letters, phonics, fluency, and word knowledge. Part Two, Reading and Responding, emphasizes reading literature for understanding, comprehension, inquiry, and practical reading applications. Part Three, Language Arts, focuses on writing, spelling, grammar, usage, mechanics, and basic computer skills.

Reading Mastery is designed to provide systematic reading instruction to students in grades K–6. Reading Mastery can be used as an intervention program for struggling readers, as a supplement to a school’s core reading program, or as a stand-alone reading program, and is available in three versions. During the implementation of Reading Mastery, students are grouped with other students at a similar reading level, based on program placement tests. The program includes a continuous monitoring component.

ARIES: Exploring Motion and Forces is a physical science curriculum for students in grades 5–8 that employs 18 inquiry-centered, hands-on lessons called “explorations.” The curriculum draws upon students’ curiosity to explore phenomena, allowing for a discovery-based learning process. Group-centered lab work is designed to help students build an understanding of inertia, friction, gravity, speed, and acceleration. Students examine their prior ideas about the phenomena, formulate questions, build and use an apparatus to observe natural phenomena, make predictions, and gather data through structured experiments. Exploring Motion and Forces is part of the ARIES sequence of eight physical science units. The ARIES sequences can be used together for an overall curriculum or independently.

Milieu teaching is a practice that involves manipulating or arranging stimuli in a preschool child’s natural environment to create a setting that encourages them to engage in a targeted behavior. For example, a teacher might place a desirable toy in a setting to encourage a child to request that toy (where requesting a toy is the desired target behavior). Typically, milieu teaching involves four strategies that a teacher will utilize to encourage a child to demonstrate a target behavior: modeling, mand-modeling, incidental teaching, and time-delay. Through adult modeling and functional consequences associated with child requests, targeted language behaviors can be improved in children who may have language delays or disabilities.

The Incredible Years is composed of training programs for children, parents, and teachers. The child program is designed for children (ages 0–12) with challenging behaviors and focuses on building social and emotional skills. Lessons can be delivered to children referred for difficult behavior or to an entire classroom as a preventative measure. The program consists of 20- to 30-minute lessons 2–3 times a week; these lessons are reinforced by small-group activities, practicing skills throughout the day, and communicating with parents. Lessons cover recognizing and understanding feelings, getting along with friends, anger management, problem solving, and behavior at school. Parent training programs focus on positive discipline, promoting learning and development, and involvement in children’s life at school.

Chemistry That Applies is an instructional unit designed to help students in grades 8–10 understand the law of conservation of matter. It consists of 24 lessons organized in four clusters. Working in groups, students explore four chemical reactions: burning, rusting, the decomposition of water, and the reaction of baking soda and vinegar. As part of the unit, students conduct experiments in which they cause these reactions to happen, obtain and record data in individual notebooks, analyze the data, and use evidence-based arguments to explain the data. The instructional unit engages the students in a structured sequence of hands-on laboratory investigations interwoven with other forms of instruction.

Student team reading and writing refers to two cooperative learning programs for secondary students: (1) Student Team Reading and Writing and (2) Student Team Reading. The Student Team Reading and Writing program is an integrated approach to reading and language arts for early adolescents. Student Team Reading comprises the reading part of Student Team Reading and Writing and consists of two principal elements: (1) literature-related activities (including partner reading, treasure hunts, word mastery, story retelling, story-related writing, and quizzes) and (2) direct instruction in reading comprehension strategies (such as identifying main ideas and themes, drawing conclusions, making predictions, and understanding figurative language).

The Incredible Years is composed of training programs for children, parents, and teachers. The child program is designed for children (ages 0–12) with challenging behaviors and focuses on building social and emotional skills. Lessons can be delivered to children referred for difficult behavior or to an entire classroom as a preventative measure. The program consists of 20- to 30-minute lessons 2–3 times a week; these lessons are reinforced by small-group activities, practicing skills throughout the day, and communicating with parents. Lessons cover recognizing and understanding feelings, getting along with friends, anger management, problem solving, and behavior at school. Parent training programs focus on positive discipline, promoting learning and development, and involvement in children’s life at school.

Check & Connect is a dropout prevention strategy that relies on close monitoring of school performance, mentoring, case management, and other supports. The program has two main components: “Check” and “Connect.” The Check component is designed to continually assess student engagement through close monitoring of student performance and progress indicators. The Connect component involves program staff giving individualized attention to students, in partnership with school personnel, family members, and community service providers. Students enrolled in Check & Connect are assigned a “monitor” who regularly reviews their performance (in particular, whether students are having attendance, behavior, or academic problems) and intervenes when problems are identified. The monitor also advocates for students, coordinates services, provides ongoing feedback and encouragement, and emphasizes the importance of staying in school.

Coping Power is based on the earlier Anger Coping Power program. It emphasizes social and emotional skills that are needed during the transition to middle school. The program incorporates child and parent components. The child component consists of thirty-four 50-minute group sessions and periodic individual sessions over the course of 15–18 months, although the program can be shortened to fit into a single school year. Lessons focus on goal setting, problem solving, anger management, and peer relationships. The parent component is composed of 16 group sessions and periodic individual meetings. Lessons support the child component of the program and address setting expectations, praise, discipline, managing stress, communication, and child study skills.

Repeated reading is an academic practice that aims to increase oral reading fluency. Repeated reading can be used with students who have developed initial word reading skills but demonstrate inadequate reading fluency for their grade level. During repeated reading, a student sits in a quiet location with a teacher and reads a passage aloud at least three times. Typically, the teacher selects a passage of about 50 to 200 words in length. If the student misreads a word or hesitates for longer than 5 seconds, the teacher reads the word aloud, and the student repeats the word correctly. If the student requests help with a word, the teacher reads the word aloud or provides the definition. The student rereads the passage until he or she achieves a satisfactory fluency level.

AVID is a college-readiness program whose primary goal is to prepare middle and high school students for enrollment in 4-year colleges through increased access to and support in advanced courses. The program, which focuses on underserved, middle-achieving students (defined as students earning B, C, and even D grades), places students in college preparatory classes (e.g., honors and Advancement Placement classes) while providing academic support through a daily elective period and ongoing tutorials.

Reciprocal teaching is an interactive instructional practice that aims to improve students’ reading comprehension by teaching strategies to obtain meaning from a text. The teacher and students take turns leading a dialogue regarding segments of the text. Students discuss with their teacher how to apply four comprehension strategies—generating questions, summarizing, clarifying, and predicting—to passages of text. During the early stages of reciprocal teaching, the teacher assumes primary responsibility for modeling how to use these strategies. As students become more familiar with the strategies, there is a gradual shift toward student responsibility for talking through the application of the strategies to the text.

Corrective Reading is designed to promote reading accuracy (decoding), fluency, and comprehension skills of students in grade 3 or higher who are reading below their grade level. The program has four levels that correspond to students’ decoding skills. All lessons in the program are sequenced and scripted. Corrective Reading can be implemented in small groups of 4–5 students or in a whole-class format. Corrective Reading is intended to be taught in 45-minute lessons 4–5 times a week.

Service and Conservation Corps engages young adults in full-time community service, job training, and educational activities. The program serves youth who are typically between the ages of 17 and 26 and who have dropped out of school, been involved with the criminal justice system, or face other barriers to success. Participants are organized into small crews that carry out environmental and energy conservation, urban infrastructure improvement, and other service projects intended to benefit local communities. These crews are guided by adult leaders who serve as mentors and role models. All participants receive educational training, in addition to a variety of job training and support services. Youth who have dropped out of school receive classroom training to secure a GED (General Educational Development) or high school diploma. Participants receive a living allowance while in the program. Those who complete the program are usually eligible for post-program educational stipends or small cash awards.

ClassWide Peer Tutoring (CWPT) is a peer-assisted instructional strategy designed to be integrated with most existing reading curricula. This approach provides students with increased opportunities to practice reading skills by asking questions and receiving immediate feedback from a peer tutor. Pairs of students take turns tutoring each other to reinforce concepts and skills initially taught by the teacher. The teacher creates age-appropriate peer teaching materials for the peer tutors; these materials take into account tutees’ language skills and disabilities.

READ 180® is a reading program designed for struggling readers who are reading 2 or more years below grade level. It combines online and direct instruction, student assessment, and teacher professional development. READ 180® is delivered in 90-minute sessions that include whole-group instruction, three small-group rotations, and whole-class wrap-up. Small-group rotations include individualized instruction using an adaptive computer application, small-group instruction, and independent reading. READ 180® is designed for students in elementary through high school.

Read Naturally is an elementary and middle school supplemental reading program designed to improve reading fluency using a combination of books, audiotapes, and computer software. The program has three main strategies: repeated reading of text for developing oral reading fluency, teacher modeling of story reading, and systematic monitoring of student progress by teachers and the students themselves. Students work at a reading level appropriate for their achievement level, progress through the program at their own rate, and, for the most part, work on an independent basis. Read Naturally® can be used in a variety of settings, including classrooms, resource rooms, or computer or reading labs. Although the program was not originally developed for English language learners, additional materials for these students are currently available.

The Wilson Reading System® is a reading and writing program. It provides a curriculum for teaching reading and spelling to individuals of any age who have difficulty with written language. The Wilson Reading System® directly teaches the structure of words in the English language, aiming to help students learn the coding system for reading and spelling. The program provides interactive lesson plans and uses a sequential system with extensive controlled text. The Wilson Reading System® is structured to progress from phoneme segmentation to more challenging tasks, and seeks to improve sight word knowledge, fluency, vocabulary, oral expressive language development, and reading comprehension.

Project Read® is a multisensory language arts curriculum designed for use in a classroom or group setting. Two main objectives of the program are to use language in all its forms, and to use responsive instruction rather than preplanned textbook lessons. The program emphasizes direct instruction, and lessons move from letter-sounds to words, sentences, and stories. Project Read® has three strands: Phonics/Linguistics, Reading Comprehension, and Written Expression, which are integrated at all grade levels, though the emphasis of the specific strands differs by grade.

PLATO® Achieve Now is a software-based curriculum for the elementary and middle school grades that focuses on pre-algebraic concepts and includes content pertaining to rational numbers in related organizational patterns, proportion and percent, integers, probability, statistics, problem solving, geometry, measurement, and the foundational concepts of algebra I. Instructional content is delivered via the PlayStation Portable (PSP®) system, allowing students to access learning materials in various settings. Software-based assessments are used to customize individual instruction, allowing students to learn at their own pace with content appropriate for their skill level.

Reading Recovery® is an intervention that provides one-on-one tutoring to students in grade 1 with low literacy achievement. This supplemental program aims to improve student reading and writing skills by providing one-on-one tutoring, tailoring the content of each lesson to each student based on observations and analyses of the student strengths and weaknesses from prior lessons. Trained Reading Recovery® teachers deliver tutoring daily in 30-minute one-on-one sessions over the course of 12 to 20 weeks. Reading Recovery® teachers incorporate instruction in topics such as phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, writing, oral language, and motivation depending on student needs.

Accelerated Reader™ is a computerized supplementary reading program that provides guided reading instruction to students in grades K–12. It aims to improve students’ reading skills through reading practice and by providing frequent feedback on students’ progress to teachers. The Accelerated Reader™ program requires students to select and read a book based on their area of interest and reading level. Upon completion of a book, students take a computerized quiz based on the book’s content and vocabulary. Quiz performance allows teachers to monitor student progress and to identify students who may need additional reading assistance.

Summer Training and Education Program (STEP) is a summer employment, academic remediation, and life skills program intended to reduce school dropout rates by addressing summer learning loss and preventing teen parenthood. The program serves low-income 14- and 15-year-olds who have tested below grade level in either reading or math. The program is integrated into the federal summer jobs program and is offered as sessions of 6–8 weeks in two consecutive summers. It includes part-time summer work at minimum wage, a daily reading and math curriculum, and “life skills and opportunities” classes that focus on topics such as sexual behavior, drug use, careers, and community involvement.

Talent Development Middle Grades Program (TDMG) is a whole school reform approach for large middle schools that face serious problems with student attendance, discipline, and academic achievement. The program includes both structural and curriculum reforms. It calls for schools to reorganize into small ”learning communities” of 200–300 students who attend classes in distinct areas of the school and stay together throughout their time in middle school. In addition to structural changes, schools adopting the program purchase one or more curricula that are intended to be developmentally appropriate and to engage students with culturally relevant content. For students who are behind in reading and math, the program provides additional periods devoted to these subjects that include group activities and computer-based lessons. To improve implementation, each school is assigned a team of “curriculum coaches” trained by the developer to work with school staff on a weekly basis to implement the program. In addition, teachers are offered professional development training, including monthly sessions designed to familiarize them with the program and demonstrate effective instructional approaches.

Middle College High Schools are alternative high schools located on college campuses that aim to help at-risk students complete high school and encourage them to attend college. The schools offer a project-centered, interdisciplinary curriculum with an emphasis on team teaching, individualized attention, and development of critical thinking skills. Students are also offered support services, including specialized counseling, peer support, and career experience opportunities.

Tools of the Mind is an early childhood curriculum for preschool and kindergarten children. The curriculum is designed to foster children’s executive function, which involves developing self-regulation, working memory, and cognitive flexibility. Many activities emphasize both executive functioning and academic skills.

First Things First is a reform model intended to transform elementary, middle, and high schools serving significant proportions of economically disadvantaged students. Its three main components are: (1) “small learning communities” of students and teachers; (2) a family and student advocate system that pairs staff members and students to monitor and support progress, and that serves as a bridge between the school and family; and (3) instructional improvements to make classroom teaching more rigorous and engaging and more closely aligned with state standards and assessments.

Project “Graduation Really Achieves Dreams” (GRAD) is an initiative for students in economically disadvantaged communities that aims to reduce dropping out and increase rates of college enrollment and graduation by increasing reading and math skills, improving behavior in school, and providing a service safety net. At the high school level, Project GRAD provides 4-year college scholarships and summer institutes to promote attending and completing high school. Project GRAD also provides services in the elementary and middle schools that feed into the participating high schools.

The Quantum Opportunity Program (QOP) is an intensive and comprehensive program for high school-aged youth that offers case management, mentoring, tutoring, and other education and support services. The program also offers financial incentives for participation in program activities. Participants enter QOP in grade 9 and can receive services for 4–5 years, even if they drop out of school or move to another district.

Talent Development High Schools is a school reform model for restructuring large high schools with persistent attendance and discipline problems, poor student achievement, and high dropout rates. The model includes both structural and curriculum reforms. It calls for schools to reorganize into small “learning communities”—including ninth-grade academies for first-year students and career academies for students in upper grades—to reduce student isolation and anonymity. It also emphasizes high academic standards and provides all students with a college preparatory academic sequence.

Core-Plus Mathematics is a 4-year curriculum that replaces the traditional sequence with courses that each feature interwoven strands of algebra and functions, statistics and probability, geometry and trigonometry, and discrete mathematics. The curriculum emphasizes mathematical modeling, using technology to emphasize reasoning with multiple representations (verbal, numerical, graphical, and symbolic) and to focus on goals in which mathematical thinking and problem solving are central. Instructional materials promote active learning and teaching centered around collaborative small-group investigations of problem situations, followed by teacher-led whole-class summarizing activities that lead to analysis, abstraction, and further application of underlying mathematical ideas.

The SuccessMaker program is a set of computer-based courses used to supplement regular classroom reading instruction in grades K–8. Using adaptive lessons tailored to a student’s reading level, SuccessMaker aims to improve understanding in areas such as phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and concepts of print.

The SuccessMaker program is a set of computer-based courses used to supplement regular classroom reading instruction in grades K–8. Using adaptive lessons tailored to a student’s reading level, SuccessMaker aims to improve understanding in areas such as phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and concepts of print.

The SuccessMaker program is a set of computer-based courses used to supplement regular classroom reading instruction in grades K–8. Using adaptive lessons tailored to a student’s reading level, SuccessMaker aims to improve understanding in areas such as phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and concepts of print.

Read Well® is a reading curriculum to increase the literacy abilities of students in kindergarten and grade 1. The program provides instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency. Students are given opportunities to discuss the vocabulary concepts that are presented in each story. The program is based on the tenets of scaffolded instruction, where teachers begin by presenting models, and gradually decrease their support by providing guided practice, before students are asked to complete the skill or strategy independently. For example, the student and teacher read new text aloud, with the teacher reading the difficult or irregular words. As student skills (and motivation) increase, the amount of teacher-read text decreases, and the student is given greater independence. The program combines daily whole class activities with small group lessons.

Headsprout Early Reading is an online supplemental early literacy curriculum consisting of eighty 20-minute animated episodes. The episodes are designed to teach phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. The program adapts to a child’s responses, providing additional instruction and review if a child does not choose the correct answer. Teachers may use stories based on the episodes to reinforce instruction provided in the lessons.

Headsprout Early Reading is an online supplemental early literacy curriculum consisting of eighty 20-minute animated episodes. The episodes are designed to teach phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. The program adapts to a child’s responses, providing additional instruction and review if a child does not choose the correct answer. Teachers may use stories based on the episodes to reinforce instruction provided in the lessons.

Sound Foundations, a literacy curriculum designed to teach phonological awareness to preliterate children, focuses exclusively on phoneme identity (that is, different words can start and end with the same sound). It works from the principle that phonemic awareness is necessary but not sufficient to reading. The curriculum is self-contained and can be used by teachers, parents, or teaching assistants.

Project Read® is a multisensory language arts curriculum designed for use in a classroom or group setting. Two main objectives of the program are to use language in all its forms, and to use responsive instruction rather than preplanned textbook lessons. The program emphasizes direct instruction, and lessons move from letter-sounds to words, sentences, and stories. Project Read® has three strands: Phonics/Linguistics, Reading Comprehension, and Written Expression, which are integrated at all grade levels, though the emphasis of the specific strands differs by grade.

Direct Instruction refers to a family of interventions that includes all Direct Instruction products (DISTAR and Language for Learning), as well as to all versions past and present. Direct Instruction includes teaching techniques that are fast-paced, teacher-directed, and explicit with opportunities for student response and teacher reinforcement or correction.

Sound Foundations, a literacy curriculum designed to teach phonological awareness to preliterate children, focuses exclusively on phoneme identity (that is, different words can start and end with the same sound). It works from the principle that phonemic awareness is necessary but not sufficient to reading. The curriculum is self-contained and can be used by teachers, parents, or teaching assistants.

Progress in Mathematics © 2006 is a core curriculum for students in kindergarten through grade 6. Progress in Mathematics © 2006 uses a sequence of systematic lesson plans to teach mathematical concepts and skills. It incorporates the following features at each grade level: explicit instruction of mathematics content; development of conceptual understanding through a three-step process that begins with hands-on activities (concrete thinking to visual thinking to symbol use); fluency in numerical computation; problem solving; development of mathematical vocabulary; practice and review; and different types of assessment. Student textbooks, student workbooks, and teacher’s editions are available for each grade level, as well as manipulatives and online practice exercises.

Houghton Mifflin Mathematics is a core mathematics curriculum for students at all ability levels in kindergarten through grade 6. At each grade level, the program focuses on basic skills development, problem solving, and vocabulary expansion to help students master key math concepts. Students practice daily math lessons through instructional software, enrichment worksheets, manipulatives, and workbooks, in addition to student textbooks. The program incorporates assessments—including lesson-level interventions to meet the needs of all learners—to monitor students’ progress.

Transition Mathematics aims to increase applied arithmetic, pre-algebra, and pre-geometry skills in students in grades 7–12 . This 1-year curriculum also addresses general application to different wordings of problems, types of numbers, and contexts for problems and aims to promote mathematical reading skills. The curriculum uses the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project (UCSMP) textbook. The sequence of the topics intends to assist the transition from arithmetic to algebra and geometry.

Words and Concepts is a computer software program that focuses on building oral language skills related to vocabulary, comprehension, word relationships, and other concepts. The program is comprised of six units—vocabulary, categorization, word identification by function, word association, concept of same, and concept of different. It can be used by adults and children with varying special needs, including language-learning disabilities, developmental disabilities, physical impairments, hearing and vision impairments, and autism.

Lions Quest Skills for Action, a program to build positive character values and life and citizenship skills for students in grades 9–12, includes classroom lessons and service learning. The program includes more than 100 lessons focused around 26 personal, social, and thinking skills. Program length ranges from one semester to 4 years. Students explore personal stories highlighting values and behavior through teachers’ questions, group discussion, and resource pages in the curricular materials. For service learning, students perform school-based or community-based projects and reflect on their experiences. Optional components include a student magazine, an Advisory Team, and supplemental units on drug use prevention.

Voices Literature and Character Education Program (Voices LACE; formerly known as Voices of Love and Freedom and Literacy and Values) is a K–12 program that aims to promote positive character and citizenship values, literacy skills, and social skills. The program curriculum can be used over any length of time. During classroom lessons, students read books about issues such as ethnic discrimination, fighting, or bullying, and elaborate on central themes through role-playing and discussions practiced in school and at home. Emphasis is given to promoting caring relationships between teachers and students and among students, and to connecting the values taught to students’ personal stories. Voices LACE may also be implemented as a schoolwide improvement program. Optional components of the program include schoolwide events and restructuring of school organization and practices (establishing student assemblies and creating small learning communities), parental involvement (home visits and family nights), and community support (joint campaigns with supporting organizations and business).

Lions Quest Skills for Adolescence is a schoolwide program for middle school students (grades 6–8). The program is designed to promote good citizenship skills, core character values, social-emotional skills, and discourage the use of drugs, alcohol, and violence. The program includes a classroom curriculum, schoolwide practices to create a positive school climate, parent and family involvement, and community involvement. The curriculum may vary in scope and intensity, lasting from 9 weeks to 3 years. The lessons use cooperative group learning exercises and classroom management techniques to improve classroom climate.

An Ethics Curriculum for Children, a read-aloud literature-based curriculum, aims to teach elementary school students seven universal attributes of good character. Lessons and home assignments are organized around multicultural stories. The program activities are designed to connect the experiences of characters in the stories to students’ own lives. Optional parts of the Heartwood Ethics Curriculum for Children also include integration of character education themes across curricular topics and parental notification and involvement.

Open Court Reading© is a reading program for grades K–6 that is designed to teach decoding, comprehension, inquiry, and writing in a three-part progression. Part One of each unit, Preparing to Read, focuses on phonemic awareness, sounds and letters, phonics, fluency, and word knowledge. Part Two, Reading and Responding, emphasizes reading literature for understanding, comprehension, inquiry, and practical reading applications. Part Three, Language Arts, focuses on writing, spelling, grammar, usage, mechanics, and basic computer skills.

The Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing® (LiPS®) program (formerly called the Auditory Discrimination in Depth® [ADD] program) is designed to teach students the skills they need to decode words and to identify individual sounds and blends in words. LiPS® is designed for emergent readers in kindergarten through grade 3 or for struggling, dyslexic readers. The program is individualized to meet students’ needs and is often used with students who have learning disabilities or difficulties. Initial activities engage students in discovering the lip, tongue, and mouth actions needed to produce specific sounds. After students are able to produce, label, and organize the sounds with their mouths, subsequent activities in sequencing, reading, and spelling use the oral aspects of sounds to identify and order them within words. The program also offers direct instruction in letter patterns, sight words, and context clues in reading.

Stepping Stones to Literacy (SSL) is a supplemental curriculum designed to promote listening, print conventions, phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and serial processing/rapid naming (quickly naming familiar visual symbols and stimuli, such as letters or colors). The program targets older preschool and kindergarten students who are considered to be underachieving readers, based on teacher’s recommendations, assessments, and systematic screening. Students participate in 10- to 20-minute daily lessons in a small group or individually. The curriculum consists of 25 lessons, for a total of 9–15 hours of instructional time.

This report presents the findings from an independent evaluation conducted by WestEd on the Expository Reading and Writing Curriculum (ERWC). Funded by an Investing in Innovation (i3) Validation grant, the ERWC is a grade 11 and grade 12 English language arts (ELA) curriculum developed by the California State University. The independent evaluation includes an evaluation of the fidelity of implementation of the curriculum and an impact evaluation that took place during the 2020/21 school year. The fidelity of implementation evaluation found that a high percentage of teachers participated in the professional learning with fidelity but that few teachers taught the full curriculum with fidelity, and these results were due to many factors, including time constraints and shifts in instruction due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The grade 11 impact evaluation found that assignment to the ERWC had a positive and statistically significant impact on student achievement as measured by the Non-Performance Task Interim Comprehensive Assessment; however, no statistically significant impact was detected among the students who took the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessment. In the grade 12 impact evaluation, there was no statistically significant difference in achievement between students who had enrolled in the ERWC and students who had enrolled in the comparison English course. Further evaluation of the ERWC in a non-pandemic year during which schooling takes place in person is recommended.

This study examines the efficacy, cost, and implementation of an integrated science and literacy curriculum for kindergarten. The study was conducted in a large urban district and included 1,589 students in 71 classrooms in 21 schools. The research includes a multi-site cluster-randomized controlled trial and mixed-methods cost and implementation studies. Analysis revealed significant impacts on comprehension, letter-naming fluency, and motivation to read. No main impacts were observed on decoding, word identification, or writing; however, exploratory analysis revealed that students whose teachers implemented the treatment with fidelity performed statistically significantly better in writing and decoding. The cost to produce the observed effects was estimated at $480 per student, two-thirds of which was borne by the school. Despite this cost, treatment classrooms achieved savings by using an average of three fewer instructional programs than control classrooms. Teachers reported positive effects from the integrated curriculum on student engagement, learning, and behavior.

This is the first study to provide experimental evidence of the impact of corequisite remediation for students underprepared in reading and writing. We examine the short-term impacts of three different approaches to corequisite remediation that were implemented at five large urban community colleges in Texas, and we explore whether corequisites have differential impacts on students with different characteristics. Results from three first-time-in-college cohorts indicate that corequisite remediation increased the probability of completing a first college-level English course within one year by 24 percentage points and within two years by 18 percentage points. The impacts were positive for all three of the corequisite models examined and for traditionally underrepresented groups, including Hispanic students, first-generation college students, and students whose first language is not English. We saw modest positive impacts on the accumulation of college credits but no effect on persistence in college.

Most community college students are referred to developmental education courses to build basic skills. These students often struggle in these courses and college more broadly. CUNY Start is a prematriculation program for students assessed as having significant remedial needs. CUNY Start students delay matriculation for one semester and receive time-intensive instruction in math, reading, and writing with a prescribed pedagogy delivered by trained teachers. The program aims to help students complete remediation and prepare for college-level courses. This article describes the results of an experiment at four community colleges (n [is approximately equal to] 3,800). We estimate that over three years, including one semester that students spent in the program and two-and-a-half years after the program was complete, CUNY Start substantially increased college readiness, slightly increased credit accumulation, and modestly increased graduation rates (by increasing participation in CUNY's highly effective ASAP).

This paper presents new estimates of the effects of the City University of New York (CUNY) Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) model, evaluated using a randomized controlled trial first in New York and later through a replication in Ohio. It describes longer-term effects of CUNY ASAP in New York, showing that the program's effects on associate's degree receipt persisted through eight years and likely represent a permanent increase in degree receipt. The paper also offers an analysis from the pooled study samples in New York and Ohio. The findings indicate that the program has consistent effects on degree receipt across different states but also for somewhat different levels of service contrast, such as the number of additional advising visits.

The New York City P-TECH Grades 9-14 schools represent an education model that ties together the secondary, higher education, and workforce systems as a way to improve outcomes in both domains. The distinguishing feature of the P-TECH 9-14 model, as it is referred to in this report, is a partnership between a high school, a local community college, and one or more employer partners that focuses on preparing students for both college and careers -- not one or the other -- within a six-year timeframe. Education and workforce development are traditionally seen as separate spheres of influence with multiple transition points that students have been left to navigate largely on their own (for example, high school to postsecondary, and postsecondary to the workforce). P-TECH 9-14 is designed to seamlessly assist student navigation of those points -- supporting student success and mitigating the potential for students to fall through the cracks. P-TECH 9-14 schools collaborate with local colleges to provide students with an opportunity to earn a high school diploma (within four years) followed by a cost-free, industry-recognized associate's degree. During the six-year program, employer partners support P-TECH 9-14 schools by providing students with work-based learning experiences such as internships, mentoring, and job shadowing. By design, the P-TECH 9-14 model offers students the opportunity to participate in focused and accelerated high school pathways, early college, and career-focused activities. This study offers initial impact and implementation findings from the first rigorous evaluation of the model, evaluating the first seven P-TECH 9-14 schools that opened in New York City. The study leverages the random lottery process created by the New York City High School Admissions System to identify impacts. The majority of the students in the sample who participated in the admissions lotteries were academically below proficiency in both math and English language arts (ELA) prior to entering high school. [This report was written with Fernando Medina. For the executive summary, see ED605313.]

Many talented students in under-resourced schools do not reach their full potential. Research shows that by sixth grade, children born into poverty have likely spent 6,000 fewer hours learning than their middle-class counterparts. Higher Achievement, an intensive summer and after-school program, aims to close that learning gap. It offers participants more than 500 hours of academic enrichment activities a year to help them meet the high academic standards expected of college-bound students. Known as "scholars"; Higher Achievement students enter the program during the summer before either fifth or sixth grade and commit to attending through eighth grade. The summer program consists of six weeks of morning classes in English Language Arts (ELA), math, science, and, in some centers, social studies, followed by enrichment activities in the afternoon, including chess, cooking, art, and soccer. During the school year, in addition to the program's regular study hall and enrichment activities, a cadre of mostly young professionals volunteer one day a week, delivering 75-minute ELA or math lessons to small groups of scholars. These volunteers receive detailed lesson plans and training so they can successfully execute the program's rigorous curricula. Part of what makes Higher Achievement affordable is its use of volunteers in this way. An earlier experimental evaluation of Metro DC, Higher Achievement's flagship affiliate in Washington, DC, and Alexandria, Virginia, found that the program was effective in improving academic performance two years after students applied. Since then, Higher Achievement has expanded to three new cities: Baltimore, Maryland; Richmond, Virginia; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Keenly aware that many effective flagship programs fail to be effective in new locations, the federal government funded an experimental validation study to examine the impacts at these expansion sites. Eligible students were randomly assigned either to a program group that could participate in Higher Achievement, or to a control group that could not enroll in the program. Comparing the two groups' outcomes provided an estimate of the program's impacts. The study found that the expansion sites experienced many of the implementation challenges common to school-based, out-of-school-time programs (for example, staff turnover, coordination with the host school, and lower-than-hoped-for attendance by middle school students), as well as those often seen in new programs (such as a lack of strong relationships with key partners and difficulty recruiting volunteers). Even so, Higher Achievement was found to be at least adequately implemented in all three cities. The study found that the program's detailed lesson plans, with scripted questions and student instructions, enabled the volunteers to deliver rigorous academic lessons. This report addresses the following questions: (1) How did the Higher Achievement centers operate during the study and what lessons are there for similar programs?; (2) Did scholars receive more academic enrichment over the two-year study period than they would have received without Higher Achievement?; and (3) How did Higher Achievement impact scholars' grades and test scores over the two years since they applied?

Mission HydroSci (MHS) is a 3D game-based learning environment and curriculum that supports middle school student learning of water systems science and scientific argumentation. MHS is a rigorous, coherent and engaging 6 to 8-day curriculum with all learning activities and social interactions taking place in the virtual world and with teachers observing and supporting students through an online support system enhanced by analytics. MHS was evaluated in comparison to a high- quality alternative intervention developed by the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) using a stratified randomized block experimental design where 'classroom' was the unit of random assignment, stratified by teacher. The comparison curriculum is called Earth's Water Systems (EWS) and is provided online using the Canvas learning management platform. Three measurable outcomes: (1) content knowledge, (2) competency in scientific argumentation, and (3) affect for science and technology were used in the pre- post-comparison of MHS with EWS. The findings of this randomized experiment showed that MHS achieved roughly equivalent water systems learning outcomes and significantly higher development of argumentation competencies when compared to the EWS curriculum. The impacts of both MHS and the EWS curriculum on affect for science and technology were equivalent and slightly negative. A secondary exploratory quasi-experimental design (QED) analysis was conducted that found significant positive effects for MHS in comparison to EWS on water systems understandings and stronger detected effects for students' argumentation.

The purpose of this study was to examine the treatment effects of the Incredible Years Teacher Classroom Management (IY TCM), a universal classroom management intervention, on the outcomes of children with aggressive behavior in elementary school. Classroom management has been demonstrated as a factor in either escalating children's aggressive behavior or decreasing those problematic behaviors. Participants included 1,817 students (Grade K to 3) and 105 teachers from nine elementary schools in a large urban Midwestern school district. Teachers were randomly assigned to receive IY TCM or to a wait-list comparison group. The hypotheses were that baseline levels of aggression would moderate the relationship between intervention status and outcomes. Findings indicated the hypothesized moderation effect on several outcome variables; specifically, children with baseline aggression problems who were in IY TCM classrooms had significantly improved math achievement, emotional regulation, prosocial behaviors, and observed aggression in comparison to similar peers in the control classrooms. Implications for practice and future research based on the findings are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to test the efficacy of a comprehensive program model originally developed by the National Professional Development Center on Autism Spectrum Disorder (NPDC). Sixty elementary schools with 486 participants were randomly assigned to an NPDC and services as usual condition (SAU). Significantly greater changes in program quality occurred in the inclusive NPDC programs as compared with the SAU schools. Teachers in NPDC schools reported using more evidence-based practices (EBPs) and implemented EBPs with significantly greater fidelity than teachers in SAU schools. Autistic students in NPDC schools had significantly higher total attainment of educational goals than students in SAU schools, and the two groups made equivalent progress on standardized assessment outcomes across the school year. [This is the online first version of an article published in "Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders."]

The New York City P-TECH Grades 9-14 schools represent an education model that ties together the secondary, higher education, and workforce systems as a way to improve outcomes in both domains. The distinguishing feature of the P-TECH 9-14 model, as it is referred to in this report, is a partnership between a high school, a local community college, and one or more employer partners that focuses on preparing students for both college and careers -- not one or the other -- within a six-year timeframe. Education and workforce development are traditionally seen as separate spheres of influence with multiple transition points that students have been left to navigate largely on their own (for example, high school to postsecondary, and postsecondary to the workforce). P-TECH 9-14 is designed to seamlessly assist student navigation of those points -- supporting student success and mitigating the potential for students to fall through the cracks. P-TECH 9-14 schools collaborate with local colleges to provide students with an opportunity to earn a high school diploma (within four years) followed by a cost-free, industry-recognized associate's degree. During the six-year program, employer partners support P-TECH 9-14 schools by providing students with work-based learning experiences such as internships, mentoring, and job shadowing. By design, the P-TECH 9-14 model offers students the opportunity to participate in focused and accelerated high school pathways, early college, and career-focused activities. This study offers initial impact and implementation findings from the first rigorous evaluation of the model, evaluating the first seven P-TECH 9-14 schools that opened in New York City. The study leverages the random lottery process created by the New York City High School Admissions System to identify impacts. The majority of the students in the sample who participated in the admissions lotteries were academically below proficiency in both math and English language arts (ELA) prior to entering high school. [This report was written with Fernando Medina. For the executive summary, see ED605313.]

Early colleges are a new model of schooling in which the high school and college experiences are merged, shortening the total amount of time a student spends in school. This study uses a lottery-based experimental design to examine the impact of the model on longer term outcomes, including attainment of a postsecondary credential and academic performance in 4-year institutions. Results show that a significantly higher proportion of early college students were attaining postsecondary credentials. The results also show that early college students were completing their degrees more rapidly but that their performance in 4-year institutions was still comparable with the control students. [For the corresponding grantee submission, see ED604350.]

Early colleges are a new model of schooling in which the high school and college experiences are merged, shortening the total amount of time a student spends in school. This study uses a lottery-based experimental design to examine the impact of the model on longer term outcomes, including attainment of a postsecondary credential and academic performance in 4-year institutions. Results show that a significantly higher proportion of early college students were attaining postsecondary credentials. The results also show that early college students were completing their degrees more rapidly but that their performance in 4-year institutions was still comparable with the control students. [For the corresponding grantee submission, see ED604350.]

The nation's community colleges play a central role in producing a more educated workforce and promoting social mobility. They serve about 40 percent of all college students and, not surprisingly, they serve a disproportionate number of low-income and underrepresented students. But most students who enter these colleges do not graduate--only about a third of entering students earn a degree or certificate within six years. Among the many programs that have attempted to increase graduation rates, one program stands out. Developed by the City University of New York (CUNY), the Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) is a comprehensive program that provides students with up to three years of financial and academic support and other support services. Along with those services and other forms of support comes an obligation to attend full time and participate in essential program services. An experimental evaluation of CUNY ASAP found that the program nearly doubled graduation rates after three years. This report presents findings through three years from a replication of the ASAP model at three community colleges in Ohio. Low-income students were randomly assigned either to a program group, who could participate in their colleges' new programs based closely on ASAP (called the Ohio Programs), or to a control group, who could receive the usual college services. Comparing the two groups' outcomes provides an estimate of the Ohio Programs' effects. The findings from the evaluation add to a body of evidence showing that comprehensive programs that offer academic, financial, and other forms of student support for multiple years are an effective way to increase college completion rates. The fact that the earlier CUNY ASAP findings have now been replicated in Ohio suggests that ASAP in particular can serve as a national model to help students succeed.

Financial aid from the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation (STBF) provides exceptionally generous support to a college population similar to that served by a host of state aid programs. In conjunction with STBF, we randomly assigned aid awards to thousands of Nebraska high school graduates from low-income, minority, and first-generation college households. Randomly- assigned STBF awards boost bachelor's (BA) degree completion for students targeting four-year schools by about 8 points. Degree gains are concentrated among four-year applicants who would otherwise have been unlikely to pursue a four-year program. Degree effects are mediated by award-induced increases in credits earned towards a BA in the first year of college. The extent of initial four-year college engagement explains heterogeneous effects by target campus and across covariate subgroups. Most program spending is a transfer, reducing student debt without affecting degree attainment. Award-induced marginal spending is modest. The projected lifetime earnings impact of awards exceeds marginal educational spending for all of the subgroups examined in the study. Projected earnings gains exceed funder costs for low-income, non-white, urban, and first-generation students, and for students with relatively weak academic preparation. [Financial support for this report was provided from the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation and the MIT SEII seed fund.]

This report presents findings from Encouraging Additional Summer Enrollment [EASE], which used behavioral insights in two informational campaigns, with and without tuition assistance, to encourage community college students to take summer classes. Both interventions increased enrollment and had a modest impact on credits earned and positive return on investment for colleges. [The Encouraging Additional Summer Enrollment (EASE) project is funded by Ascendium Education Group. This report was written with Xavier Alemañy.]

Pell Grants are the cornerstone of federal financial aid for low-income students enrolled in postsecondary education. Currently, these grants are available only to those who seek an initial undergraduate degree or credential lasting at least a typical semester. Because these rules may restrict access to programs providing skills needed for new or better jobs, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) began pilots of two experimental expansions to Pell Grant eligibility in 2011. The first experiment allowed income-eligible students with a bachelor's degree to obtain Pell Grants for short-term occupational training programs. The second experiment allowed income-eligible students to obtain Pell Grants for very short-term programs lasting as little as eight weeks. This report presents the results from a rigorous evaluation of the experiments conducted by ED's Institute of Education Sciences. The evaluation examined whether these pilot eligibility expansions increased enrollment in and completion of occupational training programs, a first step toward improving individuals' success in the labor market. [For the appendix, see ED609409. For the study highlights, see ED609410.]

Virtually all community colleges and more than 90 percent of public four-year colleges use the results of placement tests--either alone or in concert with other information--to determine whether students are ready for college-level coursework or need remedial help in math or English. Evidence suggests that placement tests do a poor job of indicating which students need remediation. The Center for the Analysis of Postsecondary Readiness (CAPR) is studying an alternative placement system that uses multiple measures--including both placement test scores and high school GPAs--in predictive algorithms to place incoming students into remedial or college-level courses. Seven community colleges in the State University of New York system participated in the random assignment study to determine whether multiple measures placement leads to better student outcomes than a system based on test scores alone. Using multiple measures placement, many more students were assigned to college-level courses. In math, gains in college-level enrollment and completion were small and short-lived. But in English, the effects were much larger and lasted through at least three semesters. Regardless of whether they were predicted to succeed, students did better when they were allowed to start in college-level courses. A report on longer-term outcomes from the study will be released in summer 2022.

Most students who begin at a community college leave without earning a degree. Given the growing emphasis on student success, many colleges have implemented re-enrollment campaigns designed to foster re-engagement and degree completion among former students. However, there is a lack of causal evidence on their effectiveness. We implement a text message-based re-enrollment campaign in partnership with several Florida community colleges. Former students who were previously successful academically are randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups that either receives information to simplify the re-enrollment process or receives both information and a one-course tuition waiver. When comparing outcomes of former students who received information on re-enrollment to members in the control group, we find that providing information that simplifies the re-enrollment process has a small, statistically insignificant effect on re-enrolling. In contrast, offering both information and a one-course tuition waiver to recent dropouts significantly increases the likelihood of re-enrollment by 1.5 percentage points (21 percent) and full-time re-enrollment by 0.6 percentage points (22 percent). The effects are concentrated among former students who have accumulated the most credits and those with lower grade point averages. This study highlights the importance of targeted interventions that address informational and financial barriers facing former students.

Preschool teachers from a high-poverty, urban school district were trained to implement Story Talk, a book reading intervention designed to increase children's vocabulary and language development using supportive materials and strategic individualized coaching. Thirty-five teachers were randomly assigned by site to the intervention (20) or the control condition (15). Teachers in the intervention were provided with training; one-to-one, bi-monthly coaching; and Story Maps that included target vocabulary, open-ended questions to promote conversations during book reading, and suggested extension activities that support use of target vocabulary. The results suggested that teachers in the intervention increased on the global quality of their instruction, as well as on their fidelity to the project's strategies and their use of target vocabulary words. In addition, children in the intervention classrooms performed significantly better on measures of taught vocabulary words, and HLM analyses found gains on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-4 (d?=?0.19) and the Expressive One Word Picture Vocabulary Test-4 (d?=?0.14), both standardized measures of vocabulary development. The results suggest that Story Talk holds promise as a relatively resource-conservative PD intervention that can be implemented with fidelity and can significantly improve children's vocabulary development, especially among children in high-poverty schools.

Postsecondary education is widely seen as a necessity in the modern economy, yet among low and middle-income families, college enrollment rates are dismayingly low -- and graduation rates are even lower. College Promise programs, which cover local students' college tuition and fees, are one strategy states and municipalities use to help. But traditionally, these programs look only to expand college access, not to address college success. Detroit's Promise program was designed to encourage college attendance among some of the nation's most underserved students, those in Detroit, Michigan. The next step was to help students succeed once they enrolled in college. To do so, MDRC and the Detroit Promise partnered to create the Detroit Promise Path, an evidence-based student services program. This report presents findings from MDRC's randomized controlled trial evaluation of the Detroit Promise Path. About two-thirds of eligible students were randomly assigned to be offered the new program, while the rest were assigned to a control group who receives the Promise scholarship alone, and thus does not meet with coaches or receive incentives. Comparing the two groups' outcomes over time provides a reliable estimate of the effects of the Detroit Promise Path. The findings in this report include the following: (1) The program has a positive effect on students' persistence in school, full-time enrollment, and credit accumulation; (2) Although it is too early to reach a conclusion about effects in the second year of the study, the early findings are encouraging; and (3) Participation rates were high among enrolled students, and students reported positive experiences in the program, especially in their relationships with their coaches. It is clear that Detroit Promise Path is having a positive effect on students in the first two years. This evaluation shows that building student support services into Promise scholarships can have a meaningful effect on students' academic progress. [Additional funding for this report was provided by the Michigan Education Excellence foundation.]

Nationwide, graduation rates at community colleges are discouragingly low. This randomized experiment provides evidence that graduation rates can be increased dramatically. The City University of New York's (CUNY) Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) is a comprehensive, integrated, 3-year program that has an estimated 18 percentage point effect on 3-year graduation rates, increases 6-year graduation rates by an estimated 10 percentage points, and helps students graduate more quickly. Graduation effect estimates of this magnitude are exceptional in randomized experiments conducted in higher education, offering hope of what is possible when serving low-income students.

In 2010, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded the first round of five-year Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG 1.0) to 32 organizations in 23 states; five were tribal organizations. The purpose of the HPOG Program is to provide education and training to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients and other low-income individuals for occupations in the healthcare field that pay well and are expected to either experience labor shortages or be in high demand. HPOG 1.0 grantees designed and implemented programs to provide eligible participants with education, occupational training, and support and employment services to help them train for and find jobs in a variety of healthcare professions. The ACF Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation supports a multipronged research and evaluation strategy to assess the success of the HPOG Program. To assess its effectiveness, the first round of local HPOG programs was evaluated using an experimental design in which eligible program applicants were assigned at random to a "treatment" group that could access the program or a "control" group that could not. To compute the program's impact, the outcomes for each group were compared. This document reports on the impacts that arose about three years after random assignment. It reports an overall average impact across the diverse HPOG 1.0 programs, as well as impacts for selected subgroups of study participants.

Colleges throughout the United States are evaluating the effectiveness of the strategies used to decide whether to place students into college-level or developmental education courses. Developmental, or remedial, courses are designed to develop the reading, writing, or math skills of students deemed underprepared for college-level courses, a determination usually made through standardized placement tests. However, increasing numbers of colleges are using multiple measures to place students, including additional types of placement tests, high school transcripts, and evaluations of student motivation. The current study was developed to add to the understanding about the implementation, cost, and efficacy of an multiple measures assessment (MMA) system using locally determined rules. As part of a randomized controlled trial, the study team evaluated MMA programs and interviewed and observed staff at five colleges in Minnesota and Wisconsin; it also wrote a short case study about one Wisconsin college. The five colleges in the random assignment study targeted all students taking placement tests in the months before the fall 2018 semester. In the four colleges included in the current analysis, 5,282 students participated in the study; of these, 3,677 were tested for English, and 4,487 were tested for math. The findings suggest that while implementation (especially automation) was not easy, it was possible; and using the new MMA systems became much easier once they were established.

Analyses of literacy and numeracy levels worldwide by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development suggest that the U.S. population has one of the lowest numeracy levels among developed nations. Sixty-four percent of American adults are unable to use math and interpret math problems that most higher-level jobs require, and a full 30 percent can perform only basic mathematical computations such as arithmetic or solve simple one-step operations such as counting. These findings reveal the critical need to improve American adults' math skills. Even in the U.S. educational context, many people continue to struggle with learning math, and college preparatory math classes, also known as developmental or remedial math, present a particular challenge. This report presents the findings of a study of a popular math pathways innovation, the Dana Center Mathematics Pathways (DCMP, formerly the New Mathways Project). It examines the effects of the implementation of the DCMP's curricular models, which entail changes in both math content and instructional methods in developmental education and college-level courses while also accelerating developmental students' progress into college-level math. Using a randomized controlled trial, this evaluation examines how four Texas community colleges implemented the DCMP at their institutions in developmental and college-level classrooms and looks at the differences in instruction between these courses and colleges' standard math courses. Additionally, the study analyzes the impact of the DCMP on students' academic outcomes for up to four semesters and compares the costs of the initiative with colleges' standard course pathways. Following an introduction in chapter one, the remainder of the report is divided into five chapters. Chapter 2 discusses in more detail the DCMP model and expectations for its implementation. Chapter 3 discusses the implementation of the DCMP at the four colleges, and the fidelity and contrast between the DCMP and the colleges' standard math courses. Chapter 4 analyzes the DCMP's impact on students' outcomes. Chapter 5 examines the costs of the DCMP. Finally, Chapter 6 provides concluding thoughts and recommendations for next steps in research and practice. [For the Executive Summary, see ED600651.]

Building on a previous randomized experiment of the impact of Early Colleges (ECs) (Berger et al., 2013), this follow-up study assessed longer-term impacts of ECs on students' postsecondary outcomes 6 years after expected high school graduation. It also explored the extent to which students' high school experiences mediate EC impacts. Specifically, this study addressed three research questions: (1) Did EC students have better postsecondary outcomes (i.e., college enrollment and degree attainment) than control students? (2) Did the impacts of ECs vary by student background characteristics (i.e., gender, race/ethnicity, low-income status, and prior mathematics and English language arts [ELA] achievement)? and (3) Were the impacts of ECs mediated by students' high school experiences (i.e., college credit accrual during high school, instructional rigor, college-going culture, and student supports)? To answer these questions for the follow-up study, the authors analyzed 4 more years of postsecondary outcome data from the StudentTracker Service at the National Student Clearinghouse for students participating in the EC admission lotteries that were the basis of the previous impact study. They also analyzed data on student background characteristics from administrative records and data on high school experiences from a student survey administered in the previous impact study 5 or 6 years after students entered the ninth grade. [To view the earlier report, "Early College, Early Success: Early College High School Initiative Impact Study," see ED577243.]

We investigated whether individual differences in overall receptive vocabulary knowledge measured at the beginning of the year moderated the effects of a kindergarten vocabulary intervention that supplemented classroom vocabulary instruction. We also examined whether moderation would offset the benefits of providing Tier-2 vocabulary intervention within a multitiered-system-of-support (MTSS) or response-to-intervention framework. Participants included students from two previous studies identified as at risk for language and learning difficulties who were randomly assigned in clusters to receive small-group vocabulary intervention in addition to classroom vocabulary instruction (n = 825) or to receive classroom vocabulary instruction only (n = 781). A group of not-at-risk students (n = 741) who received classroom vocabulary instruction served as a reference group. Initial vocabulary knowledge measured at pretest moderated the impact of intervention on experimenter-developed measures of expressive vocabulary learning and listening comprehension favoring students with higher initial vocabulary knowledge. Tier-2 intervention substantially counteracted the Matthew effect for target word learning. Intervention effects on listening comprehension depended on students' initial vocabulary knowledge. Implications present benefits and challenges of supporting vocabulary learning within an MTSS framework.

We report the results of a preregistered, cluster randomized controlled trial of a mathematics learning intervention known as interleaved practice. Whereas most mathematics assignments consist of a block of problems devoted to the same skill or concept, an interleaved assignment is arranged so that no 2 consecutive problems require the same strategy. Previous small-scale studies found that practice assignments with a greater proportion of interleaved practice produced higher test scores. In the present study, we assessed the efficacy and feasibility of interleaved practice in a naturalistic setting with a large, diverse sample. Each of 54 7th-grade mathematics classes periodically completed interleaved or blocked assignments over a period of 4 months, and then both groups completed an interleaved review assignment. One month later, students took an unannounced test, and the interleaved group outscored the blocked group, 61% versus 38%, d 0.83. Teachers were able to implement the intervention without training, and they later expressed support for interleaved practice in an anonymous survey they completed before they knew the results of the study. Although important caveats remain, the results suggest that interleaved mathematics practice is effective and feasible.

The period of early adolescence is characterized by dramatic changes, simultaneously affecting physiological, psychological, social, and cognitive development. The physical transition from elementary to middle school can exacerbate the stress and adversity experienced during this critical life stage. Middle school students often struggle to find social and emotional support, and many students experience a decreased sense of belonging in school, diverting students from promising academic and career trajectories. Drawing on psychological insights for promoting belonging, we fielded a brief intervention designed to help students reappraise concerns about fitting in at the start of middle school as both temporary and normal. We conducted the first district-wide double-blind experimental study of this approach with middle-school students (N=1,304). Compared to the control condition activities, the intervention reduced sixth-grade disciplinary incidents across the district by 34%, increased attendance by 12%, and reduced the number of failing grades by 18%. Differences in benefits across demographic groups were not statistically significant but some impacts were descriptively larger for historically underserved minority students and boys. A mediational analysis suggested 80% of long-term intervention effects on students' GPA were accounted for by changes in students' attitudes and behaviors. These results demonstrate the long-term benefits of psychologically reappraising stressful experiences during critical transitions and the psychological and behavioral mechanisms that support them. Furthermore, this brief intervention is a highly cost-effective and scalable approach that schools may use to help address the troubling decline in positive attitudes and academic outcomes typically accompanying adolescence and the middle school transition. [This paper was published in "Proceeedings of the National Academy of Sciences" v116 p16286-16291 2019.]

This is the final report of a large-scale independent evaluation of the Building Assets and Reducing Risks (BARR) model in ninth grade in eleven high schools in Maine, California, Minnesota, Kentucky, and Texas. This sample of schools included large and small schools in urban, suburban, and rural areas, serving students from a wide range of demographic and socio-economic backgrounds. Funded with a validation grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Investing in Innovation (i3) program and carried out by researchers at the American Institutes for Research (AIR), this evaluation used random assignment of ninth-grade students to BARR and control conditions to estimate the impacts of the BARR model after one year. The evaluation also assessed the fidelity of implementation of BARR in the eleven study schools and identified barriers to and facilitators of successful implementation. The evaluation focused on several teacher- and student-level outcomes. The teacher outcomes included measures of teacher collaboration, and use of data, among others. The academic outcomes included course failure, students' grade point average (GPA), and performance on the Northwest Evaluation Association's (NWEA) Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) standardized reading and mathematics assessments. Student-reported experiences included measures of supportive relationships, perceptions of teachers' expectations of them, student engagement, and others. In addition to these outcomes, the report includes impact estimates for attendance, suspensions, and persistence into 10th grade. [This report was written with Brenna O'Brien, Cheryl Graczewski, So Jung Park, Feng Liu, Ethan Adelman-Sil, Lynn Hu.]

The purpose of this replication study was to provide replication evidence not currently available of the effects of a research-based mathematics program, schema-based instruction, on the mathematical problem-solving performance of 7th-grade students. The replication was implemented in 36 schools in 5 districts; 59 mathematics teachers and their students (N = 1,492) participated in the study. Multilevel hierarchical linear analyses revealed statistically significant differences between conditions on proximal and distal measures of mathematics problem solving, with effects sizes similar to those reported in Jitendra et al. (2015).

The recent wave of test-based accountability reforms has negatively impacted the provision of K-12 arts educational experiences. Advocates contend that, in addition to providing intrinsic benefits, the arts can positively influence academic and social development. However, the empirical evidence to support such claims is limited. We conducted a randomized controlled trial with 10,548 3rd-8th grade students who were enrolled in 42 schools that were assigned by lottery to receive substantial influxes of arts education experiences provided through school-community partnerships with local arts organizations, cultural institutions, and teaching-artists. We find that these increases in arts educational experiences significantly reduce the proportion of students receiving disciplinary infractions by 3.6 percentage points, improve STAAR writing achievement by 0.13 of a standard deviation, and increase students' compassion for others by 0.08 of a standard deviation. For students in elementary schools, which comprise 86 percent of the sample, we find that these arts educational experiences also significantly improve school engagement, college aspirations, and arts-facilitated empathy. These findings provide strong evidence that arts educational experiences can produce significant positive impacts on student academic and social development. Policymakers should consider these multifaceted educational benefits when assessing the role and value of the arts in K-12 schools.

The U.S. Department of Education tested a set of promising, low-cost advising strategies, called "Find the Fit," designed to help low-income and "first generation" students enrolled in the Department's Upward Bound program choose more selective colleges and stay in until they complete a degree. About 200 Upward Bound projects with 4,500 seniors agreed to participate. The projects were randomly assigned to receive "Find the Fit" to supplement their regular college advising (treatment group) or to offer their regular advising (control group). This first of three reports looks at "Find the Fit's" effects on students' steps toward enrolling in a more selective college. The study found that the enhanced advising increased the number and selectivity of colleges to which students applied. [For the study snapshot, "Study of Enhanced College Advising in Upward Bound: Impacts on Steps toward College. Study Snapshot. NCEE 2019-4002," see ED588785. For the study highlights, "Study of Enhanced College Advising in Upward Bound: Impacts on Steps toward College. Study Highlights. NCEE 2019-4002," see ED588786.]

Data-based problem solving is a hallmark of research-supported practices such as positive behavioral interventions and supports. In this study, we provided members of positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) teams from 38 elementary schools with professional development focused on a research-supported problem-solving model (Team-Initiated Problem Solving). We used direct observations to document procedures, practices, and outcomes before and after participating in the professional development workshop. Within the context of a randomized waitlist controlled trial, team members in the Immediate Group demonstrated greater improvement in (a) problem-solving procedures, (b) decision-making practices, and (c) meeting outcomes than did members of PBIS teams in the Waitlist Group. Our findings extend what is known about team-based problem solving and provide a framework for future research and improved practice related to decision making by school teams.

This report documents the implementation and early impacts of the Carreras en Salud (Careers in Health) program, operated by Instituto del Progreso Latino, in Chicago, Illinois. The Carreras en Salud program is one promising effort aimed at helping low-income, low-skilled adults access and complete occupational training that can lead to increased employment and higher earnings. A distinctive feature of this program is its focus on training for low-income Latinos for employment in healthcare occupations, primarily Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) and Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN). It is among nine career pathways programs being evaluated in the Pathways for Advancing Careers and Education (PACE) study sponsored by the Administration for Children and Families. The Carreras en Salud program consists of five elements: (1) a structured healthcare training pathway, starting at low skill levels; (2) contextualized and accelerated basic skills and ESL instruction; (3) academic advising and non-academic supports; (4) financial assistance; and (5) employment services. Using a rigorous research design, the study found that the Carreras en Salud program increased hours of occupational training and basic skills instruction received and the attainment of education credentials within an 18-month follow-up period. The program also increased employment in the healthcare field and resulted in a reduction of participants reporting financial hardship.

Many incoming college students are referred to remedial programs in math or English based on scores they earn on standardized placement tests. Yet research shows that some students assigned to remediation based on test scores would likely succeed in a college-level course in the same subject area without first taking a remedial course if given that opportunity. Research also suggests that other measures of student skills and performance, and in particular high school grade point average (GPA), may be useful in assessing college readiness. The Center for the Analysis of Postsecondary Readiness (CAPR) is conducting a random assignment study of a multiple measures placement system based on data analytics to determine whether it yields placement determinations that lead to better student outcomes than a system based on test scores alone. Seven community colleges in the State University of New York (SUNY) system are participating in the study. The alternative placement system evaluated uses data on prior students to weight multiple measures--including both placement test scores and high school GPAs--in predictive algorithms developed at each college that are then used to place incoming students into remedial or college-level courses. Over 13,000 incoming students who arrived at these colleges in the fall 2016, spring 2017, and fall 2017 terms were randomly assigned to be placed using either the status quo placement system (the control group) or the alternative placement system (the program group). The three cohorts of students will be tracked through the fall 2018 term, resulting in the collection of three to five semesters of outcomes data, depending on the cohort. This interim report, the first of two, examines implementation of the alternative placement system at the colleges and presents results on first-term impacts for 4,729 students in the fall 2016 cohort. The initial results are promising. The final report, to be released in 2019, will examine a range of student outcomes for all three cohorts, including completion of introductory college-level courses, persistence, and the accumulation of college credits over the long term. [This report was written with Dan Cullinan.]

This report describes the implementation and early impacts of the Washington State Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) program at three colleges: Bellingham Technical College, Everett Community College, and Whatcom Community College. I-BEST is a nationally known program that aims to increase access to and completion of college-level occupational training in a variety of in-demand occupational areas. Its signature feature is team teaching by a basic skills instructor and an occupational instructor during at least 50 percent of occupational training class time. Colleges operated I-BEST programs in one or more occupational areas including automotive, electrical, office skills, nursing, precision machining, and welding. I-BEST is one of nine career pathways programs being evaluated under the Pathways for Advancing Careers and Education (PACE) study sponsored by the Administration for Children and Families. The I-BEST program was launched in Washington in the 2006-07 academic year by the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges. I-BEST aims to help students in basic skills programs (e.g., Adult Basic Education, English as a Second Language), who otherwise might have spent time in remediation, to enroll and succeed in college-level occupational training courses. Each I-BEST program is a course of study within a structured career pathway, and it offers students the opportunity to obtain credentials and college credits in in-demand occupations. Besides the team teaching, the I-BEST program evaluated in PACE also included two enhancements: financial support for tuition and associated materials; and additional advising services focused on supporting students' academic needs, navigating college procedures, and career planning. Using a rigorous research design, the study found that the I-BEST programs at the three colleges increased participation in college level courses, number of credits earned and credential attainment. Future reports will examine whether the I-BEST program resulted in gains in employment and earnings.

Many students who enter community college are deemed underprepared for college-level courses and are referred to developmental (remedial) education courses to build their math, reading, or writing skills. These students often struggle in developmental courses and in college more broadly. To help them, the City University of New York (CUNY) developed CUNY Start. CUNY Start targets incoming students who are assessed as needing remediation in math, reading, and writing. The program delays college matriculation (enrollment in a degree program) for one semester and provides intensive instruction in math, reading, and writing during that semester with a prescribed instructional approach. It also provides advising, tutoring, and a weekly seminar that teaches students skills they need to succeed in college. This report is an evaluation of the program. Findings in this report include: (1) CUNY Start was implemented as it was designed, and the contrast between the program and the colleges' standard courses and services was substantial; (2) During the first semester in the study, program group students made substantially more progress through developmental education than control group students; effects were especially large in math. In contrast, during that same semester, control group students earned more college credits than program group students, as predicted by CUNY Start's designers; and (3) During the second semester, program group students enrolled at CUNY colleges (that is, participated in CUNY Start or enrolled in any non-CUNY Start courses as matriculated students) at a higher rate than control group students. Seven appendices are included.

This report documents the implementation and early impacts of Year Up--a national sectoral training program for urban young adults aged 18-24. Operated by an organization of the same name, Year Up provides six months of full-time training in the IT and financial service sectors followed by six-month internships at major firms. The full-time program provides extensive supports--including weekly stipends--and puts a heavy emphasis on the development of professional and technical skills. Year Up is one of nine programs in the federally sponsored Pathways for Advancing Careers and Education (PACE) evaluation. It is among the most intensive workforce training programs tested to date. More than half (59 percent) of the program's $28,290 per-participant cost is funded by employer payments for interns. Using a random assignment design, the study found that Year Up increased receipt of employment and training services. Compared to control group members who were not able to access the program, treatment group members were more likely to report that their classes used active learning methods, taught life skills, and were relevant to their lives and careers. Most importantly, young adults with access to Year Up had higher average quarterly earnings in the sixth and seventh quarters after random assignment--the confirmatory outcome selected to gauge Year Up's overall success for this report. Persisting over a three-year follow-up period, Year Up's earnings impacts are the largest reported to date for workforce programs tested using a random assignment design.

While the United States has made strides in increasing college access among low-income students, college completion has remained low. Graduation rates are particularly low at the nation's community colleges, which enroll a disproportionate percentage of low-income and nontraditional college students. Seeking to address this problem, in 2014 three community colleges in Ohio -- Cincinnati State Technical and Community College, Cuyahoga Community College, and Lorain County Community College -- undertook a new strategy to help more of their lowest-performing students succeed academically. The highly successful Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) developed by the City University of New York (CUNY) provided a model. ASAP is a comprehensive program that provides students with up to three years of financial and academic support and other support services to address multiple barriers to student success, with the goal of helping more students graduate within three years. This brief presents two-year impact, implementation, and cost findings for the pooled, full study sample in the ASAP Ohio demonstration. The findings show that students in the program group clearly outperformed the control group with respect to persistence in school, credit accumulation, and graduation. Graduation rates more than doubled: 19 percent of the program group earned a degree or credential after two years compared with 8 percent of the control group. The brief also presents some findings from analyses of the programs' implementation and costs. [This report was written with Sean Blake and Erick Alonzo.]

Research has consistently linked early problem behavior with later adjustment problems, including antisocial behavior, learning problems and risk for the development of emotional/behavioral disorders (EBDs). Researchers have focused upon developing effective intervention programs for young children who arrive in preschool exhibiting chronic problem behaviors; however, Tier-2 interventions that can be delivered by teachers with fidelity in authentic settings are lacking. This study examined the effect of BEST in CLASS, a Tier-2 intervention delivered by teachers, on child problem behavior, teacher-child interactions and teacher-child relationships using a cluster randomized controlled trial design. Participants were 465 children (3-5 year olds) identified at risk for the development of EBDs and their 185 teachers from early childhood programs located in two southeastern states. Significant effects were found across both teacher reported (ES ranging from 0.23 to 0.42) and observed child outcomes (ES ranging form 0.44-0.46), as well as teacher-child relationships (ES ranging from 0.26 to 0.29) and observed teacher-children interactions (ES ranging from 0.26 to 0.45), favoring the BEST in CLASS condition. Results suggest the promise of BEST in CLASS as a Tier-2 intervention for use in authentic early childhood classroom contexts and provide implications for future research on transactional models of teacher and child behavior.

Policymakers face dilemmas when choosing a policy, program, or practice to implement. Researchers in education, public health, and other fields have proposed a sequential approach to identifying interventions worthy of broader adoption, involving pilot, efficacy, effectiveness, and scale-up studies. In this paper, we examine a scale-up of an early math intervention to the state level, using a cluster randomized controlled trial. The intervention, "Pre-K Mathematics," has produced robust positive effects on children's math ability in prior pilot, efficacy, and effectiveness studies. In the current study, we ask if it remains effective at a larger scale in a heterogeneous collection of pre-K programs that plausibly represent all low-income families with a child of pre-K age who live in California. We find that "Pre-K Mathematics" remains effective at the state level, with positive and statistically significant effects (effect size = 0.30, p < 0.01). In addition, we develop a framework of the dimensions of scale-up to explain why effect sizes might decrease as scale increases. Using this framework, we compare the causal estimates from the present study to those from earlier, smaller studies. Consistent with our framework, we find that effect sizes have decreased over time. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our study for how we think about the external validity of causal relationships. [This is the online version of an article published in "Evaluation Review."]

This report summarizes the implementation and evaluation of the Accelerating Connections to Employment (ACE) program. The ACE program model is designed to improve employment and employment-related outcomes for low-skilled workers through formal partnerships between Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs) and community colleges. Implemented at nine sites across four states (Maryland, Texas, Connecticut and Georgia) from 2012 to 2015, ACE provided training, support services, job readiness and job placement support to 1,258 participants. The ACE program is defined by five core activities: (1) a program planning stage, consisting of a program selection process informed by local labor market information, (2) intake and eligibility testing, consisting of program orientation and suitability assessments, (3) training, incorporating elements of the I-BEST model to provide integrated basic and vocational skills instruction, (4) support services, including academic and transportation support and (5) transition and tracking, including job readiness and placement services. The final report describes these components and their implementation in detail, highlighting challenges encountered and lessons learned. Quantitative results from the randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluation of ACE are presented, as well as the results of a cost study describing the costs associated with implementing the ACE model. The research draws on quantitative data collected from state unemployment insurance (UI) records, a one-year and two-year multi-modal follow-up survey and intake and tracking data collected by ACE staff. Additional qualitative information, used to inform the implementation study, are drawn from annual site visit interviews, focus groups and classroom observations, as well as open-ended survey questions included in each of the follow-up surveys. Key findings. The quantitative results of the RCT evaluation show that ACE has a significant positive impact on employment rates and earnings for ACE participants at all but one of the ACE sites, as well as positive and significant impacts on credential attainment. The implementation study and fidelity assessment indicate that each of the ACE sites followed the program model, although the implementation of the ACE model evolved as sites identified new staffing and service needs. Specifically, sites adapted to unanticipated challenges by adding new staff positions and adapting program procedures to better serve participants. [This report was Submitted to the Baltimore County Department of Economic and Workforce Development and the Workforce Innovation Fund National Evaluation Coordinator. For the Appendices, see ED618507.]

Using data from seven cohorts of language immersion lottery applicants in a large, urban school district, we estimate the causal effects of immersion programs on students' test scores in reading, mathematics, and science, and on English learners' (EL) reclassification. We estimate positive intent-to-treat (ITT) effects on reading performance in fifth and eighth grades, ranging from 13 to 22 percent of a standard deviation, reflecting 7 to 9 months of learning. We find little benefit in terms of mathematics and science performance, but also no detriment. By sixth and seventh grade, lottery winners' probabilities of remaining classified as EL are three to four percentage points lower than those of their counterparts. This effect is stronger for ELs whose native language matches the partner language. [This article was published in: "American Educational Research Journal" v54 n1 suppl p282S-306S Apr 2017 (EJ1155308).]

With national focus on reading and math achievement, science and social studies have received less instructional time. Yet, accumulating evidence suggests that content knowledge is an important predictor of proficient reading. Starting with a design study, we developed content-area literacy instruction (CALI) as an individualized (or personalized) instructional program for kindergarteners through 4th graders to build science and social studies knowledge. We developed CALI to be implemented in general education classrooms, over multiple iterations (n = 230 students), using principles of design-based implementation research. The aims were to develop CALI as a usable and feasible instructional program that would, potentially, improve science and social studies knowledge, and could be implemented during the literacy block without negatively affecting students' reading gains (i.e., no opportunity cost). We then evaluated the efficacy of CALI in a randomized controlled field trial with 418 students in kindergarten through 4th grade. Results reveal that CALI demonstrates promise as a usable and feasible instructional individualized general education program, and is efficacious in improving social studies (d = 2.2) and science (d = 2.1) knowledge, with some evidence of improving oral and reading comprehension skills (d = 0.125).

UPSTART is a federally funded i3 validation project that uses a computer-based program to develop the school readiness skills of preschool children in rural Utah. Researchers used a randomized control trial design to evaluate the impact of the program in advancing children's early literacy skills. Preschoolers in the experimental group were randomly assigned to the UPSTART Reading software, while control group students were assigned to UPSTART Math. Standardized early literacy assessments were administered prior to program commencement and upon completion. Results revealed that there was a significant difference in children's mean scores on measures of letter knowledge and phonological awareness, after controlling for prior knowledge, missing pre-test data, and children's school district between those who participated in UPSTART Reading and those in the comparison group. There were no differences between the two groups on assessments measuring vocabulary and oral language or listening comprehension.

This study used a randomized controlled trial design to investigate the ROOTS curriculum, a 50-lesson kindergarten mathematics intervention. Ten ROOTS-eligible students per classroom (n = 60) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: a ROOTS five-student group, a ROOTS two-student group, and a no-treatment control group. Two primary research questions were investigated as part of this study: What was the overall impact of the treatment (the ROOTS intervention) as compared with the control (business as usual)? Was there a differential impact on student outcomes between the two treatment conditions (two- vs. five-student group)? Initial analyses for the first research question indicated a significant impact on three outcomes and positive but nonsignificant impacts on three additional measures. Results for the second research question, comparing the two- and five-student groups, indicated negligible and nonsignificant differences. Implications for practice are discussed. [For the corresponding grantee submission, see ED578431.]

Developed in response to concerns that too few students were enrolling and succeeding in postsecondary education, early college high schools are small schools that blur the line between high school and college. This article presents results from a longitudinal experimental study comparing outcomes for students accepted to an early college through a lottery process with outcomes for students who were not accepted through the lottery and enrolled in high school elsewhere. Results show that treatment students attained significantly more college credits while in high school, and graduated from high school, enrolled in postsecondary education, and received postsecondary credentials at higher rates. Results for subgroups are included.

Developed in response to concerns that too few students were enrolling and succeeding in postsecondary education, early college high schools are small schools that blur the line between high school and college. This article presents results from a longitudinal experimental study comparing outcomes for students accepted to an early college through a lottery process with outcomes for students who were not accepted through the lottery and enrolled in high school elsewhere. Results show that treatment students attained significantly more college credits while in high school, and graduated from high school, enrolled in postsecondary education, and received postsecondary credentials at higher rates. Results for subgroups are included. [This paper was published in the "Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness" (EJ1135800)]

Developed in response to concerns that too few students were enrolling and succeeding in postsecondary education, early college high schools are small schools that blur the line between high school and college. This article presents results from a longitudinal experimental study comparing outcomes for students accepted to an early college through a lottery process with outcomes for students who were not accepted through the lottery and enrolled in high school elsewhere. Results show that treatment students attained significantly more college credits while in high school, and graduated from high school, enrolled in postsecondary education, and received postsecondary credentials at higher rates. Results for subgroups are included. [This paper was published in the "Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness" (EJ1135800)]

Senior year of high school can be a pivotal time in a young person's life. For some, it is the last step on the path to college and work. For others, finding stable employment or attending university after high school is far from guaranteed. Urban Alliance, headquartered in Washington, DC, helps students at risk of becoming disconnected from work or school transition to higher education or employment after high school. Through its High School Internship Program, it offers participating high school seniors training, an internship, and mentoring to help them succeed. The Urban Institute recently completed an evaluation of the program in Washington, DC, and Baltimore. Using an experimental design, the study revealed several key findings approximately two years after high school.

This article describes the effects of an analysis-of-practice professional development (PD) program on elementary school students' (Grades 4-6) science outcomes. The study design was a cluster-randomized trial with an analysis sample of 77 schools, 144 teachers and 2,823 students. Forty-two schools were randomly assigned to treatment, (88.5 hours) of integrated analysis-of-practice and content deepening PD (over the course of one year) while 35 schools were randomly assigned to receive an equal number of PD hours in science content deepening alone. Students' content knowledge, as measured by a project-specific test, was compared across treatment groups. The effect size for this comparison was 0.52 standard deviations in favor of students whose teachers participated in the PD that included analysis-of-practice. This effect compares favorably to that of other elementary school interventions whose effectiveness was studied with a narrowly focused outcome measure. Analysis of the demographics of the study schools suggests that the treatment effect could be relevant outside the local study context. Implications for future research include tests of mediation for teacher-level outcomes and efficacy tests of specific teaching strategies (intervention subcomponents).

This report presents the findings from an efficacy trial and process evaluation of the Parent Engagement Programme (PEP). The PEP was a school-level intervention designed to improve pupil outcomes by engaging parents in their children's learning. The programme was developed collaboratively by research teams from the University of Bristol and Harvard University and was delivered between September 2014 and July 2015. The study was conducted by the Centre for Effective Education, Queen's University Belfast between February 2014 and February 2016. The trial involved 15,697 students in Years 7, 9, and 11 from 36 English secondary schools, with schools sending an average of 30 texts to each parent over the period of the trial. The developers of the intervention managed its delivery to ensure optimal implementation. It was a cluster randomised controlled trial with randomisation at the Key Stage level, designed to determine the impact of the intervention on the academic outcomes of students in English, maths, and science, and the impact on absenteeism. A process evaluation used focus groups, telephone surveys, interviews, and an online survey to provide data on implementation and to capture the perceptions and experiences of participating parents, pupils, and teachers. Key conclusions include: (1) Children who had the intervention experienced about one month of additional progress in maths compared to other children. This positive result is unlikely to have occurred by chance; (2) Children who had the intervention had reduced absenteeism compared to other children. This positive result is unlikely to have occurred by chance; (3) Children who had the intervention appeared to experience about one month of additional progress in English compared to other children. However, analysis suggests that this finding might have been affected by bias introduced by missing data, so evaluators cannot reliably draw this conclusion. There is no evidence to suggest that the intervention had an impact on science attainment; (4) Schools embraced the programme and liked its immediacy and low cost. Many respondents felt that the presence of a dedicated coordinator would be valuable to monitor the accuracy and frequency of texts. Schools should consider whether they would be able to provide this additional resource; and (5) The vast majority of parents were accepting of the programme, including the content, frequency, and timing of texts. [Note: The post-reporting appendix was added in June 2017.]

This study examined the efficacy of a supplemental, multicomponent adolescent reading intervention for middle school students who scored below proficient on a state literacy assessment. Using a within-school experimental design, the authors randomly assigned 483 students in grades 6-8 to a business-as-usual control condition or to the Strategic Adolescent Reading Intervention (STARI), a supplemental reading program involving instruction to support word-reading skills, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension, and peer talk to promote reading engagement and comprehension. The authors assessed behavioral engagement by measuring how much of the STARI curricular activities students completed during an academic school year, and collected intervention teachers' ratings of their students' reading engagement. STARI students outperformed control students on measures of word recognition (Cohen's d = 0.20), efficiency of basic reading comprehension (Cohen's d = 0.21), and morphological awareness (Cohen's d = 0.18). Reading engagement in its behavioral form, as measured by students' participation and involvement in the STARI curriculum, mediated the treatment effects on each of these three posttest outcomes. Intervention teachers' ratings of their students' emotional and cognitive engagement explained unique variance on reading posttests. Findings from this study support the hypothesis that (a) behavioral engagement fosters struggling adolescents' reading growth, and (b) teachers' perceptions of their students' emotional and cognitive engagement further contribute to reading competence.

In a randomized field trial with 2,850 seventh-grade mathematics students, we evaluated whether an educational technology intervention increased mathematics learning. Assigning homework is common yet sometimes controversial. Building on prior research on formative assessment and adaptive teaching, we predicted that combining an online homework tool with teacher training could increase learning. The online tool ASSISTments (a) provides timely feedback and hints to students as they do homework and (b) gives teachers timely, organized information about students' work. To test this prediction, we analyzed data from 43 schools that participated in a random assignment experiment in Maine, a state that provides every seventh-grade student with a laptop to take home. Results showed that the intervention significantly increased student scores on an end-of-the-year standardized mathematics assessment as compared with a control group that continued with existing homework practices. Students with low prior mathematics achievement benefited most. The intervention has potential for wider adoption. [For the corresponding grantee submission, see ED575159.]

For most students from low- or moderate-income families, successfully completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is a crucial gateway on the path to college access. However, FAFSA filing and income verification tasks pose substantial barriers to college access for low-income students. In this paper, the authors report on a pair of interventions that utilize automated, text-based outreach to: (1) provide students and families with customized information about the importance of and their status on completing the FAFSA; (2) simplify information for students and families about how to complete the FAFSA; and (3) connect students and families to personalized counseling assistance to complete the FAFSA as well as the subsequent verification process, if selected. Data from the study points to the benefit of text-based outreach as a low-cost and readily scalable strategy for improving student completion of important college-going milestones, such as timely FAFSA filing. Tables and figures are appended.

This study reports the results of a cluster RCT evaluating the impact of Enhanced Core Reading Instruction on reading achievement of grade 1 at-risk readers. Forty-four elementary schools, blocked by district, were randomly assigned to condition. In both conditions, at-risk readers received 90 minutes of whole-group instruction (Tier 1) plus an additional 30 minutes of daily, small-group intervention (Tier 2). In the treatment condition, Tier 1 instruction included enhancements to the core program and Tier 2 intervention was highly aligned with the core program. In the comparison condition, Tier 1 instruction used the same core program as treatment schools in the district and Tier 2 intervention followed standard district protocol. Significant treatment effects were found on measures of phonemic decoding and oral reading fluency from fall to winter and word reading from fall to spring. Student- and classroom-level variables predicted student response to instruction differentially by condition.

We conducted a potential efficacy trial examining the effects of classroom-wide implementation of the "Pyramid Model for Promoting Young Children's Social-Emotional Competence" on teachers' implementation of "Pyramid Model" practices and children's social-emotional skills and challenging behavior. Participants were 40 preschool teachers and 494 children. Using a randomized controlled design, 20 teachers received a professional development (PD) intervention to support their implementation of the practices. The 20 teachers in the control condition received workshops after all study-related data were collected. Teachers who received PD significantly improved their implementation of "Pyramid Model" practices relative to control teachers. Children in intervention teachers' classrooms were rated as having better social skills and fewer challenging behaviors relative to children in control teachers' classrooms. Exploratory analyses showed that children at elevated risk for behavior disorders in intervention teachers' classrooms had improvements in their observed social interaction skills relative to similar children in control teachers' classrooms.

Two intervention approaches designed to address the multifaceted academic and cognitive difficulties of low-income children who enter pre-K with very low math knowledge were tested in a randomized experiment. Blocking on classroom, children who met screening criteria were assigned to a Math + Attention condition in which the Pre-Kindergarten Mathematics Tutorial (PKMT) intervention was implemented (4 days/week for 24 weeks) in addition to 16 adaptive attention training sessions, a Math-Only condition using the PKMT intervention, or a business-as-usual condition. Five hundred eighteen children were assessed at pretest and posttest. There was a significant effect of the PKMT intervention on a broad measure of informal mathematical knowledge and a small but significant effect on a measure of numerical knowledge. Attention training was associated with small effects on attention, but did not provide additional benefit for mathematics. A main effect of state on math outcomes was associated with a stronger, numeracy-focused Tier 1 mathematics curriculum in one state. Findings are discussed with respect to increasing intensity of math-specific and domain-general interventions for young children at risk for mathematical learning difficulties.

The purpose of this report is to present the results of a two-year randomized control trial evaluation of the SPARK literacy program. SPARK is an early grade literacy program developed by Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee. In 2010, SPARK was awarded an Investing in Innovation (i3) Department of Education grant to further develop the program and test its impact in seven Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS). The evaluation used a randomized control trial selection to test the impact of SPARK across three domains: reading achievement, literacy, and school attendance. Informed consent was obtained from 576 parents for their students to participate in the study. A random sample of kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade students in seven MPS schools was selected in October and November of 2013 to participate. 286 students were randomly selected as SPARK participants and 290 students were randomly selected as control students. Stratification was done by school and grade level within school. The specific number of students selected to receive SPARK within each strata was determined both by the number of consented students and the capacity to serve students within each site. Students with a reading-related IEP or who were English Language Learners were not eligible to participate in the evaluation but were eligible to receive tutoring. All other students were eligible to participate. The results suggest that SPARK had statistically significant, positive impacts on reading achievement, literacy, and regular school day attendance. Tables are appended. [SREE documents are structured abstracts of SREE conference symposium, panel, and paper or poster submissions.]

A report released in April 2013 by Benjamin L Castleman of Harvard University and Lindsay C. Page of the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University examines the implications of two forms of interventions during the summer between high school and the first year of college on college enrollment. "Summer Nudging: Can Personalized Text Messages and Peer Mentor Outreach Increase College Going Among Low-Income High School Graduates?" details findings that text message reminders and peer mentor outreach programs can be an effective way to mitigate summer attrition. The report details two large-scale randomized trials done in collaboration with three educational agencies: the Dallas Independent School District (Dallas ISD), uAspire (a Boston-based nonprofit organization focused on college affordability), and Mastery Charter Schools (a network of charter schools in the Philadelphia metropolitan area). Castleman and Page reveal the positive impact these low-cost initiatives can have on college enrollment within low-income communities during an increasingly technological era.

Many college students never take, or do not pass, required remedial mathematics courses theorized to increase college-level performance. Some colleges and states are therefore instituting policies allowing students to take college-level courses without first taking remedial courses. However, no experiments have compared the effectiveness of these approaches, and other data are mixed. We randomly assigned 907 students to (a) remedial elementary algebra, (b) that course with workshops, or (c) college-level statistics with workshops (corequisite remediation). Students assigned to statistics passed at a rate 16 percentage points higher than those assigned to algebra (p < 0.001), and subsequently accumulated more credits. A majority of enrolled statistics students passed. Policies allowing students to take college-level instead of remedial quantitative courses can increase student success.

A college degree is often viewed as a key step toward better employment and higher earnings. Many community college students, however, never graduate and cannot reap the financial benefits associated with a college degree. Although existing research suggests that financial aid interventions can modestly improve students' short-term academic outcomes, there is little rigorous evidence on the critical question of whether such interventions improve graduation rates or employment outcomes. This study helps to fill that gap using a randomized controlled trial involving over 2,000 community college students in Ohio. It focuses on a student population composed predominantly of low-income mothers. The study includes four years of post-random assignment data to examine the long-term impact of a performance-based scholarship program--financial aid that is contingent on academic performance--on degree receipt, employment, and earnings. The findings provide evidence that the one-year program made a lasting impact on students' credit accumulation--still evident after four years--and decreased the time it took students to earn a degree, but the study does not provide evidence of impacts on employment outcomes.

Young people have been hit especially hard by changes in the labor market over the past decades. Unemployment among 16- to 24-year-olds increased the most of any age group during the recent recession, and remains more than double that among older adults. The unemployment rate is especially high for young people without high school diplomas. YouthBuild is one program that attempts to help this group, serving over 10,000 of them each year at over 250 organizations nationwide. Each organization provides construction-related or other vocational training, educational services, counseling, and leadership-development opportunities to low-income young people ages 16 to 24 who did not complete high school. YouthBuild is being evaluated using a randomized controlled trial, in which eligible young people at participating programs were assigned either to a program group, invited to enroll in YouthBuild, or to a control group, referred to other services in the community. The evaluation includes 75 programs across the country funded by the U.S. Department of Labor or the Corporation for National and Community Service and nearly 4,000 young people who enrolled in the study between 2011 and 2013. This report, the second in the evaluation, presents the program's effects on young people through two and a half years. About 75 percent of the young people assigned to the program group participated in YouthBuild, and about half of these participants reported that they graduated from the program within 12 months. YouthBuild led to a number of positive effects on young people, most consistently in the area of education and training. Main findings include: (1) YouthBuild increased participation in education and training, even though a high percentage of the young people in the control group also sought out and participated in education and training. Overall, participants rated their experiences in YouthBuild favorably, although some program components were rated more highly than others; (2) YouthBuild increased the rate at which participants earned high school equivalency credentials, enrolled in college, and participated in vocational training; (3) YouthBuild led to a small increase in wages and earnings at 30 months; (4) YouthBuild increased civic engagement, particularly volunteering, but had few effects on other measures of youth development or attitudes; and (5) YouthBuild had few effects on involvement in the criminal justice system. The program's interim effects on education and training are encouraging. A later report, measuring effects through four years, will examine whether these interim effects lead to longer-term gains in work and earnings. The following are appended: (1) Site Selection, Random Assignment, the Analysis Model, and Previous Evaluations; (2) Response Analyses for the 12- and 30-Month Surveys; (3) Survey Responses About YouthBuild Experiences and Service Receipt at 30 Months; and (4) Survey-Based Impacts and Subgroup Impacts at 12 Months and Selected Impacts Per Participant.

Community colleges offer a pathway to the middle class for low-income individuals. Although access to college has expanded, graduation rates at community colleges remain low, especially for students who need developmental (remedial) courses to build their math, reading, or writing skills. The City University of New York's (CUNY's) Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP), launched in 2007, is an uncommonly comprehensive and long-term program designed to help more students graduate and help them graduate more quickly. This report presents results from a random assignment study of ASAP at three CUNY community colleges: Borough of Manhattan, Kingsborough, and LaGuardia. Low-income students who needed one or two developmental courses were randomly assigned either to a program group, who could participate in ASAP, or to a control group, who could receive the usual college services. Comparing the two groups' outcomes provides an estimate of ASAP's effects. Key findings from the report are included. The following are appended: (1) Additional Baseline Information; (2) MDRC Student Survey Documentation and Analyses; and (3) Additional Impact Tables. [See earlier CUNY's ASAP reports: "What Can a Multifaceted Program Do for Community College Students? Early Results from an Evaluation of Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) for Developmental Education Students" at ED532840 and "More Graduates: Two-Year Results from an Evaluation of Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) for Developmental Education Students" at ED546636.]

Success for All (SFA), one of the best-known school reform models, aims to improve the reading skills of all children but is especially directed at schools that serve large numbers of students from low-income families. First implemented in 1987, SFA combines a challenging reading program, whole-school reform elements, and an emphasis on continuous improvement, with the goal of ensuring that every child learns to read well in the elementary grades. This is the third and final report from an independent evaluation of the scale-up demonstration of the SFA elementary school reading program. Both the demonstration and the evaluation have been funded under the U.S. Department of Education's Investing in Innovation (i3) competition. Conducted by MDRC--a nonprofit, nonpartisan education and social policy research organization--the evaluation examines SFA's implementation and impacts in five school districts over a three-year period (the 2011-2012 school year through the 2013-2014 school year). It also includes an analysis of program costs. Finally, it considers the scale-up process itself--the methods employed and the extent to which the Success for All Foundation (SFAF), the organization that developed and provides technical assistance to schools operating the program, achieved its scale-up goals. [This report was written with Emma Alterman, Herbert Collado, and Emily Pramik. For the executive summary of this report, see ED579090. For the Early Findings report, see ED545452. For the Interim Report, see ED546642.]

Reading Recovery (RR) is a short-term, one-to-one intervention designed to help the lowest achieving readers in first grade. This article presents first-year results from the multisite randomized controlled trial (RCT) and implementation study under the $55 million Investing in Innovation (i3) Scale-Up Project. For the 2011-2012 school year, the estimated standardized effect of RR on students' Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) Total Reading Scores was 0.69 standard deviations relative to the population of struggling readers eligible for RR under the i3 scale-up and 0.47 standard deviations relative to the nationwide population of all first graders. School-level implementation of RR was, in most respects, faithful to the RR "Standards and Guidelines," and the intensive training provided to new RR teachers was viewed as critical to successful implementation.

This study examined the efficacy of a curriculum-based intervention for high school science students. Specifically, the intervention was two years of research-based, multidisciplinary curriculum materials for science supported by comprehensive professional development for teachers that focused on those materials. A modest positive effect was detected when comparing outcomes from this intervention to those of business-as-usual materials and professional development. However, this effect was typical for interventions at this grade span that are tested using a state achievement test. Tests of mediation suggest a large treatment effect on teachers and in turn a strong effect of teacher practice on student achievement--reinforcing the hypothesized key role of teacher practice. Tests of moderation indicate no significant treatment by demographic interactions.

Prior research on mentoring relationships outside of school does point toward relationship closeness and related indicators of the emotional quality of the mentor-protégé tie as important influences on youth outcomes. There is preliminary evidence that this may also be the case for School Based Mentoring (SBM), or at least that closeness promotes protégé and mentor perceptions of relationship quality. The overarching aim of this paper is to enrich the field's understanding of how volunteer mentors can best support the academic mission of schools. The central empirical analysis investigates whether emotionally closer relationships between mentors and protégés lead to better academic outcomes. The sample for the study consists of the students who participated in the randomized control trial of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBSA) SBM program during the 2004-2005 school year. Study participants were recruited by 10 BBBSA study agencies across the country, each with four or more years of experience in SBM. Evidence is found that a close mentoring relationship positively affects academic performance. Effect sizes, obtained by dividing the impact coefficients reported in the table by the standard deviation of the appropriate outcome measure, range from 0.13 standard deviations (for overall academic performance and scholastic efficacy) to 0.18 standard deviations (for completeness of schoolwork), and are consistent across alternative specifications. A table is appended.

KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) is a national network of public charter schools whose stated mission is to help underserved students enroll in and graduate from college. Prior studies (see Tuttle et al. 2013) have consistently found that attending a KIPP middle school positively affects student achievement, but few have addressed longer-term outcomes and no rigorous research exists on impacts of KIPP schools at levels other than middle school. In this first high-quality study to rigorously examine the impacts of the network of KIPP public charter schools at all elementary and secondary grade levels, Mathematica found that KIPP schools have positive impacts on student achievement, particularly at the elementary and middle school levels. In addition, the study found positive impacts on student achievement for new entrants to the KIPP network in high school. For students continuing from a KIPP middle school, KIPP high schools' impacts on student achievement are not statistically significant, on average (in comparison to students who did not have the option to attend a KIPP high school and instead attended a mix of other non-KIPP charter, private, and traditional public high schools). Among these continuing students, KIPP high schools have positive impacts on several aspects of college preparation, including more discussions about college, increased likelihood of applying to college, and more advanced coursetaking. This report provides detailed findings and also includes the following appendices: (1) List of KIPP Schools In Network; (2) Detail on Survey Outcomes; (3) Cumulative Middle and High School Results; (4) Detailed Analytic Methods: Elementary School (Lottery-Based Analyses); (5) Detailed Analytic Methods: Middle School (Lottery-Based Analyses); (6) Understanding the Effects of KIPP As It Scales Mathematica Policy Research; (7) Detailed Analytic Methods: Middle School (Matched-Student Analyses); (8) Detailed Analytic Methods: High School (Matched-Student Analyses); (9) Detailed Analytic Methods: High School (Matched-School Analyses); and (10) Detailed Tables For What Works Clearinghouse Review. [For the executive summary, see ED560080; for the focus brief, see ED560043.]

A multisite cluster randomized trial was conducted to examine the effects of the Social Skills Improvement System Classwide Intervention Program (SSIS-CIP; Elliott & Gresham, 2007) on students' classroom social behavior. The final sample included 432 students across 38 second grade classrooms. Social skills and problem behaviors were measured via the SSIS rating scale for all participants, and direct observations were completed for a subsample of participants within each classroom. Results indicated that the SSIS-CIP demonstrated positive effects on teacher ratings of participants' social skills and internalizing behaviors, with the greatest changes occurring in classrooms with students who exhibited lower skill proficiency prior to implementation. Statistically significant differences were not observed between treatment and control participants on teacher ratings of externalizing problem behaviors or direct observation.

This study reports on an evaluation of the "Reading Partners" program, which uses community volunteers to provide one-on-one tutoring to struggling readers in underresourced elementary schools. Established in 1999 in East Menlo Park, California, the mission of "Reading Partners" is to help children become lifelong readers by empowering communities to provide individualized instruction with measurable results. This report builds on those initial findings by describing the "Reading Partners" program and its implementation in greater detail, exploring whether the program is more or less effective for particular subgroups of students, and assessing some of the potential explanations for the program's success to date. In addition, this report includes an analysis of the cost of implementing the Reading Partners program in 6 of the 19 sites. The following are appended: (1) Implementation Study Methods; (2) Impact Study Methods and Teacher Survey; (3) Tutor Background Characteristics and Additional Impact Findings; (4) Cost Study Methods; and (5) Additional Cost Findings. [This report was written with A. Brooks Bowden and Yilin Pan.]

A large-scale randomized controlled trial tested the effects of researcher-developed learning games on a transfer measure of fractions knowledge. The measure contained items similar to standardized assessments. Thirty treatment and 29 control classrooms (~1500 students, 9 districts, 26 schools) participated in the study. Students in treatment classrooms played fractions games and students in the control classrooms played solving equations games. Multilevel multidimensional item response theory modeling of the outcome measure produced scaled scores that were more sensitive to the instructional treatment than standard measurement approaches. Hierarchical linear modeling of the scaled scores showed that the treatment condition performed significantly higher on the outcome measure than the control condition. The effect (d = 0.58) was medium to large (Cohen, 1992). Two appendices are included: (1) Descriptive Statistics of Pretest and Posttest Scores by Schools and Conditions; and (2) Summary of Efficacy Trial Procedures.

One of the most important questions in education research is whether the gains from interventions for which perceived short-term success can be sustained. The possibility of short-lived impacts is especially relevant for research on charter schools, where charter operators who face high-stakes assessments have an incentive to "teach to the test." The fact that charters are subject to intense scrutiny and evaluation may even create incentives for cheating (Jacob and Levitt, 2003), strategic instruction (Jacob, 2007), and a focus on small groups of students that are pivotal for official accountability measures (Neal and Schanzenbach, 2010). The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of attendance at Boston's charter high schools on outcomes where the link with human capital and future earnings seems likely to be sustained and strong. Specifically, the authors focus on outcomes that are either essential to or facilitate post-secondary schooling: high school graduation, the attainment of state competency thresholds, scholarship qualification, Advanced Placement (AP) and SAT scores, college enrollment, and college persistence. Importantly, most of these outcomes are less subject to strategic manipulation than are the state's test-based assessments. As in earlier work, the research design implemented here exploits randomized enrollment lotteries at oversubscribed charter schools. The resulting estimates are likely to provide reliable measures of average causal effects for charter applicants. Six tables are appended.

Despite decades of policy intervention to increase college entry and success among low-income students, considerable gaps by socioeconomic status remain. To date, policymakers have overlooked the summer after high school as an important time period in students' transition to college, yet recent research documents high rates of summer attrition from the college pipeline among college-intending high school graduates, a phenomenon we refer to as "summer melt." We report on two randomized trials investigating efforts to mitigate summer melt. Offering college-intending graduates two to three hours of summer support increased enrollment by 3 percentage points overall, and by 8 to 12 percentage points among low-income students, at a cost of $100 to $200 per student. Further, summer support has lasting impacts on persistence several semesters into college.

We describe the development and initial evaluation of the efficacy of "We Have Skills!" (WHS), a video-based social skills instructional program for early elementary school students. The components of WHS were designed to be scientifically sound, maximally useful to elementary school teachers, and effective in increasing students' social skills. Results from feasibility and social validity testing showed that teachers felt the program was easy to implement and highly recommended its use. The initial efficacy evaluation of WHS conducted with 70 classrooms randomly assigned to intervention and control conditions showed that teachers in the intervention group scored significantly higher on self-efficacy than teachers in the control group. Students in the intervention classrooms were rated significantly higher on key social skills by their teachers at posttest compared to students in the control group. Implications for further testing of WHS are discussed, along with study limitations and recommendations for future research and practice.

Online instruction is quickly gaining in importance in U.S. higher education, but little rigorous evidence exists as to its effect on student learning. We measure the effect on learning outcomes of a prototypical interactive learning online statistics course by randomly assigning students on six public university campuses to take the course in a hybrid format (with machine-guided instruction accompanied by one hour of face-to-face instruction each week) or a traditional format (as it is usually offered by their campus, typically with about three hours of face-to-face instruction each week). We find that learning outcomes are essentially the same--that students in the hybrid format are not harmed by this mode of instruction in terms of pass rates, final exam scores, and performance on a standardized assessment of statistical literacy. We also conduct speculative cost simulations and find that adopting hybrid models of instruction in large introductory courses has the potential to significantly reduce instructor compensation costs in the long run.

Online instruction is quickly gaining in importance in U.S. higher education, but little rigorous evidence exists as to its effect on student learning. We measure the effect on learning outcomes of a prototypical interactive learning online statistics course by randomly assigning students on six public university campuses to take the course in a hybrid format (with machine-guided instruction accompanied by one hour of face-to-face instruction each week) or a traditional format (as it is usually offered by their campus, typically with about three hours of face-to-face instruction each week). We find that learning outcomes are essentially the same—that students in the hybrid format are not harmed by this mode of instruction in terms of pass rates, final exam scores, and performance on a standardized assessment of statistical literacy. We also conduct speculative cost simulations and find that adopting hybrid models of instruction in large introductory courses has the potential to significantly reduce instructor compensation costs in the long run. C 2013 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.

College graduation rates often lag behind college attendance rates. One theory as to why students do not complete college is that they lack key information about how to be successful or fail to act on the information that they have. We present evidence from a randomized experiment which tests the effectiveness of individualized student coaching. Over the course of two separate school years, InsideTrack, a student coaching service, provided coaching to students attending public, private, and proprietary universities. Most of the participating students were nontraditional college students enrolled in degree programs. The participating universities and InsideTrack randomly assigned students to be coached. The coach contacted students regularly to develop a clear vision of their goals, to guide them in connecting their daily activities to their long-term goals, and to support them in building skills, including time management, self-advocacy, and study skills. Students who were randomly assigned to a coach were more likely to persist during the treatment period and were more likely to be attending the university 1 year after the coaching had ended. Coaching also proved a more cost-effective method of achieving retention and completion gains when compared with previously studied interventions such as increased financial aid.

Despite decades of policy intervention to increase college entry and success among low-income students, considerable gaps by socioeconomic status remain. To date, policymakers have overlooked the summer after high school as an important time period in students' transition to college, yet recent research documents high rates of summer attrition from the college pipeline among college-intending high school graduates, a phenomenon we refer to as "summer melt." We report on two randomized trials investigating efforts to mitigate summer melt. Offering college-intending graduates two to three hours of summer support increased enrollment by 3 percentage points overall, and by 8 to 12 percentage points among low-income students, at a cost of $100 to $200 per student. Further, summer support has lasting impacts on persistence several semesters into college.

While postsecondary completion rates are a concern among many student populations across the country, college graduation rates for Latino students, especially Latino male students, are even lower than the national average. Low-income Latino men face many barriers to postsecondary success, including both financial and personal obstacles. This report presents findings from a study of performance-based scholarships paired with a robust set of student services designed to help low-income Latino men succeed at Pima Community College in Tucson, Arizona. Students who were eligible for the Adelante Performance Award Program could receive up to $4,500 in total over three semesters. Payments were contingent on their meeting academic benchmarks throughout the semester and participating in student support services such as advising, tutoring, and workshops. The program in Arizona is one of six being studied as part of the Performance-Based Scholarship Demonstration. Each program employs a random assignment research design to test an alternative incentive structure and is intended to serve a different target population. The program at Pima was designed with three main goals in mind: first, to help make college more affordable to low-income students; second, to structure scholarship payments to provide an incentive for good academic progress; and third, to encourage and directly reward participation in student services. The program was funded by a consortium of private foundations and operated from the fall of 2010 through the fall of 2012. This report provides analysis over two semesters of follow-up and suggests that: (1) Program group students participated at high rates in the support services offered; (2) The program led to a net increase in financial aid and allowed some students to reduce their dependence on loans; (3) The program had a small but positive effect on retention; (4) The program increased full-time enrollment in students' second semester; and (5) The program increased the number of credits earned. Some of the main goals of the program and its design have been achieved, at least in the short term. Appended are: (1) Selected Characteristics of Sample Members at Baseline, by Research Group; and (2) Adelante Program Materials. [This report was written with Drew McDermott.]

This policy brief presents results from a random assignment evaluation of the City University of New York's Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP). An ambitious and promising endeavor, ASAP provides a comprehensive array of services and supports to help community college students graduate and to help them graduate sooner. The evaluation targeted low-income students who needed one or two developmental (remedial) courses. ASAP requires students to enroll full time and provides block-scheduled classes, comprehensive advisement, tutoring, career services, a tuition waiver, free monthly MetroCards for use on public transportation, and free use of textbooks for up to three years. After two years, compared with regular college services, ASAP increased the number of credits students earned as well as their persistence in college. Most notably, the program boosted two-year graduation rates substantially--by 66 percent. A future report will present the program's effects after three years.

This report presents results from the "Ready To Learn" Prekindergarten Transmedia Mathematics Study, a principal part of the summative evaluation of "Ready To Learn," which is a partnership between the US Department of Education, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and PBS. Researchers found that preschool children who experienced a PBS KIDS Transmedia Math Supplement developed essential early mathematics skills. The PBS KIDS Transmedia Math Supplement was centered around public media videos and digital games, played on a selected set of learning technologies (interactive whiteboards and laptop computers). The important skills measure--counting; subitizing; recognizing numerals; recognizing, composing, and representing shapes; and patterning--increased significantly for the study's four- and five-year-old children, who were from traditionally economically disadvantaged communities where children are often less prepared for kindergarten than are their more socially and economically advantaged peers. Also important, preschool teachers who enacted the PBS KIDS Transmedia Math Supplement reported significant changes in their confidence and comfort with early mathematics concepts and teaching with technology. [This report was co-produced by SRI's Center for Technology in Learning (CTL).]

In 2002, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched the Early College High School Initiative (ECHSI) with the primary goal of increasing the opportunity for underserved students to earn a postsecondary credential. To achieve this goal, Early Colleges provide underserved students with exposure to, and support in, college while they are in high school. Early Colleges partner with colleges and universities to offer all students an opportunity to earn an associate's degree or up to two years of college credits toward a bachelor's degree during high school at no or low cost to the students. The underlying assumption is that engaging underrepresented students in a rigorous high school curriculum tied to the incentive of earning college credit will motivate them and increase their access to additional postsecondary education and credentials after high school. Since 2002, more than 240 Early Colleges have opened nationwide. This study focused on the impact of Early Colleges. It addressed two questions: (1) Do Early College students have better outcomes than they would have had at other high schools?; and (2) Does the impact of Early Colleges vary by student background characteristics (e.g., gender and family income)? To answer these questions, the authors conducted a lottery-based randomized experiment, taking advantage of the fact that some Early Colleges used lotteries in their admissions processes. By comparing the outcomes for students who participated in admissions lotteries and were offered enrollment with the outcomes for students who participated in the lotteries but were not offered enrollment, they can draw causal conclusions about the impact of Early Colleges. The primary student outcomes for this study were high school graduation, college enrollment, and college degree attainment. The authors also examined students' high school and college experiences. Data on student background characteristics and high school outcomes came from administrative records from schools, districts, and states; data on college outcomes came from the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC); and data on high school and college experiences and intermediate outcomes such as college credit accrual came from a student survey. The authors assessed the impact of Early Colleges on these outcomes for a sample of 10 Early Colleges that did the following: (1) Enrolled students in grades 9-12 and had high school graduates in the study years (2005-2011); (2) Used lotteries as part of the admission processes in at least one of the study cohorts (students who entered ninth grade in 2005-06, 2006-07, or 2007-08); and (3) Retained the lottery records. Eight of the 10 Early Colleges in the study were included in the student survey. The overall study sample included 2,458 students and the survey sample included 1,294 students. The study extended through three years past high school.

In 2002, New York City embarked on an ambitious and wide-ranging series of education reforms. At the heart of its high school reforms were three interrelated changes: the institution of a district wide high school choice process for all rising ninth-graders, the closure of 31 large, failing high schools with an average graduation rate of 40 percent, and the opening of more than 200 new small high schools. Over half of the new small schools created between the fall of 2002 and the fall of 2008 were intended to serve students in some of the district's most disadvantaged communities and are located mainly in neighborhoods where large, failing high schools had been closed. MDRC has previously released two reports on these "small schools of choice," or SSCs (so called because they are small, are academically nonselective, and were created to provide a realistic choice for students with widely varying academic backgrounds). Those reports found marked increases in progress toward graduation and in graduation rates for the cohorts of students who entered SSCs in the falls of 2005 and 2006. The second report also found that the increase in graduation rates applied to every student subgroup examined, and that SSC graduation effects were sustained even after five years from the time sample members entered high school. This report updates those previous findings with results from a third cohort of students, those who entered ninth grade in the fall of 2007. In addition, for the first time it includes a look inside these schools through the eyes of principals and teachers, as reported in interviews and focus groups held at the 25 SSCs with the strongest evidence of effectiveness. In brief, the report's findings are: (1) SSCs in New York City continue to markedly increase high school graduation rates for large numbers of disadvantaged students of color, even as graduation rates are rising at the schools with which SSCs are compared; (2) The best evidence that exists indicates that SSCs may increase graduation rates for two new subgroups for which findings were not previously available: special education students and English language learners. However, given the still-limited sample sizes for these subgroups, the evidence will not be definitive until more student cohorts can be added to the analysis; and (3) Principals and teachers at the 25 SSCs with the strongest evidence of effectiveness strongly believe that academic rigor and personal relationships with students contribute to the effectiveness of their schools. They also believe that these attributes derive from their schools' small organizational structures and from their committed, knowledgeable, hardworking, and adaptable teachers. Appended are: (1) Sample, Data, and Analysis; (2) Estimated Effects of Winning a Student's First SSC Lottery; (3) 2008 Requirements for Proposals to Create New SSCs Specified by the New York City Department of Education; and (4) Documentation for Interviews and Focus Groups.

Reading Recovery (RR) is a short-term early intervention designed to help the lowest-achieving readers in first grade reach average levels of classroom performance in literacy. Students identified to receive Reading Recovery meet individually with a specially trained Reading Recovery (RR) teacher every school day for 30-minute lessons over a period of 12 to 20 weeks. The purpose of these lessons is to support rapid acceleration of each child's literacy learning. In 2010, The Ohio State University received a Scaling Up What Works grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund to expand the use of Reading Recovery across the country. The award was intended to fund the scale-up of Reading Recovery by training 3,675 new RR Teachers in U.S. schools, thereby expanding capacity to allow service to an additional 88,200 students. The Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) was contracted to conduct an independent evaluation of the i3 scale up of Reading Recovery over the course of five years. The evaluation includes parallel rigorous experimental and quasi-experimental designs for estimating program impacts, coupled with a large-scale mixed-methods study of program implementation under the i3 scale-up. This report presents findings through the second year of the evaluation. The primary goals of this evaluation were: (1) to assess the success of the scale-up in meeting the i3 grant's expansion goals; (2) to document the implementation of scale-up and fidelity to program standards; and (3) to provide experimental evidence of the impacts of Reading Recovery on student learning under this scale-up effort. This document is the first in a series of three annual reports produced based on our external evaluation of the Reading Recovery i3 Scale-Up. This report presents early results from the experimental impact and implementation studies conducted over the 2010-11 and 2011-12 school years. An appendix includes: Statistical Model for Impacts of Reading Scores. [For "WWC Review of the Report 'Evaluation of the i3 Scale-up of Reading Recovery Year One Report, 2011-12.' What Works Clearinghouse Single Study Review," see ED547670.]

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of 1st-grade number knowledge tutoring with contrasting forms of practice. Tutoring occurred 3 times per week for 16 weeks. In each 30-min session, the major emphasis (25 min) was number knowledge; the other 5 min provided practice in 1 of 2 forms. Nonspeeded practice reinforced relations and principles addressed in number knowledge tutoring. Speeded practice promoted quick responding and use of efficient counting procedures to generate many correct responses. At-risk students were randomly assigned to number knowledge tutoring with speeded practice (n = 195), number knowledge tutoring with nonspeeded practice (n = 190), and control (no tutoring, n = 206). Each tutoring condition produced stronger learning than control on all 4 mathematics outcomes. Speeded practice produced stronger learning than nonspeeded practice on arithmetic and 2-digit calculations, but effects were comparable on number knowledge and word problems. Effects of both practice conditions on arithmetic were partially mediated by increased reliance on retrieval, but only speeded practice helped at-risk children compensate for weak reasoning ability. (Contains 7 tables, 2 figures and 6 footnotes.)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of 1st-grade number knowledge tutoring with contrasting forms of practice. Tutoring occurred 3 times per week for 16 weeks. In each 30-min session, the major emphasis (25 min) was number knowledge; the other 5 min provided practice in 1 of 2 forms. Nonspeeded practice reinforced relations and principles addressed in number knowledge tutoring. Speeded practice promoted quick responding and use of efficient counting procedures to generate many correct responses. At-risk students were randomly assigned to number knowledge tutoring with speeded practice (n = 195), number knowledge tutoring with nonspeeded practice (n = 190), and control (no tutoring, n = 206). Each tutoring condition produced stronger learning than control on all 4 mathematics outcomes. Speeded practice produced stronger learning than nonspeeded practice on arithmetic and 2-digit calculations, but effects were comparable on number knowledge and word problems. Effects of both practice conditions on arithmetic were partially mediated by increased reliance on retrieval, but only speeded practice helped at-risk children compensate for weak reasoning ability. (Contains 7 tables, 2 figures and 6 footnotes.)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of 1st-grade number knowledge tutoring with contrasting forms of practice. Tutoring occurred 3 times per week for 16 weeks. In each 30-min session, the major emphasis (25 min) was number knowledge; the other 5 min provided practice in 1 of 2 forms. Nonspeeded practice reinforced relations and principles addressed in number knowledge tutoring. Speeded practice promoted quick responding and use of efficient counting procedures to generate many correct responses. At-risk students were randomly assigned to number knowledge tutoring with speeded practice (n = 195), number knowledge tutoring with nonspeeded practice (n = 190), and control (no tutoring, n = 206). Each tutoring condition produced stronger learning than control on all 4 mathematics outcomes. Speeded practice produced stronger learning than nonspeeded practice on arithmetic and 2-digit calculations, but effects were comparable on number knowledge and word problems. Effects of both practice conditions on arithmetic were partially mediated by increased reliance on retrieval, but only speeded practice helped at-risk children compensate for weak reasoning ability. (Contains 7 tables, 2 figures and 6 footnotes.)

In 2002, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched the Early College High School Initiative (ECHSI) with the primary goal of increasing the opportunity for underserved students to earn a postsecondary credential. To achieve this goal, Early Colleges provide underserved students with exposure to, and support in, college while they are in high school. Early Colleges partner with colleges and universities to offer all students an opportunity to earn an associate's degree or up to two years of college credits toward a bachelor's degree during high school at no or low cost to the students. The underlying assumption is that engaging underrepresented students in a rigorous high school curriculum tied to the incentive of earning college credit will motivate them and increase their access to additional postsecondary education and credentials after high school. Since 2002, more than 240 Early Colleges have opened nationwide. This study focused on the impact of Early Colleges. It addressed two questions: (1) Do Early College students have better outcomes than they would have had at other high schools?; and (2) Does the impact of Early Colleges vary by student background characteristics (e.g., gender and family income)? To answer these questions, the authors conducted a lottery-based randomized experiment, taking advantage of the fact that some Early Colleges used lotteries in their admissions processes. By comparing the outcomes for students who participated in admissions lotteries and were offered enrollment with the outcomes for students who participated in the lotteries but were not offered enrollment, they can draw causal conclusions about the impact of Early Colleges. The primary student outcomes for this study were high school graduation, college enrollment, and college degree attainment. The authors also examined students' high school and college experiences. Data on student background characteristics and high school outcomes came from administrative records from schools, districts, and states; data on college outcomes came from the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC); and data on high school and college experiences and intermediate outcomes such as college credit accrual came from a student survey. The authors assessed the impact of Early Colleges on these outcomes for a sample of 10 Early Colleges that did the following: (1) Enrolled students in grades 9-12 and had high school graduates in the study years (2005-2011); (2) Used lotteries as part of the admission processes in at least one of the study cohorts (students who entered ninth grade in 2005-06, 2006-07, or 2007-08); and (3) Retained the lottery records. Eight of the 10 Early Colleges in the study were included in the student survey. The overall study sample included 2,458 students and the survey sample included 1,294 students. The study extended through three years past high school.

The Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) is a rapidly expanding network of public charter schools whose mission is to improve the education of low-income children. As of the 2012-2013 school year, 125 KIPP schools are in operation in 20 different states and the District of Columbia (DC). Ultimately, KIPP's goal is to prepare students to enroll and succeed in college. Prior research has suggested that KIPP schools have positive impacts on student achievement, but most of the studies have included only a few KIPP schools or have had methodological limitations. This is the second report of a national evaluation of KIPP middle schools being conducted by Mathematica Policy Research. The evaluation uses experimental and quasi-experimental methods to produce rigorous and comprehensive evidence on the effects of KIPP middle schools across the country. The study's first report, released in 2010, described strong positive achievement impacts in math and reading for the 22 KIPP middle schools for which data were available at the time. For this phase of the study, the authors nearly doubled the size of the sample, to 43 KIPP middle schools, including all KIPP middle schools that were open at the start of the study in 2010 for which they were able to acquire relevant data from local districts or states. The average impact of KIPP on student achievement is positive, statistically significant, and educationally substantial. KIPP impact estimates are consistently positive across the four academic subjects examined, in each of the first four years after enrollment in a KIPP school, and for all measurable student subgroups. A large majority of the individual KIPP schools in the study show positive impacts on student achievement as measured by scores on state-mandated assessments. KIPP produces similar positive impacts on the norm-referenced test, which includes items assessing higher-order thinking. Estimated impacts on measures of student attitudes and behavior are less frequently positive, but the authors found evidence that KIPP leads students to spend significantly more time on homework, and that KIPP increases levels of student and parent satisfaction with school. On the negative side, the findings suggest that enrollment in a KIPP school leads to an increase in the likelihood that students report engaging in undesirable behavior such as lying to or arguing with parents. These findings are described in this report. The following appendixes are included: (1) Sample selection and baseline characteristics; (2) Constructing survey outcomes; (3) Schools attended by lottery winners and lottery non-winners; (4) Analytic methods for the matched comparison group analysis; (5) Analytic methods for lottery-based analysis; and (6) Validation of matching methods using lottery-based impact estimates. (Contains 46 tables, 78 footnotes, and 16 figures.) [For "What Works Clearinghouse Quick Review: 'KIPP Middle Schools: Impacts on Achievement and Other Outcomes, Final Report,'" see ED540896.]

One crucial decision that middle schoolers (and their families) make is where they will attend high school. Many districts employ school choice systems designed to allow students to pick a high school that will meet their needs and interests. Yet most students prefer high schools that are close to home, and for youth in low-income neighborhoods, this often means attending a more disadvantaged, lower performing school (Nathanson et al. 2013). Youth who defy these odds and choose a competitive high school instead have much to gain. Cullen et al. (2005), for instance, found that Chicago public middle school students who chose to attend a higher-achieving high school were substantially more likely to graduate. However, even as eighth graders, these students already differed in many ways from their peers who chose a neighborhood school--they had better self-reported grades and higher expectations for the future, felt more prepared for high school, and were more likely to have spoken with their parents about what school to attend. These findings raise the question of how we can prepare more disadvantaged students to take the many steps necessary-throughout the middle school years-to successfully transition to a competitive, high-quality high school that can ultimately launch them toward college and careers. The Washington, DC-based Higher Achievement program is taking on this challenge. Higher Achievement targets rising fifth and sixth graders from "at-risk communities" and serves them throughout the middle school years. Its goal is to strengthen participants' academic skills, attitudes and behaviors, reinforce high aspirations and help students and their families navigate the process of applying to and selecting a high-quality high school. In 2006, the authors began a comprehensive multi-year evaluation of Higher Achievement to test its impact on participants' academic performance, attitudes and behaviors and on their high school enrollment. The evaluation used random assignment-the most rigorous design available to researchers-to assess program impacts. This brief summarizes the study's findings. Findings suggest that the program does appear to expand the options available to its students by making them more likely to apply to and attend private schools and less likely to apply to and attend weaker public magnet and charter schools. This, in turn, may position youth for better outcomes in high school and beyond. [This research was made possible by grants from The Atlantic Philanthropies, Bank of America, the Smith Richardson Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, The Wallace Foundation and the William T. Grant Foundation.]

Teach For America (TFA) and the Teaching Fellows programs are an important and growing source of teachers of hard-to-staff subjects in high-poverty schools, but comprehensive evidence of their effectiveness has been limited. This report presents findings from the first large-scale random assignment study of secondary math teachers from these programs. The study separately examined the effectiveness of TFA and Teaching Fellows teachers, comparing secondary math teachers from each program with other secondary math teachers teaching the same math courses in the same schools. The study focused on secondary math because this is a subject in which schools face particular staffing difficulties.The study had two main findings, one for each program studied: (1) TFA teachers were more effective than the teachers with whom they were compared. On average, students assigned to TFA teachers scored 0.07 standard deviations higher on end-of-year math assessments than students assigned to comparison teachers, a statistically significant difference. This impact is equivalent to an additional 2.6 months of school for the average student nationwide; and (2) Teaching Fellows were neither more nor less effective than the teachers with whom they were compared. On average, students of Teaching Fellows and students of comparison teachers had similar scores on end-of-year math assessments. By providing rigorous evidence on the effectiveness of secondary math teachers from TFA and the Teaching Fellows programs, the study can shed light on potential approaches for improving teacher effectiveness in hard-to-staff schools and subjects. The study findings can provide guidance to school principals faced with the choice of hiring teachers who have entered the profession via different routes to certification. The findings can also aid policymakers and funders of teacher preparation programs by providing information on the effectiveness of teachers from various routes to certification that use different methods to identify, attract, train, and support their teachers. Seven appendixes present: (1) Supplementary Technical Information on Study Design and Data Collection; (2) Supplementary Information on Analytic Methods; (3) Supplementary Information on Teach For America and Teaching Fellows Programs; (4) Teach For America and Teaching Fellows Teachers Compared with Comparison Teachers by Entry Route (Alternative or Traditional); (5) Supplementary Information on Teach For America and Teaching Fellows Teachers Compared with Comparison Teachers; (6) Supplementary Analyses of the Impacts of Teach For America and Teaching Fellows Teachers; and (7) Supplementary Findings on Factors Associated with Teacher Effectiveness. (Contains 96 tables, 21 figures, and 30 footnotes.)

One way to improve struggling schools' access to effective teachers is to use selective transfer incentives. Such incentives offer bonuses for the highest-performing teachers to move into schools serving the most disadvantaged students. In this report, we provide evidence from a randomized experiment that tested whether such a policy intervention can improve student test scores and other outcomes in low-achieving schools. The intervention, known to participants as the Talent Transfer Initiative (TTI), was implemented in 10 school districts in seven states. The highest-performing teachers in each district--those who ranked in roughly the top 20 percent within their subject and grade span in terms of raising student achievement year after year (an approach known as value added)--were identified. These teachers were offered $20,000, paid in installments over a two-year period, if they transferred into and remained in designated schools that had low average test scores. The main findings from the study include: (1) The transfer incentive successfully attracted high value-added teachers to fill targeted vacancies; (2) The transfer incentive had a positive impact on test scores (math and reading) in targeted elementary classrooms; and (3) The transfer incentive had a positive impact on teacher-retention rates during the payout period; retention of the high-performing teachers who transferred was similar to their counterparts in the fall immediately after the last payout. Seven appendixes are included: (1) Supplemental Materials for Chapters I and II; (2) Value-Added Analysis to Identify Highest-Performing Teachers; (3) Supplemental Materials for Chapter III; (4) Identification of Focal Teachers; (5) Supplemental Materials for Chapter IV; (6) Supplemental Materials for Chapter V; and (7) Supplemental Materials for Chapter VI. (Contains 114 footnotes, 61 figures, and 92 tables.) [For the executive summary, see ED544268.]

The purposes of this study were to investigate the effects of an intervention designed to improve at-risk 4th graders' understanding of fractions and to examine the processes by which effects occurred. The intervention focused more on the measurement interpretation of fractions; the control condition focused more on the part-whole interpretation of fractions and on procedures. Intervention was also designed to compensate for at-risk students' limitations in the domain-general abilities associated with fraction learning. At-risk students (n = 259) were randomly assigned to intervention and control. Whole-number calculation skill, domain-general abilities (working memory, attentive behavior, processing speed, listening comprehension), and fraction proficiency were pretested. Intervention occurred for 12 weeks, 3 times per week, 30 min per session, and then fraction performance was reassessed. On each conceptual and procedural fraction outcome, effects favored intervention over control (effect sizes = 0.29 to 2.50), and the gap between at-risk and low-risk students narrowed for the intervention group but not the control group. Improvement in the accuracy of children's measurement interpretation of fractions mediated intervention effects. Also, intervention effects were moderated by domain-general abilities, but not whole-number calculation skill.

To identify links among professional development, teacher knowledge, practice, and student achievement, researchers have called for study designs that allow causal inferences and that examine relationships among features of interventions and multiple outcomes. In a randomized experiment implemented in six states with over 270 elementary teachers and 7,000 students, this project compared three related but systematically varied teacher interventions--"Teaching Cases, Looking at Student Work, and Metacognitive Analysis"--along with no-treatment controls. The three courses contained identical science content components, but differed in the ways they incorporated analysis of learner thinking and of teaching, making it possible to measure effects of these features on teacher and student outcomes. Interventions were delivered by staff developers trained to lead the teacher courses in their regions. Each course improved teachers' and students' scores on selected-response science tests well beyond those of controls, and effects were maintained a year later. Student achievement also improved significantly for English language learners in both the study year and follow-up, and treatment effects did not differ based on sex or race/ethnicity. However, only Teaching Cases and Looking at Student Work courses improved the accuracy and completeness of students' written justifications of test answers in the follow-up, and only Teaching Cases had sustained effects on teachers' written justifications. Thus, the content component in common across the three courses had powerful effects on teachers' and students' ability to choose correct test answers, but their ability to explain why answers were correct only improved when the professional development incorporated analysis of student conceptual understandings and implications for instruction; metacognitive analysis of teachers' own learning did not improve student justifications either year. Findings suggest investing in professional development that integrates content learning with analysis of student learning and teaching rather than advanced content or teacher metacognition alone. (Contains 1 figure and 4 tables.)

Reading comprehension is a challenge for K-12 learners and adults. Nonfiction texts, such as expository texts that inform and explain, are particularly challenging and vital for students' understanding because of their frequent use in formal schooling (e.g., textbooks) as well as everyday life (e.g., newspapers, magazines, and medical information). The structure strategy is explicit instruction about how to strategically use knowledge about text structures for encoding and retrieval of information from nonfiction and has consistently shown significant improvements in reading comprehension. We present the delivery of the structure strategy using a web-based intelligent tutoring system (ITSS) that has the potential to offer consistent modeling, practice tasks, assessment, and feedback to the learner. Finally, we report on statistically significant findings from a large scale randomized controlled efficacy trial with rural and suburban 4th-grade students using ITSS.

This report presents the results of an experiment conducted in Alabama beginning in the 2006/07 school year, to determine the effectiveness of the Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI), which aims to improve mathematics and science achievement in the state's K-12 schools. This study is the first randomized controlled trial testing the effectiveness of AMSTI in improving mathematics problem solving and science achievement in upper-elementary and middle schools. AMSTI is an initiative specific to Alabama and was developed and supported through state resources. An important finding is the positive and statistically significant effect of AMSTI on mathematics achievement as measured by the SAT 10 mathematics problem solving assessment administered by the state to students in grades 4-8. After one year in the program, student mathematics scores were higher than those of a control group that did not receive AMSTI by 0.05 standard deviation, equivalent to 2 percentile points. Nine of the 10 sensitivity analyses yielded effect estimates that were statistically significant at the 0.025 level, consistent with the main finding. The estimated effect of AMSTI on science achievement measured after one year was not statistically significant. Based on the SAT 10 science test administered by the state to students in grades 5 and 7, no difference between AMSTI and control schools could be discerned after one year. Changes in classroom instructional strategies, especially an emphasis on more active-learning strategies, are important to the AMSTI theory of action. Therefore, a secondary investigation of classroom practices was conducted, based on data from survey responses from teachers. For both mathematics and science, statistically significant differences were found between AMSTI and control teachers in the average reported time spent using the strategies. The effect of AMSTI on these instructional strategies was 0.47 standard deviation in mathematics and 0.32 standard deviation in science. Two years of AMSTI appeared to have a positive and statistically significant effect on achievement in mathematics problem solving, compared to no AMSTI. Two years of AMSTI appeared to have a positive and statistically significant effect on achievement in science. AMSTI appeared to have a positive and statistically significant effect on reading achievement as measured by the SAT 10 test of reading administered by the state to students in grades 4-8. AMSTI did not appear to have a statistically significant effect on teacher-reported content knowledge in mathematics or science after one year. AMSTI did not appear to have statistically significant differential effects on student achievement in mathematics problem solving or science based on racial/ethnic minority status, enrollment in the free or reduced-price lunch program, gender, or pretest level. Appended are: (1) Explanation of primary and secondary confirmatory outcome measures; (2) Explanation of exploratory research questions; (3) Selection and random assignment of schools; (4) Statistical power analysis; (5) Data collection procedures and timeline; (6) Description of program implementation data collected but not used in report; (7) Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI) teacher survey #3; (8) Data cleaning and data file construction; (9) Attrition through study stages for samples used in the confirmatory analysis; (10) Description of degree rank; (11) Equivalence of Year 1 baseline and analyzed samples for confirmatory student-level and classroom practice outcomes; (12) Internal consistency and validity of active learning measures; (13) Number of students and teachers in schools in analytic samples used to analyze Year 1 confirmatory questions; (14) Attrition through study stages for samples used in Year 1 exploratory analysis; (15) Tests of equivalence for baseline and analytic samples for Year 1 exploratory outcomes; (16) Statistical power analyses for moderator analyses; (17) Derivation and motivation of the Bell-Bradley estimator when measuring estimated two-year effect of the Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI); (18) Attrition through study stages for samples contributing to estimation of two-year effects; (19) Examination of equivalence in baseline and analytic samples used in the estimation of two-year effects; (20) Estimation model for two-year effects of the Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI); (21) Topics and instructional methods used at the Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI) summer institute; (22) Parameter estimates on probability scale for odds-ratio tests of differences between Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI) and control conditions in Year 1 (associated with summer professional development and in-school support outcomes); (23) Descriptive statistics for variables that change to a binary scale used in the Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI) and control conditions in Year 1; (24) Comparison of assumed parameter values and observed sample statistics for statistical power analysis after one year; (25) Parameter estimates for Stanford Achievement Test Tenth Edition (SAT 10) mathematics problem solving after one year; (26) Parameter estimates for Stanford Achievement Test Tenth Edition (SAT 10) science after one year; (27) Parameter estimates for active learning in mathematics after one year; (28) Parameter estimates for active learning in science after one year; (29) Sensitivity analyses of effect of the Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI) on Stanford Achievement Test Tenth Edition (SAT 10) mathematics problem solving achievement after one year; (30) Sensitivity analyses of effect of the Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI) on Stanford Achievement Test Tenth Edition (SAT 10) science achievement after one year; (31) Sensitivity analyses of effect of the Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI) on active learning instructional strategies in mathematics classrooms after one year; (32) Sensitivity analyses of effect of the Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI) on active learning instructional strategies in science classrooms after one year; (33) Tests for violations of factors associated with assumption of equal first year effects on students in Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI) and control schools; (34) Post hoc adjustment to standard error for estimate of two-year effect of the Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI) on mathematics achievement after two years; (35) Parameter estimates for effect of the Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI) after two years; (36) Parameter estimates for effect of the Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI) on student reading achievement after one year; (37) Parameter estimates for teacher content and student engagement after one year; (38) Estimates of effects for terms involving the indicator of treatment status in the analysis of the moderating effect of the three-level pretest variable; (39) Parameter estimates for the analysis of the moderating effect of racial/ethnic minority status on the impact of the Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI) on reading after one year; (40) Parameter estimates for analysis of average effect of the Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI) on reading by racial/ethnic minority students after one year; and (41) Parameter estimates for effect of the Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI) on reading for White students after one year. (Contains 26 figures, 136 tables, 1 box and 130 footnotes.)

The Louisiana Striving Readers evaluation assessed the implementation and effectiveness of the Voyager "Passport Reading Journeys" (PRJ), a widely used supplemental literacy intervention for struggling adolescent readers that reflects the research-based practices recommended by the National Reading Panel (2000) and other more recent syntheses (Biancarosa & Snow, 2004; Edmonds, et al., 2009; Kamil, et al., 2008; Scammacca et al., 2007; Torgesen et al., 2007). To date, PRJ has been adopted in 45 states across the country in almost 470 districts and over 2,200 schools, and has served over 268,000 students. PRJ offers four levels of instruction appropriate for middle and high school students. The PRJ curriculum uses direct, explicit instruction in reading comprehension, vocabulary, and word study for adolescents who struggle with reading using age-appropriate fiction and non-fiction texts. The Louisiana Striving Readers Program, funded by the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) through a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, targeted over 1,200 struggling readers in grades 6-7 from ten middle schools across the state of Louisiana. The grant required a rigorous, independent experimental evaluation, conducted by SEDL, addressing fidelity of program implementation and program impacts on student motivation and reading achievement. The study reported here had two specific aims: (1) determine the fidelity of implementation, or the extent to which the program was delivered as the grant indicated it should be implemented; and (2) determine the impacts of PRJ on student reading and other related outcomes (i.e., student motivation and engagement in reading) and how the effects may have varied by student subgroups. This report details the intervention, the implementation study design and results, and the impact study design and results.

This study estimates the effect of one year of Fusion Reading implementation, a multistrategy intervention, builds on the work of the Strategic Instruction Model's Learning Strategies Curriculum and Xtreme Reading by integrating some of the same strategies (e.g., paraphrasing, visual imagery, and self-questioning for information acquisition; mnemonics for information study; and writing and error monitoring for information expression), focusing on reading, and extending the time frame from 1 to 2 years in duration. Specifically, the study addressed the following: (1) What are the intent-to-treat impacts of the Fusion Reading intervention on the reading outcomes and motivation to read of struggling readers after receipt of 1 year of the intervention?; (2) For which students are the interventions most and least effective?; and (3) In what ways are implementation factors associated with impacts (or lack of impacts) on reading and motivation outcomes? The authors conducted a randomized controlled trial to estimate the effect of Fusion Reading on struggling readers in grades 6 through 10. Students in the intervention condition received the Fusion Reading intervention as a supplemental reading intervention in the 2010-11 school year, whereas students in the control condition engaged in nonliteracy, "business-as-usual" activities. After one year of implementation of a two year intervention, the authors learned that when vocabulary, paraphrasing and word study strategies are explicitly taught by following a specific instructional routine supported by motivation strategies (e.g., setting goals and reading text relevant for the age group), word reading outcomes will significantly improve compared to control middle and high school students. Future research is needed to fully understand whether the intended two year intervention will improve struggling adolescent's reading comprehension outcomes. Appended are: (1) References; and (2) Tables and Figures. (Contains 2 figures and 5 tables.)

American Institutes for Research (AIR) conducted an evaluation of the effect on struggling readers of implementing the READ 180 reading intervention in five participating schools in Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) under a Striving Readers grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The evaluation used an experimental design in order to produce a rigorous estimate of the impact of the READ 180 intervention on measures of reading achievement for struggling students. The evaluation also explored implementation fidelity and the contexts and conditions of implementation that may extend or limit the intervention's effects. To measure program impact on students' academic performance in reading, AIR analyzed student achievement data collected from the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) benchmark assessment. AIR also administered a student survey to assess the impact on student engagement and self-efficacy for reading. This report asked the following research questions: (1) Does the READ 180 reading intervention improve students' academic performance in reading?; (2) With what fidelity did the program implement the professional development model and what factors mediated the level of implementation?; and (3) With what fidelity did classroom intervention teachers implement READ 180 and what factors mediated the level of implementation?

Early college high schools are a new and rapidly spreading model that merges the high school and college experiences and that is designed to increase the number of students who graduate from high school and enroll and succeed in postsecondary education. This article presents results from a federally funded experimental study of the impact of the early college model on Grade 9 outcomes. Results show that, as compared to control group students, a statistically significant and substantively higher proportion of treatment group students are taking core college preparatory courses and succeeding in them. Students in the treatment group also have statistically significantly higher attendance and lower suspension rates than students in the control group. (Contains 10 footnotes, 5 tables and 1 figure.)

High school students from disadvantaged high schools in Toronto were invited to take two surveys, about three weeks apart. Half of the students taking the first survey were also shown a 3 minute video about the benefits of post secondary education (PSE) and invited to try out a financial-aid calculator. Most students' perceived returns to PSE were high, even among those not expecting to continue. Those exposed to the video, especially those initially unsure about their own educational attainment, reported significantly higher expected returns, lower concerns about costs, and expressed greater likelihood of PSE attainment. The two online surveys are appended.

Domestic attempts to use financial incentives for teachers to increase student achievement have been ineffective. In this paper, we demonstrate that exploiting the power of loss aversion--teachers are paid in advance and asked to give back the money if their students do not improve sufficiently--increases math test scores between 0.201 (0.076) and 0.398 (0.129) standard deviations. This is equivalent to increasing teacher quality by more than one standard deviation. A second treatment arm, identical to the loss aversion treatment but implemented in the standard fashion, yields smaller and statistically insignificant results. This suggests it is loss aversion, rather than other features of the design or population sampled, that leads to the stark differences between our findings and past research.

This study investigates whether a curriculum supplement organized as a sequence of teacher-led literacy activities using digital content from public educational television programs can improve early literacy outcomes of low-income preschoolers. The study sample was 436 children in 80 preschool classrooms in California and New York. Preschool teachers were randomly assigned to implement either a 10-week media-rich early literacy intervention that employed clips from "Sesame Street", "Between the Lions", and "SuperWhy!" or to a comparison condition. The media-rich literacy supplement had positive impacts (+0.20 less than or equal to d less than or equal to +0.55) on children's ability to recognize letters, sounds of letters and initial sounds of words, and children's concepts of story and print. The study findings show the potential for incorporating literacy content from public media programming into curriculum supplements supported by professional development to impact early literacy outcomes of low-income children. (Contains 4 tables.)

In 2006, the National Center for Postsecondary Research, of which is MDRC is a partner, launched a demonstration of one-semester learning community programs at six colleges; five of these programs focused on developmental education. This is the final report from the project and includes findings from analyses that pool data across these five programs as well as the results for developmental education students at a sixth program at Kingsborough Community College, operated earlier under the Opening Doors demonstration. Across the six programs, almost 7,000 students were randomly assigned, about half into 174 learning communities, and tracked for three semesters. Key findings suggest that when compared with business as usual, one-semester learning communities in developmental education, on average, lead to: (1) A modest (half-credit) estimated impact on credits earned in the targeted subject (English or mathematics) but no impact on credits earned outside the targeted subject; (2) A modest (half-credit) estimated impact on total credits earned; and (3) No impact on persistence in college. The developmental education students in the Kingsborough program, which had some different features from the other five programs, including enhanced support services, showed somewhat larger results than the other sites in credits earned in the targeted subject. An MDRC report on the overall Kingsborough learning communities program, which served "both" developmental and college-ready students, shows a positive impact on degree attainment after six years. The graduation effect was driven primarily by students who had placed into college-level English, although there is also evidence that the program had a positive impact on long-term outcomes for students with the greatest developmental needs in English. Together, these evaluations suggest that, while most typical one-semester learning communities for developmental education students are not likely to lead to large effects on students' outcomes, a program with additional supports can have longer-term impacts for developmental students. Appended are: (1) Impact Analyses; (2) Supplementary Exhibits for Chapter 3; (3) Instructor Survey Details; (4) Cost Details; and (5) Supplementary Table for Chapter 5. Individual chapters contain footnotes. (Contains 25 tables, 10 figures and 2 boxes.) [This paper was written with Jedediah Teres and Kelley Fong. For "The Effects of Learning Communities for Students in Developmental Education: A Synthesis of Findings from Six Community Colleges. Executive Summary," see ED533826.]

College completion and college success often lag behind college attendance. One theory as to why students do not succeed in college is that they lack key information about how to be successful or fail to act on the information that they have. We present evidence from a randomized experiment which tests the effectiveness of individualized student coaching. Over the course of two separate school years, InsideTrack, a student coaching service, provided coaching to students from public, private, and proprietary universities. Most of the participating students were non-traditional college students enrolled in degree programs. The participating universities and InsideTrack randomly assigned students to be coached. The coach contacted students regularly to develop a clear vision of their goals, to guide them in connecting their daily activities to their long term goals, and to support them in building skills, including time management, self advocacy, and study skills. Students who were randomly assigned to a coach were more likely to persist during the treatment period, and were more likely to be attending the university one year after the coaching had ended. Coaching also proved a more cost-effective method of achieving retention and completion gains when compared to previously studied interventions such as increased financial aid.

Community colleges across the United States face a difficult challenge. On the one hand, they are "open access" institutions, with a mission to serve students from all backgrounds and at varying levels of college readiness. On the other hand, they must uphold high academic standards in order to maintain accreditation and prepare students for employment or transfer to four-year schools. How, then, can community colleges best serve students who want to learn but do not meet minimum academic standards? Chaffey College, a large community college located about 40 miles east of Los Angeles, began to wrestle with this question early in the twenty-first century. Under the auspices of a national demonstration project called Opening Doors, Chaffey developed a program designed to increase probationary students' chances of succeeding in college. Chaffey's program included a "College Success" course, taught by a counselor, which provided basic information on study skills and the requirements of college. As part of the course, students were expected to complete five visits to "Success Centers," where their assignments, linked to the College Success course, covered skills assessment, learning styles, time management, use of resources, and test preparation. In 2005, MDRC collaborated with Chaffey College to evaluate the one-semester, voluntary Opening Doors program. In 2006, the program was improved to form the two-semester Enhanced Opening Doors program, in which probationary students were told that they were required to take the College Success course. In MDRC's evaluation of each program, students were randomly assigned either to a program group that had the opportunity to participate in the program or to a control group that received the college's standard courses and services. This report presents the outcomes for both groups of students in the Enhanced Opening Doors evaluation for four years after they entered the study. The findings include: (1) The message matters--optional program activities had lower participation rates compared with required program activities; (2) Chaffey's Enhanced Opening Doors program had positive short-term effects; and (3) Despite the program's encouraging short-term effects, it did not meaningfully improve students' long-term academic outcomes. This report presents detailed findings from Chaffey's Enhanced Opening Doors initiative, including the cost and cost-effectiveness of the program, and considers the implications of this research for designing services for probationary students in community college. Appended are: (1) Sample Characteristics at Baseline, by Research Group, and Supplementary Four-Year Impact Tables; (2) Measure Creation; and (3) Statistical Model for the Impact Analysis. Individual chapters contain footnotes. (Contains 20 tables, 7 figures and 1 box.) [Additional funding for this paper was provided by the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Socioeconomic Status and Health and the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Transitions to Adulthood. For "Serving Community College Students on Probation: Four-Year Findings from Chaffey College's Opening Doors Program. Executive Summary," see ED526394.]

To date, there have been few causally interpretable evaluations of the impacts of preschool curricula on the skills of children at-risk for academic difficulties, and even fewer studies have demonstrated statistically significant or educationally meaningful effects. In this cluster-randomized study, we evaluated the impacts of a literacy-focused preschool curriculum and two types of professional development on the emergent literacy skills of preschool children at-risk for educational difficulties. Forty-eight preschools were randomly assigned to a business-as-usual control, a literacy-focused curriculum with workshop-only professional development, or a literacy-focused curriculum with workshop plus in-class mentoring professional development conditions. An ethnically diverse group of 739 preschool children was assessed on language and literacy outcomes. Results revealed significant and moderate effects for the curriculum and small, mostly nonsignificant, effects of professional development across child outcomes and classroom measures.

The purpose of this study was to examine the hypothesis that helping preschoolers learn words through categorization may enhance their ability to retain words and their conceptual properties, acting as a bootstrap for self-learning. We examined this hypothesis by investigating the effects of the World of Words instructional program, a supplemental intervention for children in preschool designed to teach word knowledge and conceptual development through taxonomic categorization and embedded multimedia. Participants in the study included 3- and 4-year-old children from 28 Head Start classrooms in 12 schools, randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. Children were assessed on word knowledge, expressive language, conceptual knowledge, and categories and properties of concepts in a yearlong intervention. Results indicated that children receiving the WOW treatment consistently outperformed their control counterparts; further, treatment children were able to use categories to identify the meaning of novel words. Gains in word and categorical knowledge were sustained six months later for those children who remained in Head Start. These results suggest that a program targeted to learning words within taxonomic categories may act as a bootstrap for self-learning and inference generation. (Contains 2 notes, 10 tables, and 1 figure.)

This report presents findings from a randomized control trial designed to inform the decisions of policymakers who are considering using online courses to provide access to Algebra I in grade 8. It focuses on students judged by their schools to be ready to take Algebra I in grade 8 but who attend schools that do not offer the course. The study tested the impact of offering an online Algebra I course on students' algebra achievement at the end of grade 8 and their subsequent likelihood of participating in an advanced mathematics course sequence in high school. The study was designed to respond to both broad public interest in the deployment of online courses for K-12 students and to calls from policymakers to provide students with adequate pathways to advanced coursetaking sequences in mathematics (National Mathematics Advisory Panel 2008). This study is the first of its kind to rigorously evaluate the impact of offering an online version of Algebra I in schools that otherwise do not typically offer the course, even though they have students who are ready to take it. For educators and students facing similar challenges, the results of this study may be particularly informative and promising. Results showed that offering an online course to AR students is an effective way to broaden access to Algebra I in grade 8 and later, to more challenging mathematics course opportunities. The study demonstrates that an online course as implemented is more effective in promoting students' success in mathematics than existing practices in these schools. Appended are: (1) Study Design, Study Samples, and Statistical Precision; (2) Measures; (3) Intervention Features; (4) Estimation Methods and Hypothesis Testing; (5) Sensitivity Analyses; and (6) Missing Data and Multiple Imputation. (Contains 77 tables, 12 figures and 61 footnotes.)

This study reports Year 1 findings from a multisite cluster randomized controlled trial of a cognitive strategies approach to teaching text-based analytical writing for mainstreamed Latino English language learners (ELLs) in 9 middle schools and 6 high schools. There were 103 English teachers stratified by school and grade and then randomly assigned to the Pathway Project professional development intervention or control group. The Pathway Project trains teachers to use a pretest on-demand writing assessment to improve text-based analytical writing instruction for mainstreamed Latino ELLs who are able to participate in regular English classes. The intervention draws on well-documented instructional frameworks for teaching mainstreamed ELLs. Such frameworks emphasize the merits of a cognitive strategies approach that supports these learners' English language development. Pathway teachers participated in 46 hrs of training and learned how to apply cognitive strategies by using an on-demand writing assessment to help students understand, interpret, and write analytical essays about literature. Multilevel models revealed significant effects on an on-demand writing assessment (d = 0.35) and the California Standards Test in English language arts (d = 0.07). (Contains 1 figure, 7 tables and 4 footnotes.)

Too many children fail to learn how to read proficiently with serious consequences for their overall well-being and long-term success in school. This may be because providing effective instruction is more complex than many of the current models of reading instruction portray; there are Child Characteristic x Instruction (CXI) interactions. Here we present efficacy results for a randomized control field trial of the Individualizing Student Instruction (ISI) intervention, which relies on dynamic system forecasting intervention models to recommend amounts of reading instruction for each student, taking into account CXI interactions that consider his or her vocabulary and reading skills. The study, conducted in seven schools with 25 teachers and 396 first graders, revealed that students in the ISI intervention classrooms demonstrated significantly greater reading skill gains by spring than did students in control classrooms. Plus, they were more likely to receive differentiated reading instruction based on CXI interaction guided recommended amounts than were students in control classrooms. The precision with which students received the recommended amounts of each type of literacy instruction, the distance from recommendation, also predicted reading outcomes. (Contains 7 figures and 6 tables.)

Students (n = 797) from 36 4th-grade classrooms were taught the control of variables strategy for designing experiments. In the instruct condition, classes were taught in an interactive lecture format. In the manipulate condition, students worked in groups to design and run experiments to determine the effects of four variables. In the both condition, classes received the interactive lecture and also designed and ran experiments. We assessed students' understanding using a written test of their ability to distinguish valid from invalid experimental comparisons. Performance on this test improved from the pretest to the immediate posttest in all conditions, and gains were maintained at a 5-month delay. For students from both higher and lower achieving schools, gains ordered as follows: both greater than instruct greater than manipulate. However, students from higher achieving schools showed greater gains in all conditions. Item analyses showed that the interactive lecture improved students' understanding of the need to control irrelevant variables, and experimentation improved students' understanding of the need to vary the focal variable. (Contains 4 tables, 2 figures and 1 footnote.)

The authors present three studies (two randomized controlled experiments and one embedded quasi-experiment) designed to evaluate the impact of replacement units targeting student learning of advanced middle school mathematics. The studies evaluated the SimCalc approach, which integrates an interactive representational technology, paper curriculum, and teacher professional development. Each study addressed both replicability of findings and robustness across Texas settings, with varied teacher characteristics (backgrounds, knowledge, attitudes) and student characteristics (demographics, levels of prior mathematics knowledge). Analyses revealed statistically significant main effects, with student-level effect sizes of 0.63, 0.50, and 0.56. These consistent gains support the conclusion that SimCalc is effective in enabling a wide variety of teachers in a diversity of settings to extend student learning to more advanced mathematics. (Contains 4 tables, 5 figures, and 1 note.)

This study examined the effect of linguistic modification on middle school students' ability to show what they know and can do on math assessments. REL West's study on middle school math assessment accommodations found that simplifying the language--or linguistic modification--on standardized math test items made it easier for English Language learners to focus on and grasp math concepts, and thus was a more accurate assessment of their math skills. The results contribute to the body of knowledge informing assessment practices and accommodations appropriate for English language learner students. The study examined students' performance on two sets of math items--both the originally worded items and those that had been modified. Researchers analyzed results from three subgroups of students--English learners (EL), non-English language arts proficient (NEP), and English language arts proficient (EP) students. Key results include: (1) Linguistically modifying the language of mathematics test items did not change the math knowledge being assessed; (2) The effect of linguistic modification on students' math performance varied between the three student subgroups. The results also varied depending on how scores were calculated for each student; and (3) For each of the four scoring approaches analyzed, the effect of linguistic modification was greatest for EL students, followed by NEP and EP students. The report is structured as follows. Following an Executive Summary and a Study Overview, Chapter 2 describes the study design, sample selection and recruitment, item set development processes, and standardized administration procedures. Chapter 3 describes the implementation of the accommodation (linguistic modification), including discussion of considerations and methods for data analysis. Chapter 4 presents findings from data analyses. Chapter 5 summarizes and interprets key findings, describes study challenges, comments on implications of the findings, and offers recommendations for future research. Appendices include: (1) Power analysis for primary research questions; (2) Operational test administration manual; (3) Student Language Background Survey; (4) Guide for developing a linguistically modified assessment; (5) Workgroup training materials; (6) Overview and protocol for cognitive interviews; (7) Item parameter estimates for IRT models; (8) Descriptive statistics from four scoring approaches; (9) ANOVA findings across four scoring approaches; (10) Cross-approach comparisons; (11) Results of the classical item-level analyses; (12) Summary of differential item functioning findings; (13) Exploratory factor analysis results; (14) Operational item set--original; and (15) Operational item set--linguistically modified. (Contains 31 tables, 10 figures, and 45 footnotes.)

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), just over 70 percent of students nationally arrive in high school with reading skills that are below "proficient"--defined as demonstrating competency over challenging subject matter. Of these students, nearly half do not exhibit even partial mastery of the knowledge and skills that are fundamental to proficient work at grade level. These limitations in literacy skills are a major source of course failure, high school dropout, and poor performance in postsecondary education. While research is beginning to emerge about the special needs of striving adolescent readers, very little is known about effective interventions aimed at addressing these needs. To help fill this gap and to provide evidence-based guidance to practitioners, the U.S. Department of Education initiated the Enhanced Reading Opportunities (ERO) study--a demonstration and rigorous evaluation of supplemental literacy programs targeted to ninth-grade students whose reading skills are at least two years below grade level. As part of this demonstration, 34 high schools from 10 school districts implemented one of two reading interventions: Reading Apprenticeship Academic Literacy (RAAL), designed by WestEd, and Xtreme Reading, designed by the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning. These programs were implemented in the study schools for two school years. The U.S. Department of Education's (ED) Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE) funded the implementation of these programs, and its Institute of Education Sciences (IES) was responsible for oversight of the evaluation. MDRC--a nonprofit, nonpartisan education and social policy research organization--conducted the evaluation in partnership with the American Institutes for Research (AIR) and Survey Research Management (SRM). The goal of the reading interventions--which consist of a year-long course that replaces a ninth-grade elective class--is to help striving adolescent readers develop the strategies and routines used by proficient readers, thereby improving their reading skills and ultimately, their academic performance in high school. The first two reports for the study evaluated the programs' impact on the two most proximal outcomes targeted by the interventions--students' reading skills and their reading behaviors at the end of ninth grade. This report--which is the final of three reports for this evaluation--examines the impact of the ERO programs on the more general outcomes that the programs hope to affect--students' academic performance in high school (grade point average [GPA], credit accumulation, and state test scores) as well as students' behavioral outcomes (attendance and disciplinary infractions). These academic and behavioral outcomes are examined during the year in which they were enrolled in the ERO programs (ninth grade), as well as the following school year (tenth grade for most students). Appendices include: (1) The ERO Programs and the ERO Teachers; (2) ERO Student Survey Measures; (3) ERO Implementation Fidelity; (4) State Tests Included in the ERO Study; (5) Response Analysis and Baseline Comparison Tables; (6) Technical Notes for Impact Findings; (7) Statistical Power and Minimum Detectable Effect Size; (8) Supplementary Impact Findings; (9) Baseline and Impact Findings, by Cohort; (10) The Association Between Reading Outcomes and Academic Performance in High School; (11) Variation in Impacts Across Sites and Cohorts; (12) Program Costs; and (13) Poststudy Adolescent Literacy Programming in the ERO Schools: Methodology and Additional Findings. (Contains 97 tables, 23 figures, 2 boxes, and 185 footnotes.) [This paper was written with Edmond Wong. For the first-year report, see ED499778. For the second report, see ED503380.]

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), just over 70 percent of students nationally arrive in high school with reading skills that are below "proficient"--defined as demonstrating competency over challenging subject matter. Of these students, nearly half do not exhibit even partial mastery of the knowledge and skills that are fundamental to proficient work at grade level. These limitations in literacy skills are a major source of course failure, high school dropout, and poor performance in postsecondary education. While research is beginning to emerge about the special needs of striving adolescent readers, very little is known about effective interventions aimed at addressing these needs. To help fill this gap and to provide evidence-based guidance to practitioners, the U.S. Department of Education initiated the Enhanced Reading Opportunities (ERO) study--a demonstration and rigorous evaluation of supplemental literacy programs targeted to ninth-grade students whose reading skills are at least two years below grade level. As part of this demonstration, 34 high schools from 10 school districts implemented one of two reading interventions: Reading Apprenticeship Academic Literacy (RAAL), designed by WestEd, and Xtreme Reading, designed by the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning. These programs were implemented in the study schools for two school years. The U.S. Department of Education's (ED) Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE) funded the implementation of these programs, and its Institute of Education Sciences (IES) was responsible for oversight of the evaluation. MDRC--a nonprofit, nonpartisan education and social policy research organization--conducted the evaluation in partnership with the American Institutes for Research (AIR) and Survey Research Management (SRM). The goal of the reading interventions--which consist of a year-long course that replaces a ninth-grade elective class--is to help striving adolescent readers develop the strategies and routines used by proficient readers, thereby improving their reading skills and ultimately, their academic performance in high school. The first two reports for the study evaluated the programs' impact on the two most proximal outcomes targeted by the interventions--students' reading skills and their reading behaviors at the end of ninth grade. This report--which is the final of three reports for this evaluation--examines the impact of the ERO programs on the more general outcomes that the programs hope to affect--students' academic performance in high school (grade point average [GPA], credit accumulation, and state test scores) as well as students' behavioral outcomes (attendance and disciplinary infractions). These academic and behavioral outcomes are examined during the year in which they were enrolled in the ERO programs (ninth grade), as well as the following school year (tenth grade for most students). Appendices include: (1) The ERO Programs and the ERO Teachers; (2) ERO Student Survey Measures; (3) ERO Implementation Fidelity; (4) State Tests Included in the ERO Study; (5) Response Analysis and Baseline Comparison Tables; (6) Technical Notes for Impact Findings; (7) Statistical Power and Minimum Detectable Effect Size; (8) Supplementary Impact Findings; (9) Baseline and Impact Findings, by Cohort; (10) The Association Between Reading Outcomes and Academic Performance in High School; (11) Variation in Impacts Across Sites and Cohorts; (12) Program Costs; and (13) Poststudy Adolescent Literacy Programming in the ERO Schools: Methodology and Additional Findings. (Contains 97 tables, 23 figures, 2 boxes, and 185 footnotes.) [This paper was written with Edmond Wong. For the first-year report, see ED499778. For the second report, see ED503380.]

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), just over 70 percent of students nationally arrive in high school with reading skills that are below "proficient"--defined as demonstrating competency over challenging subject matter. Of these students, nearly half do not exhibit even partial mastery of the knowledge and skills that are fundamental to proficient work at grade level. These limitations in literacy skills are a major source of course failure, high school dropout, and poor performance in postsecondary education. While research is beginning to emerge about the special needs of striving adolescent readers, very little is known about effective interventions aimed at addressing these needs. To help fill this gap and to provide evidence-based guidance to practitioners, the U.S. Department of Education initiated the Enhanced Reading Opportunities (ERO) study--a demonstration and rigorous evaluation of supplemental literacy programs targeted to ninth-grade students whose reading skills are at least two years below grade level. As part of this demonstration, 34 high schools from 10 school districts implemented one of two reading interventions: Reading Apprenticeship Academic Literacy (RAAL), designed by WestEd, and Xtreme Reading, designed by the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning. These programs were implemented in the study schools for two school years. The U.S. Department of Education's (ED) Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE) funded the implementation of these programs, and its Institute of Education Sciences (IES) was responsible for oversight of the evaluation. MDRC--a nonprofit, nonpartisan education and social policy research organization--conducted the evaluation in partnership with the American Institutes for Research (AIR) and Survey Research Management (SRM). The goal of the reading interventions--which consist of a year-long course that replaces a ninth-grade elective class--is to help striving adolescent readers develop the strategies and routines used by proficient readers, thereby improving their reading skills and ultimately, their academic performance in high school. The first two reports for the study evaluated the programs' impact on the two most proximal outcomes targeted by the interventions--students' reading skills and their reading behaviors at the end of ninth grade. This report--which is the final of three reports for this evaluation--examines the impact of the ERO programs on the more general outcomes that the programs hope to affect--students' academic performance in high school (grade point average [GPA], credit accumulation, and state test scores) as well as students' behavioral outcomes (attendance and disciplinary infractions). These academic and behavioral outcomes are examined during the year in which they were enrolled in the ERO programs (ninth grade), as well as the following school year (tenth grade for most students). Appendices include: (1) The ERO Programs and the ERO Teachers; (2) ERO Student Survey Measures; (3) ERO Implementation Fidelity; (4) State Tests Included in the ERO Study; (5) Response Analysis and Baseline Comparison Tables; (6) Technical Notes for Impact Findings; (7) Statistical Power and Minimum Detectable Effect Size; (8) Supplementary Impact Findings; (9) Baseline and Impact Findings, by Cohort; (10) The Association Between Reading Outcomes and Academic Performance in High School; (11) Variation in Impacts Across Sites and Cohorts; (12) Program Costs; and (13) Poststudy Adolescent Literacy Programming in the ERO Schools: Methodology and Additional Findings. (Contains 97 tables, 23 figures, 2 boxes, and 185 footnotes.) [This paper was written with Edmond Wong. For the first-year report, see ED499778. For the second report, see ED503380.]

State education departments, in discussions with Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Southeast, identified low reading achievement as a critical issue for their students and expressed an interest in identifying effective strategies to promote the foundational skills in young students that might improve reading achievement. The Mississippi State Department of Education has focused specifically on interventions that might enhance students' vocabulary knowledge. Kindergarten PAVEd for Success (K-PAVE) was selected to be tested in Mississippi for three reasons. First, there were only a small number of vocabulary interventions appropriate for this age group to be considered. Second, among these, PAVE--the preschool version of the intervention--was the only one for which an impact study had been completed that provided some evidence of effects. Third, K-PAVE was the only curriculum that had developed teacher training materials and a training protocol, which meant that it could be implemented with sufficient fidelity across a variety of districts and school settings. The primary research question for the study addressed the impact of K-PAVE on kindergarten students' expressive vocabulary. Secondary research questions addressed the impacts on kindergarten students' academic knowledge and listening comprehension. Although the study was concerned primarily with the impacts of K-PAVE on students, impacts on intermediate classroom instruction outcomes were also assessed to provide context for understanding potential impacts on students. The study addressed research questions about impacts on classroom instruction in vocabulary and comprehension support, instructional support, and emotional support. Finally, the study examined whether the introduction of K-PAVE had the unintended consequence of reducing the time spent on areas of literacy instruction other than vocabulary and comprehension (such as phonological awareness, alphabet knowledge, print concepts, and decoding). The study found that kindergarten students in schools using K-PAVE as a supplement to the regular literacy instruction performed better than kindergarten students in control schools on the Expressive Vocabulary Test-2 administered at the end of the school year. The study also found that kindergarten students in K-PAVE schools performed better than students in control schools on the measure of academic knowledge administered at the end of the year. K-PAVE caused a positive and statistically significant impact on one of the three kindergarten classroom instructional practices examined: vocabulary and comprehension support, which includes introducing vocabulary words during read-alouds, introducing vocabulary words throughout the school day, asking higher order questions during read-alouds, and providing comprehension support during book read-alouds. Appendices include: (1) Mississippi Counties with Study Schools, by County; (2) Statistical Power Analysis; (3) Random Assignment; (4) Recruitment and Random Selection of the Student Sample; (5) Comparison of Students Missing and Not Missing Baseline Assessment; (6) Classroom Observation Measures for Impact Evaluation; (7) Teacher Survey; (8) K-PAVE Fidelity Observer Handbook and Training Fidelity Checklist; (9) Data Collection Procedures; (10) Data Quality Assurance Procedures; (11) Model Specifications; (12) Flowchart Illustrating Sample Attrition from Data Collection; (13) Missing Data Imputation; (14) Sensitivity Analyses; (15) School, Teacher, and Student Covariates; (16) List of K-PAVE Materials Provided to Teachers; (17) Sample Weekly Unit from K-PAVE Program; (18) List of the 240 K-PAVE Target Words; (19) K-PAVE Teacher Training Agenda; (20) K-PAVE Teacher Phone Follow-Up Agenda; (21) Sample Means and Standard Deviations for Student and Classroom Outcome Measures, by Intervention Status; (22) Checking Model Assumptions; and (23) Translating Impacts on Students into Age-Equivalent Differences in Posttest Outcomes. (Contains 53 tables, 16 figures, 1 map, 3 boxes, and 86 footnotes

This report addresses the following four questions by reporting on the impacts of Head Start on children and families during the children's preschool, kindergarten, and 1st grade years: (1) What difference does Head Start make to key outcomes of development and learning (and in particular, the multiple domains of school readiness) for low-income children? (2) What difference does Head Start make to parental practices that contribute to children's school readiness? (3) Under what circumstances does Head Start achieve the greatest impact? What works for which children? (4) What Head Start services are most related to impact? The Head Start Impact Study was conducted with a nationally representative sample of 84 grantee/delegate agencies and included nearly 5,000 newly entering, eligible 3- and 4-year-old children who were randomly assigned to either: (1) a Head Start group that had access to Head Start program services or (2) a control group that did not have access to Head Start, but could enroll in other early childhood programs or non-Head Start services selected by their parents. The study was designed to separately examine two cohorts of children, newly entering 3-and 4-year-olds. This design reflects the hypothesis that different program impacts may be associated with different age of entry into Head Start. Differential impacts are of particular interest in light of a trend of increased enrollment of the 3-year-olds in some grantee/delegate agencies presumably due to the growing availability of preschool options for 4-year-olds. Consequently, the study included two separate samples: a newly entering 3-year-old group (to be studied through two years of Head Start participation i.e., Head Start year and age 4 year, kindergarten and 1st grade), and a newly entering 4-year-old group (to be studied through one year of Head Start participation, kindergarten and 1st grade). The study showed that the two age cohorts varied in demographic characteristics, making it even more appropriate to examine them separately. The racial/ethnic characteristics of newly entering children in the 3-year-old cohort were substantially different from the characteristics of children in the newly entering 4-year-old cohort. While the newly entering 3-year-olds were relatively evenly distributed between Black children and Hispanic children (Black children 32.8%, Hispanic children 37.4%, and White/other children 29.8%), about half of newly entering 4-year-olds were Hispanic children (Black children 17.5%, Hispanic children 51.6%, and White/other children 30.8%). The ethnic difference is also reflected in the age-group differences in child and parent language. This report presents the findings from the preschool years through children's 1st grade experience. This document consists of the Executive Summary and nine chapters. Chapter 1 presents the study background, including a literature review of related Head Start research and the study purpose and objectives. Chapter 2 provides details about the study design and implementation. It discusses the experimental design, sample selection prior to random assignment, data collection, and data analysis. To provide a context in which to understand the impact findings, Chapter 3 examines the impact of Head Start on the services and child care settings that children experience prior to starting school. It also provides the impact of Head Start on the educational and child care settings, setting characteristics, and services that children experience during kindergarten and 1st grade. Chapters 4 through 7 present the impact of Head Start on children's outcomes and parenting practices for the years before school and then for kindergarten and 1st grade. Chapter 4 presents the impact of Head Start on children's cognitive development, Chapter 5 presents the impact of Head Start on children's social-emotional development, Chapter 6 presents the impact of Head Start on children's health status and access to health services, and Chapter 7 presents the impact of Head Start on parenting practices in the areas of educational activities, discipline practices, and school involvement. Chapter 8 examines variation in impacts by child characteristics, parent and family characteristics, and community characteristics. Chapter 9 provides an overall summary of the findings, implications for the Head Start Program, and unanswered questions. Appendices in this volume include the Head Start Impact Study legislation, a list of the official Head Start Impact Study Advisory Committee members, the language decision form used to determine the language in which the child was assessed, and data tables that elaborate on the findings presented in the volume (e.g., Impact on Treated (IOT) findings). The findings from a sample of programs in Puerto Rico are also provided in an appendix. Programs in Puerto Rico were included in the study with the intent that data on children in these programs would be analyzed along with the data on children in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, once children reached school-age. (Contains 1 figure, 117 footnotes, and 114 exhibits.) [The ERIC version of this document contains the following supplementary materials: Head Start Impact Study Main Impact Tables, 2003 through 2006; and Head Start Impact Study Subgroup Impact Tables, 2003 through 2006. For the "Head Start Impact Study Technical Report," see ED507846. For the "Head Start Impact Study Final Report. Executive Summary," see ED507847.]

Schoolwide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS) is a universal, schoolwide prevention strategy that is currently implemented in over 9,000 schools across the nation to reduce disruptive behavior problems through the application of behavioral, social learning, and organizational behavioral principles. SWPBIS aims to alter school environments by creating improved systems and procedures that promote positive change in student behavior by targeting staff behaviors. This study uses data from a 5-year longitudinal randomized controlled effectiveness trial of SWPBIS conducted in 37 elementary schools to examine the impact of training in SWPBIS on implementation fidelity as well as student suspensions, office discipline referrals, and academic achievement. School-level longitudinal analyses indicated that the schools trained in SWPBIS implemented the model with high fidelity and experienced significant reductions in student suspensions and office discipline referrals. (Contains 1 table and 5 figures.)

This report summarizes evaluation results for an efficacy study of the Leveled Literacy Intervention system (LLI) implemented in Tift County Schools (TCS) in Georgia and the Enlarged City School District of Middletown (ECSDM) in New York during the 2009-2010 school year. Developed by Fountas & Pinnell (2009) and published by Heinemann, LLI is a short-term, small-group, supplemental literacy intervention system designed for students in kindergarten through second grade (K-2) who struggle with literacy. The goal of LLI is to provide intensive support to help these early learners quickly achieve grade-level competency. Both school districts evaluated in this study adopted the targeted, small-group implementation model of LLI in their schools with support from Heinemann consultants providing LLI professional development. This report focuses on the implementation and impact of this model during the first full school year of the system in these schools. The purpose of this study was threefold: (1) to determine the efficacy of the Leveled Literacy Intervention system (LLI) in increasing reading achievement for K-2 students; (2) to examine the implementation fidelity of LLI; and (3) to determine perceptions of the LLI system according to relevant stakeholders. This study focused on two U.S. school districts and comprised 427 K-2 students who were matched demographically and randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. This evaluation used a mixed-methods design to address the following key research questions: (1) What progress in literacy do students who receive LLI make compared to students who receive only regular classroom literacy instruction? (2) Was LLI implemented with fidelity to the developers' model? and (3) What were LLI teachers' perceptions of LLI and its impact on their students' literacy? Altogether, the results from this evaluation allow us to conclude that the LLI system positively impacts students' literacy skills. These results also suggest that continued implementation of LLI would be beneficial in both Tift County Schools and the Enlarged City School District of Middletown. From this evaluation, CREP proposes several recommendations. (Contains 34 tables, 8 footnotes, and 1 figure.) [This study was supported by funding from Heinemann Publishing.]

Connecticut's interdistrict magnet schools offer a model of choice-based desegregation that appears to satisfy current legal constraints. This study presents evidence that interdistrict magnet schools have provided students from Connecticut's central cities access to less racially and economically isolated educational environments and estimates the impact of attending a magnet school on student achievement. To address potential selection biases, the analyses exploit the random assignment that results from lottery-based admissions for a small set of schools, as well as value-added and fixed-effect estimators that rely on pre-magnet school measures of student achievement to obtain effect estimates for a broader set of interdistrict magnet schools. Results indicate that attendance at an interdistrict magnet high school has positive effects on the math and reading achievement of central city students and that interdistrict magnet middle schools have positive effects on reading achievement. (Contains 20 notes, 8 tables, and 1 figure.)

This report summarizes the findings from a national evaluation of mentoring programs funded under the U.S. Department of Education's Student Mentoring Program. The impact evaluation used an experimental design in which students were randomly assigned to a treatment or control group. Thirty-two purposively selected School Mentoring Programs and 2,573 students took part in the evaluation, which estimated the impact of the programs over one school year on a range of student outcomes. The evaluation also describes the characteristics of the program and the mentors, and provides information about program delivery. The Student Mentoring Program is designed to fund grantees to enable them to provide mentoring to at-risk students in grades 4-8. The ultimate goal of the program is to improve student academic and behavioral outcomes through the guidance and encouragement of a volunteer mentor. Seventeen total impacts in the domains of academic achievement/engagement, interpersonal relationships/personal responsibility, and high-risk/delinquent behavior were measured. The main finding of the Impact Study was that there were no statistically significant impacts of the Student Mentoring Program for the sample as a whole on this array of student outcomes. However, there was some scattered evidence that impacts were heterogeneous across types of students. In particular, impacts on girls were statistically significantly different from impacts on boys for two self-reported scales: Scholastic Efficacy and School Bonding, and Pro-social Behaviors. For boys, the impact on Prosocial Behaviors was negative and statistically significant. For girls, the impact on Scholastic Efficacy and School Bonding was positive and statistically significant. The impact on truancy was negative and statistically significant for students below age 12. There were negative associations between program supervision of mentors and site-level impacts on three of the seventeen individual outcome measures: Pro-social Behaviors, grades in math and social studies, and a positive relationship with the outcome of school-reported delinquency. The report also presented results demonstrating that the Student Mentoring Program represented a fairly low level of intensity in terms of service: although grantees, on average, adhered to the general intents of the legislation and program guidance, they were simultaneously constrained by the limits of the school calendar and the population from which to draw mentors. Thirty-five percent of the control group students reported receiving mentoring either from the program or elsewhere in the community; this finding, coupled with the fact that not all treatment group students met with a mentor, reduced the treatment contrast and may have led to some dilution of the impacts on students compared to expectations. Seven appendices are included; (1) Sampling Design and Methodology; (2) Survey Instruments; (3) Construction of Student Outcome Measures; (4) Impact Analysis Results on Original Student Survey Scales and Measures; (5) Sensitivity Tests; (6) Standard Errors and Confidence Intervals of Main Effects; and (7) Site-Level Predictors and Impacts. (Contains 109 footnotes and 122 exhibits.) ["Impact Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Education's Student Mentoring Program. Final Report" was written with the assistance of Christine Dyous, Michelle Klausner, Nancy McGarry, Rachel Luck and William Rhodes.]

This project entailed a three-year efficacy evaluation of the Computer and Team Assisted Mathematical Acceleration (CATAMA) Lab developed by the Center for Social Organization of Schools at Johns Hopkins University. The CATAMA Lab was proposed as an immediate and practical approach to addressing the different types of math deficits held by students at urban high-poverty schools. The Lab required only 1 teacher per school reducing staff and professional development requirements. It used multiple instructional techniques (including individualized computer instruction, direct instruction, pair and team learning, and individual instruction) to teach math concepts and skills. By taking the place of an elective it allowed students to continue with their on-grade math class. For a more detailed description of the Lab see Appendix 2. The original goal of the project was to establish the Lab at three urban schools serving high-poverty high-minority middle grade students (grades 5-8). Students underperforming in mathematics (as established by district standardized tests) were to take a trimester course of study in the Lab to increase their knowledge of math concepts and skills taught by a regular math teacher receiving extensive ongoing professional development. Students were to take the Lab as an elective course while continuing with their regular math class. From each school's pool of students eligible to participate, students were to be randomly assigned to take the Lab. An implementation analysis was to measure the teaching of the concepts and skills to be taught in the Lab. To evaluate the impact of the intervention, students' math achievement, as measured by standardized math tests, was to be compared to eligible students not assigned to the Lab. This report discusses the project in three sections: (1) A comparison of the actual project with the planned project; (2) The descriptive results from the project; (a) Description of the sample; (b) Description of implementation of the CATAMA Lab; and (3) The evaluative results from the project.

In this article, the authors report achievement outcomes of a multisite cluster randomized field trial of Open Court Reading 2005 (OCR), a K-6 literacy curriculum published by SRA/McGraw-Hill. The participants are 49 first-grade through fifth-grade classrooms from predominantly minority and poor contexts across the nation. Blocking by grade level within schools, the trial includes 27 classrooms receiving the OCR curricular materials and professional development and 22 "business-as-usual" control classrooms. Multilevel analyses of classroom-level effects of assignment to OCR reveal statistically significant treatment effects on all three of the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills, 5th edition, Terra Nova literacy posttests. The OCR effect sizes are d = 0.16 for the Reading Composite, d = 0.19 for Vocabulary, and d = 0.12 for Reading Comprehension. These effects achieved across 27 classrooms and 5 schools demonstrate the potential for replicating improved literacy outcomes through the scale-up of OCR. (Contains 4 tables and 1 note.)

Successful implementation of evidence-based educational practices at scale is of great importance but has presented significant challenges. In this article, the authors address the following questions: How does the level of on-site technical assistance affect student outcomes? Do teachers' fidelity of treatment implementation and their perceptions of school climate mediate effects on student performance? Using a randomized control trial at scale, the authors examine Kindergarten Peer Assisted Learning Strategies, which previously has been shown to be effective in increasing student reading achievement. Analyzing data from 2 years and three sites, the analyses show that the level of on-site technical support has significant effects on reading achievement gains, are robust across multiple sites, and are mediated by fidelity of implementation within teachers' classrooms. (Contains 2 figures and 4 tables.)

Using a cluster randomization design, schools were randomly assigned to implement Success for All, a comprehensive reading reform model, or control methods. This article reports final literacy outcomes for a 3-year longitudinal sample of children who participated in the treatment or control condition from kindergarten through second grade and a combined longitudinal and in-mover student sample, both of which were nested within 35 schools. Hierarchical linear model analyses of all three outcomes for both samples revealed statistically significant school-level effects of treatment assignment as large as one third of a standard deviation. The results correspond with the Success for All program theory, which emphasizes both comprehensive school-level reform and targeted student-level achievement effects through a multi-year sequencing of literacy instruction. (Contains 5 tables.)

This paper reports on a randomized experiment to study the impact of an alternative teacher preparation program, Teach for America (TFA), on student achievement and other outcomes. We found that TFA teachers had a positive impact on math achievement and no impact on reading achievement. The size of the impact on math scores was about 15 percent of a standard deviation, equivalent to about one month of instruction. The general conclusions did not differ substantially for subgroups of teachers, including novice teachers, or for subgroups of students. We found no impacts on other student outcomes such as attendance, promotion, or disciplinary incidents, but TFA teachers were more likely to report problems with student behavior than were their peers. The findings contradict claims that such programs allowing teachers to bypass the traditional route to the classroom harm students.

Community colleges, which tend to be more accessible and affordable than other postsecondary institutions, are a critical resource for low-income people striving to improve their prospects in the labor market and in life. Yet nearly half of students who begin at community colleges leave school before receiving a credential. Research by MDRC and others suggests that many community college students want to earn a degree but are overwhelmed by the competing demands of work, family, and school. Institutional barriers, such as poorly tailored instruction, insufficient financial aid, or inadequate advising, may also impede their academic progress. In 2003, MDRC launched the Opening Doors demonstration project to study the effects of innovative programs designed to help students stay in school and succeed. Six colleges in four states are taking part in the demonstration. This report presents early findings from Louisiana Opening Doors, an enhanced financial aid program targeting low-income parents at two community colleges in the New Orleans area: Delgado Community College and Louisiana Technical College-West Jefferson. This program was designed to help students with their expenses and provide an incentive to make good academic progress. Students randomly assigned to Opening Doors were offered a $1,000 scholarship for each of two semesters, in addition to the regular financial aid they qualified for, if they enrolled at least half time and earned at least a C average. They also received enhanced counseling. Students in a control group received only regular financial aid and the counseling available to all students. The early findings in Louisiana are compelling and suggest that a performance-based scholarship can indeed have a positive effect on persistence and academic achievement among a student population that faces multiple barriers to completing college. The students in Opening Doors were more likely to enroll in college full time, passed more courses, earned more course credits, and had higher rates of persistence. (Contains 30 endnotes, 3 tables, and 1 figure.) [The opening Doors Project was also funded by MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Socioeconomic Status and Health; MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Transitions to Adulthood.]

Career Academies offer high schools--particularly those in urban communities that struggle to keep students in school and to prepare them for post-secondary education and employment opportunities--a systematic approach to addressing a range of challenges. Typically serving between 150 and 200 students from grades 9 or 10 through grade 12, Career Academies have three distinguishing features: (1) they are organized as small learning communities to create a more supportive, personalized learning environment; (2) they combine academic and career and technical curricula around a career theme to enrich teaching and learning; and (3) they establish partnerships with local employers to provide career awareness and work-based learning opportunities for students. There are estimated to be more than 2,500 Career Academies across the country, operating either as a single program or as multiple programs within a larger high school. This report examines the impact that Career Academies have had on the educational attainment and post-secondary labor market experiences of young people through the four years following their scheduled graduation from high school. It is based on survey data collected from 1,458 young people in the Career Academies Evaluation study sample (about 85 percent of whom are either Hispanic or African-American). Findings included: (1) the Career Academies substantially improved the labor market prospects of young men, a group that has experienced a severe decline in real earnings in recent years; (2) the Career Academies had no significant impacts (positive or negative) on the labor market outcomes for young women; (3) Overall, the Career Academies served as viable pathways to a range of post-secondary education opportunities, but they do not appear to have been more effective than options available to the non-Academy group; and (4) The positive labor market impacts were concentrated among Academy group members who were at high or medium risk of dropping out of high school when they entered the programs. The findings demonstrate the feasibility of improving labor market preparation and successful school-to-work transitions without compromising academic goals and preparation for college. (Contains 10 exhibits.) [Report written with Judith Scott-Clayton. Dissemination of MDRC publications is also supported by Starr Foundation.]

Career Academies offer high schools--particularly those in urban communities that struggle to keep students in school and to prepare them for post-secondary education and employment opportunities--a systematic approach to addressing a range of challenges. Typically serving between 150 and 200 students from grades 9 or 10 through grade 12, Career Academies have three distinguishing features: (1) they are organized as small learning communities to create a more supportive, personalized learning environment; (2) they combine academic and career and technical curricula around a career theme to enrich teaching and learning; and (3) they establish partnerships with local employers to provide career awareness and work-based learning opportunities for students. There are estimated to be more than 2,500 Career Academies across the country, operating either as a single program or as multiple programs within a larger high school. This report examines the impact that Career Academies have had on the educational attainment and post-secondary labor market experiences of young people through the four years following their scheduled graduation from high school. It is based on survey data collected from 1,458 young people in the Career Academies Evaluation study sample (about 85 percent of whom are either Hispanic or African-American). Findings included: (1) the Career Academies substantially improved the labor market prospects of young men, a group that has experienced a severe decline in real earnings in recent years; (2) the Career Academies had no significant impacts (positive or negative) on the labor market outcomes for young women; (3) Overall, the Career Academies served as viable pathways to a range of post-secondary education opportunities, but they do not appear to have been more effective than options available to the non-Academy group; and (4) The positive labor market impacts were concentrated among Academy group members who were at high or medium risk of dropping out of high school when they entered the programs. The findings demonstrate the feasibility of improving labor market preparation and successful school-to-work transitions without compromising academic goals and preparation for college. (Contains 10 exhibits.) [Report written with Judith Scott-Clayton. Dissemination of MDRC publications is also supported by Starr Foundation.]

Teach For America (TFA) was founded in 1989 to address the educational inequities facing children in low-income communities across the United States by expanding the pool of teacher candidates available to the schools those children attend. TFA recruits seniors and recent graduates from colleges around the country, people who are willing to commit to teach for a minimum of two years in low-income schools. TFA focuses its recruitment on people with strong academic records and leadership capabilities, whether or not they have planned to teach or have taken education courses. TFA is particularly interested in candidates that have the potential to be effective in the classroom but in the absence of TFA would not consider a teaching career. Consequently, most TFA recruits do not have education-related majors in college and therefore have not received the same training that traditional teachers are expected to have. After an executive summary and introduction, this discussion paper addresses the following: (1) How TFA Works; (2) Study Design; (3) Who Teaches in the Schools Where TFA Places Teachers?; (4) What Does Our Sample of Students Look Like?; (5) Were TFA Teachers Effective in the Classroom?; and (6) Did TFA Have an Impact on Other Student Outcomes? Primary findings from the study include: from the perspective of a community or a school faced with the opportunity to hire TFA teachers, TFA offers an appealing pool of candidates; from the perspective of TFA and its funders, the organization is making progress toward its primary mission of reducing inequities in education--it supplies low-income schools with academically talented teachers who contribute positively to the academic achievement of their students; and from the perspective of policymakers who are trying to improve the educational opportunities of children in poor communities, many of the control teachers in the study were not certified or did not have formal pre-service training, highlighting the need for programs or policies that offer the potential of attracting good teachers to schools in the most disadvantaged communities--the findings show that TFA is one such program. Appended are: (1) Supplementary Tables; and (2) Estimation Approach. (Contains 17 tables and 6 figures.)

The College and Career Readiness Expansion project was a five-year, federally funded effort to implement early college strategies in comprehensive high schools. This report presents the results from a quasi-experimental impact study of the project and a mixed methods examination of its implementation. Results showed that the program increased the percentage of students on-track for college in 9th and 10th grade and expanded the number of students taking dual enrollment courses, although there was no positive impact on college credits earned in high school. The implementation study found that schools were created a more future-oriented culture.

This study examined participation in accelerated college credit programs dual enrollment, concurrent enrollment, and Advanced Placement courses in Rhode Island high schools to understand their effects on educational attainment in the 2013/14 grade 9 cohort. The state, which has funded and promoted these opportunities for students to earn college credit during high school over the past five years, sought evidence of the programs' effects on participants' high school graduation rates, postsecondary enrollment rates, and enrollment rates in developmental education courses in college. The study found that male, economically disadvantaged, and racial/ethnic minority students were underrepresented in accelerated college credit programs. Participation in these programs had positive effects on students' rates of high school graduation and postsecondary enrollment. Among students in the cohort who enrolled in Rhode Island public colleges, participation was associated with lower rates of developmental education course enrollment in the first year of college. The effects of participating in an accelerated college credit program were similar for economically disadvantaged students and for their peers. [For the Study Snapshot, see ED612888. For the appendices, see ED612890.]

Education leaders in Nebraska and South Dakota partnered with the Regional Educational Laboratory Central to examine how completing a sequence of career and technical education (CTE) courses in high school affects students' rates of on-time high school graduation and their rates of postsecondary education enrollment and completion within two and five years. The study found that CTE concentrators (students who complete a sequence of CTE courses aligned to a specific career field such as manufacturing or education and training) were 7 percentage points more likely than non-CTE concentrators to graduate from high school on time and 10 percentage points more likely to enroll in any type of postsecondary education within two years of their expected high school graduation year. The study also found that CTE concentrators were 3 percentage points more likely than non-CTE concentrators to earn a postsecondary award, such as a professional certificate, diploma, or associate's or bachelor's degree, within five years of their expected high school graduation year. CTE concentrators were 4 percentage points more likely than non-CTE concentrators to obtain up to an associate's degree as their highest postsecondary award within five years of their expected high school graduation year but 1 percentage point less likely to obtain a bachelor's degree or higher. [For the appendixes, see ED612631; for the study brief, see ED612632; for the study snapshot, see ED612633.]

In Indiana and Minnesota the state education agency, state higher education agency, and the state workforce agency have collaborated to develop career and technical education courses intended to improve high school students' college and career readiness. These agencies partnered with the Regional Educational Laboratory Midwest to examine whether high school graduates in each state who completed a large number of career and technical education courses in a single career-oriented program of study (concentrators) had different college and workforce outcomes from graduates who completed fewer (samplers) or no career and technical education courses (nonparticipants). The study found that in the 2012/13-2017/18 graduation cohorts, male graduates were more likely to be concentrators than female graduates, and graduates who received special education services were more likely to be concentrators than those who did not receive services. Graduates who were not proficient in reading in grade 8 also were more likely to become concentrators than those who were proficient. Graduates who attended urban and suburban schools were more likely than students who attended town and rural schools to be nonparticipants. Concentrators were less likely than samplers and nonparticipants with similar characteristics to enroll in college, but the differences reflect mainly enrollment in four-year colleges. Concentrators were more likely to enroll in two-year colleges. Concentrators also were less likely than similar samplers and nonparticipants to complete a bachelor's degree within four to six years. Finally, compared with similar samplers and nonparticipants, concentrators were employed at higher rates in the first five years after high school and had higher earnings. [For the study brief, see ED613045; for the study snapshot, see ED613046; and for the appendixes, see ED613050.]

"G[superscript 2]ROW STEM" is an Investing in Innovation (i3) development grant funded by the Office of Innovation and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education. "G[superscript 2]ROW STEM" targets high-need middle school students, particularly females and minorities, that tend to be underrepresented in STEM careers. "G[superscript 2]ROW STEM" focuses on providing students with engaging, hands-on, project-based, extended-learning experiences to inspire interest in STEM and improve achievement. The impact evaluation used a quasi-experimental design (QED) to examine the effect of "G[superscript 2]ROW STEM" on academic achievement in science and math. "G[superscript 2]ROW STEM" student enrollment began during the 2016-17 school year and students were followed for three years, through the 2018-19 school year. Academic achievement outcomes for "G[superscript 2]ROW STEM" students were compared to a matched sample of students within the same grade in the same schools who participated in business-as-usual, traditional academic instruction with no extended learning experiences. Academic achievement for comparison students was also tracked over a three-year period. Results showed statistically significant differences between treatment and comparison groups in achievement test scores across both math and science. Overall, treatment students gained seven NCE score points more than the comparison group students did after up to three years in the "G[superscript 2]ROW STEM" program. This is roughly equivalent to one-third of a standard deviation. Significant differences were also noted for student subgroups with non-minority students realizing slightly higher gains in NCE scores than minority students by the end of the program (over all analyses a difference of 2.25 NCE points).

District leaders in a large urban school district in central Florida wanted to examine the efficacy of a new curriculum designed to enhance the word knowledge of grade 5 students so as to improve reading achievement. The new curriculum, called Word Knowledge Instruction (WKI), consists of 15-minute lessons 4 days a week for 20 weeks. The lessons address state standards and cover 20 prefixes and suffixes. Thirty-nine schools participated in the study, with 92 English language arts (ELA) teachers in high-poverty schools randomly assigned within schools either to use WKI or to continue to use their standard ELA curriculum. Classroom observations revealed that WKI was implemented as intended. WKI had a positive effect, equivalent to an increase of 9 percentile points, on students' ability to correctly extract and spell a base word from a derived word, one of the skills explicitly taught by WKI. WKI had no effect on two other related reading skills that were not directly taught by WKI (students' ability to select a nonword that best fits the grammatical context of a sentence or to use knowledge of word parts to infer meaning of new words) or on students' vocabulary or reading scores. These findings suggest that, although students learned what they were explicitly taught, the transferability to related but not directly taught skills might require more intense or longer duration instruction or additional professional development for teachers. [For the study snapshot, see ED611684. For the appendix, see ED611685.]

On average, Florida students earn only half of the points possible in the statistics content area of the state's annual mathematics assessment. Leaders in Broward County Public Schools, a large, diverse, urban school district, viewed changes to statistics curriculum and instruction as one way to address this issue. This study randomly assigned 40 middle schools in the district to either implement a replacement curriculum unit with four days of teacher professional development in probability and statistics or continue with their practice-as-usual instruction in probability and statistics. The replacement unit supported teaching and learning of all the probability and statistics standards in the grade 7 course description. The replacement unit with the associated professional development, called the Supporting Teacher Enactment of the Probability and Statistics Standards program, improved student understanding of statistics and statistics instruction. The magnitude of the effect on student understanding was 23 percent of 1 standard deviation, which is comparable to an increase of 9 percentile points for an average student. [For the appendixes, see ED610168. For the study snapshot, see ED610167.]

In 2015 Oregon became the second state in the country to implement a statewide promise program. Its program, Oregon Promise, seeks to promote students' postsecondary attainment by covering nearly all community college tuition. This study used student data from K-12 public schools, Oregon Promise applications, and postsecondary records to examine which public high school seniors the program reached and served and to assess the program's impact on high school graduates' postsecondary outcomes in its first two years. The study found that Oregon Promise applicants generally reflected the demographic composition of all Oregon public high school seniors in 2015/16 and 2016/17, although applicants were more likely to be female and less likely to have received special education services. While applicant characteristics were similar in the first and second years, there were fewer eligible applicants and recipients in the second year, when an expected family contribution limit was added, than in the first year, and they were more likely to be from low-income households and to be students of color. Using grade point average (GPA) data from the Portland metropolitan area, the study also found that lowering the GPA requirement would have increased the overall applicant pool, as well as the number of applicants from low-income households and applicants of color. Just over half of recipients in the first year of the program renewed their award and received it in their second year at a community college. These recipients had better high school attendance and were more likely to have participated in college-level coursework during high school than recipients who received an award only in their first year. Finally, among high school graduates in the Portland metropolitan area with a GPA close to the eligibility cutoff (2.5), the offer of an award had a positive impact on first-year persistence and on persistence or college completion within four years of high school graduation. Findings from the statewide exploratory analysis also found positive program impacts on first-year persistence and persistence or college completion within three or four years of high school graduation for all 2015/16 and 2016/17 seniors in the state. Oregon stakeholders can use the findings to better understand the reach and impact of the Oregon Promise program, implications of program requirements on the number and composition of applicants and recipients, and the high school experiences of recipients who renewed their award. [For the Study Snapshot, see ED615646. For the appendixes, see ED615648.]

The term dual, or concurrent, enrollment refers to the broad array of programs available to high school students that allow them to take college-level courses for credit. Dual enrollment creates multiple pathways to college by enabling high school students to take: (1) selected academic courses on college campuses; (2) college-led academic courses at their high school; or, (3) a hybrid of both. In addition, some dual enrollment programs permit students to take post-secondary level career and technical education courses. This study shows Concurrent Enrollment to be highly effective in increasing college graduation for high school students in Colorado. The sample included students across different demographics and academic abilities. Compared to students who did not take college courses while in high school, students who took Concurrent Enrollment courses were more likely to: (1) Attend college within one year following high school graduation, (2) Earn a college degree on time or early, and (3) Have higher workforce earnings after five years. [The Institute of Behavioral Science (IBS) at the University of Colorado Boulder also produced this report.]

Purpose: The purpose of this two-year study was to assess the impact of the CORE program, a model that integrates technology and active learning modules in high schools by providing multi-disciplinary teams of teachers and administrators with professional development and resources to support the development of students' non-cognitive skills and increase their college and career readiness. A fidelity of implementation study was also conducted to assess the seven key program components were being implemented as intended. Methods: This Randomized Control Trial (RCT) study followed a cohort of 9th and 10th grade high school students in 28 treatment and control schools; students completed the CWRA+ assessment and non-cognitive skills, engagement, and self-efficacy scales at three timepoints. Using the hierarchical linear model (HLM), the study assessed one-year program impact and two-year program impact. The two-year program impact model suffered a high attrition (due to COVID19) and the study became a quasi-experimental design (QED) study after propensity score matching analysis was applied. Results: Findings highlight how students at CORE schools showed increased scores across the two-year program intervention. Specifically, standardized effects on CWRA+ scores, the non-cognitive skills scale, engagement scale, and efficacy scale were respectively, 0.22, 0.22, 0.23, and 0.32. The effect size for the efficacy scale (0.32) was large enough to be considered important. To selectively mention exploratory findings, the level of program exposure both in terms of whether students were enrolled in the program-trained teachers' courses and whether teachers participated in PD activities seemed correlated with a higher growth in student's CWRA+ scores. Another set of exploratory findings implied that the program impact may interact with demographic characteristics of students. Findings demonstrate a need for further testing of differences between student subgroups based on demographics, as well as the importance of buy-in from program implementers to provide the customized PD support that educators and partners at rural schools need to more effectively serve their students. The exploratory findings suggested that the program exposure of teachers and students may be a key to enhance the CORE program impact. [This report was submitted by the ICF Evaluation Team.]

In 2013, the NYC Leadership Academy (NYCLA) developed a leadership intervention--the Targeted Intensive School Support (TISS) program--in collaboration with the New York City Department of Education (NYC DOE) to support schools that were facing particular challenges. NYCLA asked the RAND Corporation to provide an independent evaluation of the program's implementation and effects, and those findings are detailed in this report. The TISS program consisted of five key components: (1) teaming and collaborative training in aligned preservice preparation programs for a principal and assistant principal (AP); (2) coplacement of a principal and AP into an NYC DOE school; (3) team-based coaching to support the principal and AP; (4) 328 hours of extended coaching over the first three years after placement; and (5) use of a diagnostic process to guide goal setting and coaching according to school needs. Implementation findings suggest that only two of the five key components were implemented with fidelity. A propensity weighting approach was used to compare schools with TISS principals to other schools with new principals trained through residency-based preservice programs who did not participate in TISS. Findings suggest no statistically significant differences between TISS schools and comparison schools on measures of student achievement, school culture, and principal retention. TISS schools underperformed relative to comparison schools on the measure of chronic student absenteeism. [Sponsored by NYC Leadership Academy through a subgrant from the U.S. Department of Education.]

With the launch of the New York City Community Schools Initiative (NYC-CS) in 2014, the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) has increased its focus on the implementation of a holistic strategy of education reform to address the social consequences of poverty as a means to improving student outcomes. NYC-CS is a strategy to organize resources in schools and share leadership among stakeholders so that academics, health and wellness, youth development, and family engagement are integrated into the fabric of each school. New York City is implementing this strategy at a scale unmatched nationally. In this study, the authors assessed the impact of the NYC-CS through the 2017-2018 school year. The authors assessed the effects along seven outcome domains and explored the extent to which there is heterogeneity in programmatic impact based on student- and school-level characteristics. The authors leveraged innovative quasi-experimental methodology to determine whether students in the community schools are performing better than they would be had their schools not been designated as Community Schools. The findings of this report will contribute to the emerging evidence base on the efficacy of the community school strategy and will be useful for other school district- and state-level policymakers interested in developing or refining similar interventions that support students' and communities' academic, social, and emotional well-being. [The research described in this report was prepared for the New York City Mayor's Office for Economic Opportunity (NYC Opportunity).]

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of Get the Picture?! in improving the overall college/career readiness of 900 students with disabilities in each of the nine participating treatment high schools in nine rural, high poverty Kentucky school districts after four years of implementation. This quasi-experimental study followed the 9th grade cohort of students with disabilities in the nine treatment and 18 matched control schools over four school years, 2015-16 through 2018-19. Through the development of self-determination skills, the goal of the intervention was to increase the number of students with disabilities who achieved the state standard for College and/or Career Readiness by meeting established benchmarks on State/National assessments and/or completion of a recognized industry certification in each of the nine participating schools. For the confirmatory analyses, there were two outcome variables in two different outcome domains: (a) Transition Ready, a binary "Yes"/"No" variable [Transition Readiness domain], and (b) the cumulative number of in-school suspensions (a continuous variable) [Self-management behaviors domain]. For the confirmatory analyses, outcome data were examined using two-level Hierarchical Linear Models (HLM) (for Cumulative In-School Suspensions) and Hierarchical Generalized Linear Models (HGLM) (for Transition Ready) to account for the nested structure of the data (i.e., students nested within schools). Overall, after four years of implementation, Get the Picture?! was able to demonstrate a statistically significant positive impact on the Transition Readiness of participating 9th grade cohort students compared to controls. Treatment students had statistically significantly higher odds of being Transition Ready, and were more than twice as likely to achieve Transition Readiness status compared to control students. However, while the confirmatory study showed the intervention was also able to reduce the total number of in-school suspensions for treatment students relative to controls, the outcome was indeterminate (i.e., not statistically significant). The following are appended: (a) Kentucky Department of Education Revised Transition Readiness Standards, and (b) Fidelity of Implementation Final Report.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program and to derive estimates of program costs. We used the Coarsened Exact Matching approach to match AVID students with non-AVID students on 40 baseline characteristics. After matching, we estimated group differences in high-school graduation and college enrollment. We used the ingredients method to estimate program costs and calculated cost-effectiveness ratios by the duration of participation. Findings indicate that students who complete at least one AVID elective have higher high school graduation and college enrollment rates than comparable non-AVID students. We discuss how AVID compares to other college outreach programs in terms of costs and effects.

The STEM Early College Expansion Project is an effort to integrate STEM strategies with the early college model and implement this in comprehensive high schools. This report summarizes findings from two separate quasi-experimental impact studies of the model in Michigan and Connecticut. Results from Michigan showed statistically significant impacts on enrollment in college-level courses and on attainment of college credits. Treatment schools in Michigan also had descriptively lower dropout rates. The Connecticut impact study had challenges with the study design that resulted in an inability to make clear causal claims about the impact.

To support implementation of the "Next Generation Science Standards," we designed a high school biology unit, "Matter and Energy for Growth and Activity" (MEGA), that engages students in explaining physical and life science phenomena using evidence, models, and science ideas about matter and energy changes within systems and transfers between systems. The unit's promise was evaluated using a randomized control trial (RCT) involving fifteen teachers from two schools. Teachers were randomly assigned to implement either the MEGA unit or district-developed activities that targeted the same learning goals. Pre- and post-tests were administered, and the data were analyzed using Rasch modeling and hierarchical linear modeling. Here we describe the unit and report on RCT results. Our data showed that, when controlling for pretest score, gender, language, and ethnicity, students in the treatment group performed better on the post-test than the students in the comparison group, indicating the MEGA unit has promise in improving students' understanding. We also discuss a number of challenges that arose when developing and evaluating the unit.

A growing body of research points to the ways in which principals influence teachers, classrooms, and, ultimately, student achievement. New Leaders aims to prepare transformational school leaders by partnering with districts and charter schools to offer rigorous, research-based training for aspiring principals. The Aspiring Principals program is New Leaders' signature program and has three core features: selective recruitment and admission, training and endorsement, and support for principals early in their tenure. This report is a follow-up to the 2014 evaluation of New Leaders' Aspiring Principals program. Focusing on the revised program, which was first implemented in 2012, the authors present evidence of the effectiveness of the revised Aspiring Principals program and share lessons that can inform principal-preparation policy and practice. To assess the effect of New Leaders' Aspiring Principals program, researchers analyzed whether schools and students led by graduates of the program outperformed comparison schools and students in the same district, focusing on student achievement and principal retention. They also examined program graduate placement and satisfaction with the Aspiring Principals program. [For the appendixes, see ED605724.]

The three-tiered Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) framework promotes the development of systems and data analysis to guide the selection and implementation of evidence-based practices across multiple tiers. The current study examined the effects of universal (tier 1) or school-wide PBIS (SW-PBIS) in one state's scale-up of this tier of the framework. Annual propensity score weights were generated to examine the longitudinal effects of SW-PBIS from 2006-07 through 2011-12. School-level archival and administrative data outcomes were examined using panel models with an autoregressive structure. The sample included 1,316 elementary, middle, and high schools. Elementary schools trained in SW-PBIS demonstrated statistically significantly lower suspensions during the fourth and fifth study years (i.e., small effect size) and higher reading and math proficiency rates during the first two study years as well as in one and two later years (i.e., small to large effect sizes), respectively. Secondary schools implementing SW-PBIS had statistically significantly lower suspensions and truancy rates during the second study year and higher reading and math proficiency rates during the second and third study years. These findings demonstrate medium effect sizes for all outcomes except suspensions. Given the widespread use of SW-PBIS across nearly 26,000 schools in the U.S., this study has important implications for educational practices and policies. [This paper was published in the "Journal of School Psychology" v73 p41-55 Apr 2019 (ISSN 0022-4405).]

The UPSTART Summer program is a federally funded i3 validation project that uses a computer-based program to maintain and develop the literacy skills of elementary school students in rural Utah during the summer months when school is out of session. Researchers used a quasi-experimental design to evaluate the impact of the program in forestalling literacy learning loss during several summer periods. Students in the treatment group participated in the UPSTART Summer program, in the summer periods after kindergarten, first grade, and/or second grade. A second group of children, who were not enrolled in the program served as a comparison. Statistical matching procedures were used to create separate treatment and comparison analytic samples for each outcome measure that were equivalent on baseline scores and demographic variables (e.g., school, gender, race, language learner status, household income, Title 1 school enrollment, etc.). Standardized literacy assessments of letter knowledge, phonics, and reading fluency were administered prior to program commencement at the end of the academic school year and upon program completion at the beginning of the following school year. Results revealed that the UPSTART Summer program had a significant impact in reducing literacy learning loss in rising first graders on assessments of letter naming fluency, nonsense word fluency (correct letter sounds), and a reading composite score when compared to a matched comparison group. There were no differences in learning loss rates between rising first graders and comparison students on assessments measuring phoneme segmentation fluency or nonsense word reading (whole words read). Additionally, the UPSTART Summer program did not have an impact on literacy learning loss prevention in rising second or third grade students as measured by assessments of nonsense word reading, oral reading fluency, or overall reading composites. Taken together these results suggest that the UPSTART program helps to maintain early literacy skills in the summer months between Kindergarten and first grade.

More than half of community college students fail to meet college-readiness standards in math. Developmental education (dev-ed) aims to help students acquire the knowledge and skills to succeed in college-level math but is plagued with low rates of advancement. We examined the impact of a model that accelerates developmental math coursework so that students can complete dev-ed and college math courses in their programs of study within 1 year. Using data from Texas and a propensity score matching approach, we tested the impact of the model on several college milestones. Results suggest that students in the accelerated model were more likely to persist and accumulate college-level credits during the 1st year than those in traditional dev-ed math. After 3 years, there was a strong positive relationship between participation in the accelerated model and important college milestones, like college math course completion and total accumulated college-level credits.

To improve outcomes in math, many Texas colleges are adopting mathematics pathways, which accelerate developmental math and tailor math courses to different majors instead of requiring all students to take algebra. This study examines whether students participating in Dana Center Mathematics Pathways (DCMP) developmental courses enroll in and pass college-level math courses at higher rates than students who take traditional developmental math courses. It employs regression analysis controlling for student characteristics using student-level data compiled by the state from the more than 20 Texas community colleges that implemented the DCMP model in 2015 and 2016. Results from this study are encouraging. They suggest that DCMP compressed prerequisite developmental courses are effective at accelerating community college students through their math requirements. Yet this study also found systematic sorting of students into DCMP by race/ethnicity, which could exacerbate educational inequalities. Key findings include: (1) DCMP students were about 13 percentage points more likely to enroll in college-level math in the next semester and 8 percentage points more likely to pass college-level math in that term than peers in non-DCMP developmental courses; (2) The advantaged gained by DCMP students was maintained over time--there was still a 5-percentage-point improvement in passing college-level math two years later among students in the fall 2015 cohort; and (3) Compared with non-DCMP courses, DCMP courses included more White students and fewer Hispanic students than would be expected based on the distribution of students at the colleges. This indicates inequality in subgroup access to reformed developmental math pathways.

This study evaluated the efficacy of the Word Learning Strategies (WLS) supplementary program to improve elementary students' vocabulary skills and reading comprehension. The study used a multi-site cluster randomized, experimental design, which randomly assigned 92 4th grade classrooms (n=2558 students) from two cohorts to a treatment or control group. Results indicated that the program was positively associated with gains in students' vocabulary learning and knowledge as measured by the Word Learning Strategies Test and the VASE Assessment, and in students' reading comprehension as measured by the Gates-MacGrinitie Reading Test, after accounting for differences in baseline measures. The use of the WLS program also led to increases in teachers' awareness of strategies to support their students' vocabulary and reading comprehension. [This paper was published in the Proceedings of the 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), Toronto, Canada.]

Seventh- and 8th-grade students in a within-teacher randomized control study read from visual-syntactic formatted text for 44 min per week over the course of 1 year. On the annual state assessment, we found small statistically significant improvements on the overall English Language Arts scaled score (ES = 0.05, p < .05) and the writing assessment (ES = 0.07, p < .01) for the treatment group compared to the control group. We found no interactions between gifted, special education, or English learner classification and treatment status on the effect on overall English Language Arts score, but our categorical and subgroup analyses showed that the use of visual-syntactic text formatting provided a modest benefit to middle school students who were near or at grade level in the prior school year.

Access to middle class jobs increasingly requires a college degree or credential. Individuals with postsecondary education have competitive advantage in the labor market: even when a job does not explicitly require a degree, a candidate with a degree will tend to be hired over an equally qualified candidate without one. Low-income students, in particular, along with first-generation students and racial/ethnic minorities, are underrepresented in postsecondary education Massachusetts is faced with an aging workforce where nearly half of the labor market is 45 or older. In Boston, the six-year college graduation rate for the city's 2011 public high school graduates who enrolled in college was 52 percent. This rate improves upon the 39 percent seven-year rate for 2000 graduates, yet likely is not sufficient to meet the predicted demand for a college-educated workforce. One-on-one coaching from experienced counselors when students are completing their senior year in high school and beginning college can help them succeed. A core strategy of the city-wide "Success Boston" initiative is one-on-one transition coaching. The coaching model is implemented across a network of nonprofit organizations (that provide coaching) in partnership with institutions of higher education. Transition coaching offers students sustained, proactive, and responsive support in their first two years after high school. This report refers to the transition coaching program as Success Boston Coaching (SBC). The report is designed to answer four main research questions about implementation and impact: (1) What is the effect of SBC on student success in college?; (2) How, if at all, do the impacts of SBC vary by student characteristics and features of the coaching?; (3) How is SBC implemented across partner organizations and partner colleges? and (4) What resources are necessary to implement SBC? This report focuses on the effectiveness of coaching on students' persistence and achievement early in college, answering the first and second research questions. [For the previous report, "Success Boston: Coaching for Completion. 2015-16 Implementation Report," see ED582088. For the companion report, "The Story of Scaling Up: Highlights from the Interim Report on the Impact of Success Boston's Coaching for Completion," see ED602749.]