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As a promising tool for improving math education and closing the achievement gap, the use of educational technology has dramatically expanded in K-12 education in recent years, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. ASSISTments was one of the few digital learning programs recommended for use in response to the COVID-19 pandemic (Sahni et al., 2021). Developed by researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, ASSISTments is a free online formative assessment platform that applies innovative technology in education. This study measured the possible long-term impact of ASSISTments on student learning. Findings from the study can help schools, districts, and states make informed decisions regarding resource allocation and adoption of technology-based programs, as well as the specific skills and knowledge that educators need to integrate technology into their schools effectively--potentially leading to improved student performance while saving time and money in the long run. By prioritizing evidence-based practices, schools and districts can track the impact of the technologies they adopt and hold themselves accountable for meeting their goals. Key findings include: (1) ASSISTments had a significant positive impact on student learning in the long term; (2) ASSISTments helped close opportunity gaps; and (3) ASSISTments benefited more those students whose schools had a higher percentage of students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds or a lower percentage of White students. [Collaborators for this report include WestEd, North Carolina State University, SRI International, LFC Research, Digital Promise, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.]

Background: Although positive youth development (PYD) programs have demonstrated effectiveness in improving adolescent reproductive health outcomes, there is a lack of evidence on effective school-based interventions designed especially for high school settings. This study examined the efficacy of Peer Group Connection (PGC-HS), a school-based PYD program, in improving sexual health outcomes for high school participants. Methods: A total of 1523 ninth-grade students at 18 schools were randomly assigned to be offered PGC-HS or a classes-as-usual control condition during 2016 to 2017 and 2017 to 2018 school years. Impacts were assessed on three confirmatory and 6 exploratory outcomes via self-reported participant questionnaire data collected at the beginning of 10th grade. Results: Although the offer of PGC-HS had no statistically detectable effect on confirmatory behavioral outcomes (sexual initiation, frequency of sex, and number of sexual partners) at 10th grade follow-up, causal impact estimates indicate that PGC-HS participants were less likely than control participants to ever have had vaginal sex. PGC-HS participants also scored higher on decision-making skills and perceived connection to peer connectedness. Conclusions: Results suggest that by building social and emotional skills and helping students form supportive peer relationships, PGC-HS may encourage students to make healthier choices and avoid risky behaviors during a critical period in high school, thus, reducing the risk of pregnancy.

Principals are the second-largest school-based contributor to K-12 students' academic progress. However, there is little research evaluating whether efforts to develop principals' skills improve school effectiveness. We conducted randomized controlled trial studies of the impacts of a professional development program called the Executive Development Program (EDP) and of the incremental effects of coaching to help principals implement the EDP curriculum. We find that the EDP alone influenced principals' practices, but not student achievement, within 3 years. Coaching had a small positive effect on students' English Language Arts achievement, but no effect on math achievement or on principals' practices. Coaching had the largest effects in disadvantaged schools. We hypothesize that coaching enhanced the quality of implementation of recommended practices.

Purpose: The purpose of this randomized controlled trial was to examine the effects of a multitiered system of language support (MTSLS) on kindergarteners' narrative retelling, personal stories, writing, and expository language. Method: Participants were 686 kindergarten students from four school districts in the United States. Twenty-eight classrooms were randomly assigned to treatment (n = 337 students) or control (n = 349 students) conditions. The treatment group received 14 weeks of oral narrative language instruction using "Story Champs," a multitiered language program. Classroom teachers delivered large group (Tier 1) instruction for 15-20 min a day for 4 weeks. After this short-duration whole-class instruction, speech-language pathologists began small group "Story Champs" (Tier 2) intervention with a random sample of students who did not make adequate progress from the large group instruction (n = 49). These students received Tier 2 intervention for 20 min twice a week in addition to continued Tier 1 instruction. Results: Results indicated that the students in the treatment group had significantly higher scores on all outcome measures compared to the students in the control group. Analyses of outcomes from the 49 students who received Tier 2 intervention compared to a matching sample of at-risk control students revealed that the treatment group had significantly higher scores on narrative retells, personal stories, and expository retells. When compared to matched average-performing and advanced-performing control peers, the students who received Tier 2 intervention had significantly higher narrative retell scores and no longer had significantly lower personal story, expository, or writing scores. Conclusion: This effectiveness study demonstrated that MTSLS can lead to meaningful improvements in kindergarteners' oral and written language skills, even helping at-risk students catch up to high-achieving peers.

This study examines the impacts of two AmeriCorps programs, Minnesota Reading Corps and Wisconsin Reading Corps, where AmeriCorps volunteers provide literacy tutoring to at-risk kindergarten through third-grade (K-3) students utilizing a response-to-intervention framework. This evaluation replicates a prior randomized controlled trial evaluation of the program 4 years later and for the first time evaluates the program model replicated in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The results of the two evaluations showed that kindergarten and first-grade students who received a single semester of Reading Corps tutoring achieved significantly higher literacy assessment scores, and demonstrated meaningful and significant effects after a full-school year of the intervention for second- and third-grade students.

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 report presents the results of a two-year randomized control trial evaluation of the SPARK foundational literacy program. SPARK is an early grade literacy program developed by Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee that pairs one-on-one tutoring with parent engagement. In 2010, SPARK was awarded an Investing in Innovation (i3) U.S. Department of Education grant to test its impact in seven low-income and low-achieving Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS). In the fall of 2013, 286 students were randomly assigned to receive SPARK for two years and 290 assigned to the control condition. Overall attrition rates ranged from 34.4% to 38.7% and differential attrition rates between SPARK and control students ranged from 1.2% to 3.0%, depending on the outcome. Most participants received a high dosage of both tutoring and family engagement across their two years of participation. Although SPARK had statistically significant positive impacts on literacy development and regular school day attendance, most, if not all, of the impact was realized during the first year of participation. The impact of SPARK was also found to be greatest for students with the greatest need for additional literacy support.

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. [For the corresponding grantee submission, see ED595322.]

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This cluster randomized controlled trial evaluated the efficacy of the CHAMPS classroom management program on the social behavioral and academic outcomes of a large diverse sample of middle school students within an urban context. Participants included 102 teachers and 1,450 students in sixth to eighth grade. Two-level hierarchical linear models (HLM) were conducted to examine the overall treatment effects on student behavior and academic outcomes. In addition, mediation analyses examined a hypothesized putative mechanism for observed academic outcomes. Findings indicated that CHAMPS improved teacher ratings of student concentration problems (d = -0.18) and classwork completion (d = 0.18), observed student time-on-task (d = 0.16), and student scores on broad English (d = 0.14), and math problem solving (d = 0.17) academic achievement tests. Null effects were observed for student prosocial and disruptive behaviors and self-regulation skills as well as reading comprehension and broad math achievement performance. Main effects on the English achievement test scores were partially mediated by student improvements in observed time-on-task. Practical significance of the findings and implications for schools and policymakers are discussed.

Supporting the reading comprehension and content knowledge acquisition of English language learners (ELs) requires instructional practices that continue beyond developing the foundational skills of reading. In particular, the challenges ELs face highlight the importance of teaching reading comprehension practices in the middle grades through content acquisition. We conducted a randomized control trial to examine the efficacy of a content acquisition and reading comprehension intervention implemented in eighth-grade social studies classrooms with English language learners. Using a within-teacher design, in which 18 eighth-grade teachers' social studies classes were randomly assigned to treatment or comparison conditions. Teachers taught the same instructional content to treatment and comparison classes, but the treatment classes used instructional practices that included comprehension canopy, essential words, knowledge acquisition, and team-based learning. Students in the treatment group (n = 845) outperformed students in the comparison group (n = 784) on measures of content knowledge acquisition and content reading comprehension but not general reading comprehension. Both ELs and non-ELs who received the treatment outperformed those assigned to the BAU comparison condition on measures of content knowledge acquisition (ES = 0.40) and content-related reading comprehension (ES = 0.20). In addition, the proportion of English language learners in classes moderated outcomes for content knowledge acquisition.

In 2013-14, the Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) launched Achieve3000 as a randomized controlled trial in 16 elementary schools. Achieve3000 is an early literacy program that differentiates non-fiction reading passages based on individual students' Lexile scores. Twoyear results show that Achieve3000 did not have a significant impact on student outcomes. However, both intent-to-treat and treatment-on-treated estimates show that in 2015, the second year of implementation, students in the treatment group outperformed their control-group counterparts by 0.13 standard deviation units (SD) on the year-end Achieve3000 LevelSet Lexile test. This effect size is consistent with mean empirical effect sizes reported by Lipsey et al. (2012). Yet in neither the pooled nor annual results did Achieve3000 significantly impact student performance on additional Lexile outcomes (EOG or DIBELS ORF). Both implementation and impact results for Achieve3000 suggest that the ability of this particular technology-based literacy solution to improve student performance beyond that of a control group fell short of vendor-defined and empirical expectations.

To explore the impact of the True Goals (TG) school counseling curriculum on important constructs related to school success for students, we conducted two studies: one with elementary and middle school students and the other with high school students. In this, the first of the two studies, 43 students in Grades 4 through 7 participated in the intervention delivered by two school counselor trainees, across two schools in one school district in the Southwest region of the United States. The study used a waitlist control design with a randomized assignment to intervention and control groups to assess the impact of the TG small-group intervention on (a) students' goal-setting skills; (b) students' academic self-regulation; and (c) teachers' rating of students' motivation, self-knowledge, self-direction, and relationships. Results indicated that students in the treatment group showed significantly higher scores in motivation, self-knowledge, self-direction, and relationship skills than students in the control group, with a large effect size. Please refer to the second study for information on the impact of TG on a high school population.

The article presents the results of a randomized experimental study of a writing curriculum for college developmental writing courses based on strategy instruction with self-regulation integrated with practices common in college composition. Students in a full semester course learned strategies for planning and revising based on rhetorical analysis and genres. In addition, they learned metacognitive, self-regulation strategies for goal setting, task management, self-evaluation, and reflection. A prior quasi-experiment found positive effects of the curriculum on writing quality, self-efficacy, and mastery motivation. The current study included 19 instructors and 207 students across two colleges. Using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) with students nested within instructors and with condition and college as factors and pretest scores as covariates, analyses found positive effects of the treatment for quality of argumentative writing (ES = 1.18), quality of writing on an independent writing assessment (ES = 0.67), and several motivation outcomes, including self-efficacy (for tasks and processes, ES = 0.50; for grammar, ES = 0.36; and for self-regulation, ES = 0.40), affect (ES = 0.32), and beliefs about the importance of content (ES = 0.29). No significant effects were found for grammar/conventions or reading comprehension. Teachers in the treatment condition commented positively on the approach and noted improvements in student writing and motivation. Students also shared positive experiences and noted improvement in their writing. [For the corresponding grantee submission, see ED614889.]

There is limited research on job-embedded professional development designed to promote paraprofessionals' use of research-based strategies to support students with disruptive behaviors. This study serves as the first clustered randomized controlled trial to investigate the efficacy of the Behavior Support Coaching for Paraprofessional Model (BSC-P), which is a job-embedded training intervention for elementary schools. BSC-P is a data-driven coaching model designed to enhance paraprofessionals' implementation of behavior interventions for elementary school students with or at risk for disruptive behavior disorders. Within the present study, primary dependent measures included paraprofessionals' behavioral strategy implementation and perceived supports, the paraprofessional-teacher relationship, and work-related stress, as well as observed and rated student behaviors, academic engagement, academic achievement, and social skills. The sample included 259 students, 101 paraprofessionals, and 36 elementary schools randomly assigned to the BSC-P coaching condition or the waitlist control condition. Multilevel models revealed that, relative to those in the waitlist control condition, BSC-P paraprofessionals demonstrated improvements in behavior management practices (antecedent strategies d = 0.91, reward appropriate behavior d = 1.51) and emotional and instrumental support (ds = 0.60 and 0.63, respectively). No between-condition effects were found for perceived teacher paraprofessional relationships or work-related stress. Relative to students in the waitlist control condition, students supported by BSC-P paraprofessionals exhibited improvements in observed verbal and physical aggression (ds = -0.68) and academic engagement (d = 0.87), as well as teacher-rated school problems (d = -0.43), adaptive skills (d = 0.44), and social skills (d = 0.42). Paraprofessionals reported that BSC-P was an acceptable and useful professional development model.

We assessed the effects of a whole-school equity intervention implemented within a school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) framework on racial inequities in school discipline in eight elementary schools with inequitable referrals for Black students. The intervention involved assessing patterns of racial disparities in school discipline decisions and providing professional development on adapting school-wide behavior systems to improve cultural responsiveness through concrete strategies targeting the patterns. After consent and matching on existing levels of racial inequities, half of the schools were randomly assigned to receive the intervention. Analyses showed that schools receiving the intervention had significant decreases in racial disparities in school discipline and rates of office discipline referrals (ODRs) for Black students, while control schools had minimal change. Results are discussed in terms of improving equity in school discipline within multitiered systems of support.

Disruptive behavior problems frequently emerge in the preschool years and are associated with numerous, long-term negative outcomes, including comorbid disorders. First Step is a psychosocial early intervention with substantial empirical evidence supporting its efficacy among young children (Walker et al., 2014). The present study reports on a validation study of the revised and updated First Step early intervention, called First Step Next (Walker, Stiller et al. 2015), conducted within four preschool settings. One hundred sixty students at risk for school failure, and their teachers, were randomized to intervention and control conditions. Results indicated coach and teacher adherence to implementing the core components of the program was excellent. Teachers and parents had high satisfaction ratings. For the three First Step Next pro-social domains, Hedges' g effect sizes ranged from 0.34 to 0.91. For the problem behavior domain, children who received the First Step Next intervention had significant reductions in teacher and parent-reported problem behavior as compared to children randomized to the control condition. For the problem behavior domain, Hedges' g effect sizes ranged from 0.33 to 0.63, again favoring the intervention condition. All of the domains were statistically significant. This study builds on the evidence base supporting the First Step intervention in preschool settings (Feil et al., 2014; 2016; Frey et al., 2015). [This paper will be published in "Exceptional Children."]

The purposes of this study were to assess the effects of fractions intervention for students who are at-risk for poor outcomes and to examine whether a component that combines self-regulated learning with growth mindset instruction (SR-GM) provides added value for improving outcomes. At-risk students (N = 84) were randomly assigned to 3 conditions: fractions intervention, fractions intervention with embedded SR-GM, and a control group. Intervention was conducted 3 times per week for 35 min per session for 13 weeks. Multilevel models indicated both fractions intervention conditions produced strong effects, with no added value for SR-GM. Posttest fractions achievement gaps for both intervention conditions held steady, narrowed, or closed, while the control group's gaps remained sizeable or grew. Results suggest that intervention can address challenging mathematics standards for at-risk learners and that SR-GM instruction may not be necessary in the context of strong intervention. [This is the in press version of an article published in "Exceptional Children."]

We present findings from a randomized controlled trial of "Descubriendo la Lectura" (DLL), an intervention designed to improve the literacy skills of Spanish-speaking first graders, who are struggling with reading. DLL offers one-on-one native language literacy instruction for 12 to 20 weeks to each school's lowest performing first-graders. Examining literacy outcomes for 187 students, hierarchical linear model analyses revealed statistically significant effects of student-level assignment to DLL on all 9 outcomes evaluated. Impacts were as large as 1.24 standard deviations, or a learning advantage relative to controls exceeding a full school year of achievement growth. The mean effect size of d = 0.66 across the nine literacy measures is equal to approximately two thirds of the overall literacy growth that occurs across the first-grade year.

Given the growing number of Latino English learners and the lack of evidence-based educational opportunities they are provided, we investigated the impact of one potentially effective literacy intervention that targets struggling first-grade Spanish-speaking students: Descubriendo La Lectura (DLL). DLL provides first-grade Spanish-speaking students one-on-one literacy instruction in their native language and is implemented at an individualized pace for approximately 12 to 20 weeks by trained bilingual teachers. Using a multisite, multicohort, student-level randomized controlled trial, we examined the impact of DLL on both Spanish and English literacy skills. In this article, we report findings from the first of three cohorts of students to participate in the study. Analyses of outcomes indicate that treated students outperformed control students on all 11 Spanish literacy assessments with statistically significant effect sizes ranging from 0.34 to 1.06. Analyses of outcomes on four English literacy assessments yielded positive effect sizes, though none were statistically significant. [This article was published in "AERA Open" (EJ1229779).]

Objective: There are currently no empirically-supported, comprehensive school-based interventions (CSBIs) for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) without concomitant intellectual and language disability. This study compared outcomes for a CSBI (schoolMAX) to typical educational programming (services-as-usual [SAU]) for these children. Method: A total of 103 children (ages 6-12 years) with ASD (without intellectual and language disability) were randomly assigned by school buildings (clusters) to receive the CSBI (n=52 completed) or SAU (n=50 completed). The CSBI was implemented by trained school personnel and targeted social competence and ASD symptoms using social skills groups, emotion recognition instruction, therapeutic activities, behavioral reinforcement, and parent training. Outcome measures tested the effects of the CSBI on social competence and ASD symptoms, as well as potential collateral effects on academic achievement. Outcomes (baseline-to-follow-up) were assessed using tests of social-cognition and academic skills and behavioral observations (by masked evaluators) and parent-teacher ratings of ASD symptoms and social/social-communication skills (non-masked) [ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03338530, https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/]. Results: The CSBI group improved significantly more than the SAU group on the test of emotion recognition skills and parent-teacher ratings of ASD symptoms (primary outcomes) and social/social-communication skills (secondary outcome). No differences between groups were detected for recess social interactions or academic skills. Conclusions: The CSBI improved several core areas of functioning for children with ASD compared to usual educational programming. Additional intervention elements may be needed to expand the efficacy of the CSBI so that the observed skills/symptom improvements generalize to recess social interactions and/or academic skills are enhanced. [This paper was published in the "Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology" v48 n6 p922-933 Dec 2019.]

Empirical Education Inc. is the independent evaluator of SRI International's 2014 Investing in Innovation (i3) Development grant called Redesigning Secondary Courses to Improve Academic Outcomes for Adolescents with Disabilities and Other Underperforming Adolescents. The goal of the grant is to develop "Enhanced Units" that combine research-based content enhancement routines, collaboration strategy, and technology components for secondary U.S. History and biology classes. This report presents findings of a randomized control trial (RCT) during the 2017-18 school year. The RCT measured the impact of "Enhanced Units" on higher order content skills (as measured through unit tests) in high school biology and U.S. History classes in three districts in Virginia and California. SRI, the Center for Applied Special Education Technology (CAST), and their research and practitioner partners developed "Enhanced Units" (EU) with the goal of integrating research-based content enhancement routines with technological enhancements to improve student content learning and higher order reasoning, especially for students with disabilities or other learning challenges. This study also documents the extent to which the core components of EU were implemented with fidelity. The authors provide descriptive results on classroom practices (as measured by teacher surveys) and contextual factors that support or hinder implementation (as described during teacher interviews). Future improvements to EU should focus on answering the question: "What is/are the best way(s) for teachers to present SIM routines to their students, particularly for students with learning challenges through SIM intervention?"

The purpose of the study was to conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to demonstrate efficacy of the Class-wide Function-Related Intervention Teams (CW-FIT) program. The study was designed to replicate an initial RCT conducted by the CW-FIT developers in 1 site, with 2 additional research groups not involved in its development. The study was conducted across 3 states, in 21 culturally diverse schools, and with 83 teachers (classrooms) assigned to CW-FIT and 74 teachers (classrooms) assigned to the comparison group. The CW-FIT intervention included teaching prosocial skills and use of differential attention (teacher praise and points) for appropriate behaviors using a group contingency, class teams, goal setting, points, and rewards. Class-wide student on-task behavior improved, teacher praise and attention to appropriate behaviors increased, and reprimands decreased in the CW-FIT classes with significantly fewer changes over time for the comparison group.

The advancing social-communication and play (ASAP) intervention was designed as a classroom-based intervention, in which the educational teams serving preschool-aged children with autism spectrum disorder are trained to implement the intervention in order to improve these children's social-communication and play skills. In this 4-year, multi-site efficacy trial, classrooms were randomly assigned to ASAP or a business-as-usual control condition. A total of 78 classrooms, including 161 children, enrolled in this study. No significant group differences were found for the primary outcomes of children's social-communication and play. However, children in the ASAP group showed increased classroom engagement. Additionally, participation in ASAP seemed to have a protective effect for one indicator of teacher burnout. Implications for future research are discussed.

This article reports on a 4-year follow-up study from the Learning Experiences and Alternative Program for Preschoolers and Their Parents (LEAP) randomized trial of early intervention for young children with autism. Overall, participants from LEAP classes were marginally superior to comparison class children on elementary school outcomes specific to communication, adaptive behavior, social, academic, and cognitive skills. Statistically significant group differences were noted in cognitive development and social skills. However, when placement was treated as an independent variable, very large effects were seen across all outcome measures, including autism symptoms, for children who were enrolled in inclusive settings. Data from adult family members confirmed important changes in perceived quality of life. [This paper was published in "Topics in Early Childhood Special Education" (EJ1148719).]

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of 2 brief school-based interventions targeting the homework problems of adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)--the Homework, Organization, and Planning Skills (HOPS) intervention and the Completing Homework by Improving Efficiency and Focus (CHIEF) intervention, as implemented by school mental health providers during the school day. A secondary goal was to use moderator analyses to identify student characteristics that may differentially predict intervention response. Method: Two-hundred and eighty middle school students with ADHD were randomized to the HOPS or CHIEF interventions or to waitlist, and parent and teacher ratings were collected pre, post, and at a 6-month follow-up. Results: Both interventions were implemented with fidelity by school mental health providers. Participants were pulled from elective periods and sessions averaged less than 20 min. Participants in HOPS and CHIEF demonstrated significantly greater improvements in comparison with waitlist on parent ratings of homework problems and organizational skills and effect sizes were large. HOPS participants also demonstrated moderate effect size improvements on materials management and organized action behaviors according to teachers. HOPS participants made significantly greater improvements in parent- and teacher-rated use of organized actions in comparison with CHIEF, but not on measures of homework problems. Moderation analyses revealed that participants with more severe psychopathology and behavioral dysregulation did significantly better with the HOPS intervention as compared to the CHIEF intervention. Conclusions: Brief school-based interventions implemented by school providers can be effective. This type of service delivery model may facilitate overcoming the oft cited research-to-practice gap. [At the time of submission to ERIC, this article was in press with "Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology."]

Researchers are increasingly interested in working memory (WM) training. However, it is unclear whether it strengthens comprehension in young children who are at risk for learning difficulties. We conducted a modest study of whether the training of verbal WM would improve verbal WM and passage listening comprehension and whether training effects differed between two approaches: training with and without strategy instruction. A total of 58 first-grade children were randomly assigned to three groups: WM training with a rehearsal strategy, WM training without strategy instruction, and controls. Each member of the two training groups received a one-to-one, 35-min session of verbal WM training on each of 10 consecutive school days, totaling 5.8 hr. Both training groups improved on trained verbal WM tasks, with the rehearsal group making greater gains. Without correction for multiple group comparisons, the rehearsal group made reliable improvements over controls on an untrained verbal WM task and on passage listening comprehension and listening retell measures. The no-strategy-instruction group outperformed controls on passage listening comprehension. When corrected for multiple contrasts, these group differences disappeared but were associated with moderate to large effect sizes. Findings suggest--however tentatively--that brief but intensive verbal WM training may strengthen the verbal WM and comprehension performance of young children at risk. Necessary caveats and possible implications for theory and future research are discussed.

This article reports on a 4-year follow-up study from the Learning Experiences and Alternative Program for Preschoolers and Their Parents (LEAP) randomized trial of early intervention for young children with autism. Overall, participants from LEAP classes were marginally superior to comparison class children on elementary school outcomes specific to communication, adaptive behavior, social, academic, and cognitive skills. Statistically significant group differences were noted in cognitive development and social skills. However, when placement was treated as an independent variable, very large effects were seen across all outcome measures, including autism symptoms, for children who were enrolled in inclusive settings. Data from adult family members confirmed important changes in perceived quality of life. [This paper was published in "Topics in Early Childhood Special Education" (EJ1148719).]

Enhancing the social and learning experiences of students with severe disabilities in inclusive classrooms has been a long-standing focus of research, legislative, and advocacy efforts. The authors used a randomized controlled experimental design to examine the efficacy of peer support arrangements to improve academic and social outcomes for 51 students with severe disabilities in high school general education classrooms. Paraprofessionals or special educators recruited, trained, and supported 106 peers to provide individualized academic and social assistance to students with severe disabilities throughout one semester. Compared to students exclusively receiving adult-delivered support (n = 48), students participating in peer support arrangements experienced increased interactions with peers, increased academic engagement, more progress on individualized social goals, increased social participation, and a greater number of new friendships. Moreover, an appreciable proportion of relationships lasted one and two semesters later after the intervention had concluded. These findings challenge prevailing practices for supporting inclusive education and establish the efficacy and social validity of peer support arrangements as a promising alternative to individually assigned paraprofessional support.

Objectives: This study evaluated the efficacy of a novel psychosocial intervention (Collaborative Life Skills, CLS) for primary-school students with ADHD symptoms. CLS is a 12-week program consisting of integrated school, parent, and student treatments delivered by school-based mental health providers. Using a cluster randomized design, CLS was compared to usual school/community services on psychopathology and functional outcomes. Methods: Schools within a large urban public school district were randomly assigned to CLS (12 schools) or usual services (11 schools). Approximately six students participated at each school (N = 135, mean age = 8.4 years, grade range = 2nd-5th, 71% boys). Using PROC GENMOD (SAS 9.4) the difference between the means of CLS and usual services for each outcome at post-treatment was tested. To account for clustering effects by school, the Generalized Estimating Equation method was used. Results: Students from schools assigned to CLS, relative to those assigned to usual services, had significantly greater improvement on parent and teacher ratings of ADHD symptom severity and organizational functioning, teacher-rated academic performance and parent ratings of ODD symptoms and social/interpersonal skills. Conclusions: These results support the efficacy of CLS relative to typical school and community practices for reducing ADHD and ODD symptoms and improving key areas of functional impairment. They further suggest that existing school-based mental health resources can be re-deployed from non-empirically supported practices to those with documented efficacy. This model holds promise for improving access to efficient, evidence-based treatment for inattentive and disruptive behavior beyond the clinic setting. [This article was published in the "Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry," v55 p762-770 2016.]

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.]

Scholars and practitioners have called for personalized and widely accessible professional development (PD) for teachers. Yet, a long-standing tension between customizing support and increasing access to such support has hindered the scale-up of high-quality PD for individual teachers. This study addresses this challenge by developing a computerized program for middle school mathematics teachers that provides frequent opportunities for teachers to interact with and obtain personalized and real-time feedback from a virtual facilitator based on natural language processing. Based on the data collected from 1727 middle school students in an experiment in which the teachers of these students were randomly assigned to the program or the business-as-usual condition (i.e., the control group), we found that the program had a statistically significant impact on students' mathematics performance. These results demonstrate the potential of incorporating an automated, interactive feedback tool supported by artificial intelligence to create effective, scalable teacher PD.

We examined the efficacy of a Technology-Based Early Language Comprehension Intervention (TeLCI) designed to teach inferencing in a non-reading context. A group of Grades 1 and 2 students from 2 elementary schools in the U.S. Midwest identified as at risk of comprehension difficulties were assigned randomly to a business-as-usual control group or to use TeLCI over an 8-week period. TeLCI comprised three learning modules per week that involved (a) learning new vocabulary, (b) watching fiction or nonfiction videos, and (c) answering inferential questions. Students also engaged in small-group read-alouds with their teachers once per week. Students who experienced TeLCI improved their inferencing and benefited from scaffolding and feedback provided during the intervention. Students' pre- to posttest inferencing gains were comparable with those of control students. Female students and those receiving special education services appeared less likely to benefit from TeLCI, whereas multilingual students were more likely to respond. Further work is needed to determine the optimal conditions under which TeLCI will benefit young children.

Narration has been shown to be a foundational skill for literacy development in school-age children. Elementary teachers routinely conduct classroom lessons that focus on reading decoding and comprehension, but they rarely provide instruction in oral narration (Hall et al., 2021). This multisite randomized controlled trial was designed to rigorously evaluate the efficacy of the "Supporting Knowledge of Language and Literacy" ("SKILL") intervention program for improving oral narrative comprehension and production. Three hundred fifty-seven students who were at-risk for language and literacy difficulties in Grades 1-4 in 13 schools across seven school districts were randomly assigned to the "SKILL" treatment condition or a business as usual (BAU) control condition. "SKILL" was provided to small groups of two to four students in 36 thirty-minute lessons across a 3-month period. Multilevel modeling with students nested within teachers and teachers nested within schools revealed students who received the "SKILL" treatment significantly outperformed students in the BAU condition on measures of oral narrative comprehension and production immediately after treatment. Oral narrative production for the "SKILL" treatment group remained significantly more advanced at follow-up testing conducted 5 months after intervention ended. Improvements in oral narration generalized to a measure of written narration at posttest and the treatment advantage was maintained at follow-up. Grade level did not moderate effects for oral narration, but it did for reading comprehension, with a higher impact for students in grades 3 and 4. [For the corresponding grantee submission, see ED622886.]

Relying on a teacher-level randomized experiment with a sample of 87 middle and high school teachers, this study was designed to examine the implementation and impact of MyTeachingPartner-Secondary delivered by local coaches who were trained and supported by the program provider. Due to disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, implementation of the 2-year program during the first year (2021-22) was weak, and only four of six study districts continued to participate in the study in the second year. Implementation during the second year was stronger but still did not achieve fidelity based on pre-specified fidelity thresholds. Analyses of teacher survey data revealed that the program had a statistically significant positive impact on teachers' enthusiasm about teaching and a marginally significant positive impact on teachers' self-efficacy at the end of the 2-year program. Nevertheless, the study did not find any significant impact on the quality of classroom interactions or student engagement based on observations at the end of Year 2 or on students' math or English language arts achievement at the end of Year 1. (Year 2 student achievement data are not yet available.) Results from this study need to be interpreted with caution given study limitations resulting largely from the influence of the pandemic. [American Institutes for Research (AIR) collaborated with Teachstone to implement this study.]

Schools offer an advantageous setting for prevention, early identification, and treatment of mental health problems for youth. However, school mental health (SMH) services are typically not based on evidence for effectiveness, nor are they efficiently delivered, with SMH practitioners (SMHPs) able to only treat a small number of students in need. The current study evaluated feasibility, acceptability, efficiency, and outcomes of a four-session assessment, engagement, problem-solving, and triage strategy for SMHPs that aimed to improve efficiency while being based on elements of evidence-based care. The study, conducted in 15 U.S. school districts in three states, used stratified random assignment to assign 49 high schools and their participating SMHP(s) to either the Brief Intervention for School Clinicians (BRISC; N = 259 students) or services as usual (SAU; N=198 students). SMHPs implemented BRISC elements with adequate to excellent fidelity and reported the strategy was feasible and well-aligned with presenting problems. Students assigned to BRISC reported significantly greater engagement in SMH at 2 months and completion of SMH treatment by 6 months. BRISC-assigned SMHPs reported significantly greater treatment completion after four sessions (53.4%) compared to SAU (15.4%). Students in the BRISC condition also reported significantly greater reduction in problem severity as evaluated by the Youth Top Problems Assessment. No differences were found for anxiety or depression symptoms or overall functioning. Results indicate that BRISC is a feasible early intervention and triage strategy that may aid in more efficient provision of SMH services with no compromise to SMH effectiveness. [This is the online version of an article published in "Prevention Science."]

Online credit recovery will likely expand in the coming years as school districts try to address increased course failure rates brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Some researchers and policymakers, however, raise concerns over how much students learn in online courses, and there is limited evidence about the effectiveness of online credit recovery. This article presents findings from a multisite randomized study, conducted prior to the pandemic, to expand the field's understanding of online credit recovery's effectiveness. Within 24 high schools from a large urban district, the study randomly assigned 1,683 students who failed Algebra 1 or ninth grade English to a summer credit recovery class that either used an online curriculum with in-class teacher support or the school's business-as-usual teacher-directed class. The results suggest that online credit recovery had relatively insignificant effects on student course experiences and content knowledge, but significantly lower credit recovery rates for English. There was limited heterogeneity in effects across students and schools. Non-response on the study-administered student survey and test limit our confidence in the student experience and content knowledge results, but the findings are robust to different approaches to handling the missing data (multiple imputation or listwise deletion). We discuss how the findings add to the evidence base about online credit recovery and the implications for future research. [This paper will be published in "Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness."]

Student-teacher relationships are important to student outcomes and may be especially pivotal at the high school transition and for minoritized racial/ethnic groups. Although interventions exist to improve student-teacher relationships, none have been shown to be effective among high school students or in narrowing racial/ethnic disparities in student outcomes. This study was conducted to examine the effects of an equity-explicit student-teacher relationship intervention (Equity-Explicit Establish Maintain Restore, or E-EMR) for high school teachers and students. A cluster-randomized pilot trial was conducted with 94 ninth grade teachers and 417 ninth grade students in six high schools. Teachers in three schools were randomized to receive E-EMR training and follow-up supports for one year. Teachers in three control schools conducted business as usual. Student-teacher relationships, sense of school belonging, academic motivation, and academic engagement were collected via student self-report in September and January of their ninth-grade year. Longitudinal models revealed non-significant main effects of E-EMR. However, there were targeted benefits for students who started with low scores at baseline, for Asian, Latinx, multicultural, and (to a lesser extent) Black students. We also found some unexpected effects, where high-performing and/or advantaged groups in the E-EMR condition had less favorable outcomes at post, compared to those in the control group, which may be a result of the equity-explicit focus of E-EMR. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Principals are the second-largest school-based contributor to K-12 students' academic progress. However, there is little research evaluating whether efforts to develop principals' skills improve school effectiveness. We conducted randomized controlled trial studies of the impacts of a professional development program called the Executive Development Program (EDP) and of the incremental effects of coaching to help principals implement the EDP curriculum. We find that the EDP alone influenced principals' practices, but not student achievement, within 3 years. Coaching had a small positive effect on students' English Language Arts achievement, but no effect on math achievement or on principals' practices. Coaching had the largest effects in disadvantaged schools. We hypothesize that coaching enhanced the quality of implementation of recommended practices.

Principals are the second-largest school-based contributor to K-12 students' academic progress. However, there is little research evaluating whether efforts to develop principals' skills improve school effectiveness. We conducted randomized controlled trial studies of the impacts of a professional development program called the Executive Development Program (EDP) and of the incremental effects of coaching to help principals implement the EDP curriculum. We find that the EDP alone influenced principals' practices, but not student achievement, within 3 years. Coaching had a small positive effect on students' English Language Arts achievement, but no effect on math achievement or on principals' practices. Coaching had the largest effects in disadvantaged schools. We hypothesize that coaching enhanced the quality of implementation of recommended practices.

Theoretically, interventions initiated with at-risk infants prior to the point in time a definitive autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis can be made will improve outcomes. Pursuing this idea, we tested the efficacy of a parent-mediated early intervention called Adapted Responsive Teaching (ART) via a randomized controlled trial with 87 one-year-olds identified by community screening with the First Year Inventory as at-risk of later ASD diagnoses. We found minimal evidence for main effects of ART on child outcomes. However, ART group parents showed significantly greater increases in responsiveness to their infants than control group parents. Further, significant indirect (mediation) effects of assignment group on multiple child outcomes through changes in parent responsiveness supported our theory of change.

This paper presents the findings from two school-level randomized controlled effectiveness trials of a multitiered systems of support for behavior (MTSS-B) framework on student and staff reported school climate outcomes in 98 secondary schools. Schools randomized to the intervention condition received training and coaching to support Tier 1 implementation and the use of data for selection and implementation of Tier 2 and 3 evidence-based programs. Multigroup, multilevel regression analyses were conducted in Mplus to assess intervention effects on change over time in student and school staff perceptions of engagement, environment, and safety. Main effects models indicated limited impacts on student perceptions of school climate and negative effects for middle school staff perceptions. Moderation models indicated greater negative impacts for school staff perceptions in middle schools that had higher preexisting MTSS-B fidelity. These results highlight the challenges of demonstrating change in school climate outcomes. Additional theoretical and measurement work is needed on the assessment of changes in perceptions of school climate, particularly for school staff.

Conceptual and procedural instruction order may affect students' learning and generalization of math skills. This study compared two instruction sequences, concepts-first and iterative, and their effect on fraction performance through a class-wide intervention. Fourth-grade students (N = 114) were randomly assigned to the concepts-first, iterative, or control group. The primary conceptual assessment showed that the iterative and concepts-first groups performed similarly, demonstrating medium effect sizes compared with control. The primary procedural assessment again demonstrated that both intervention groups outperformed the control, this time with large to very large effects. In addition, the iterative group outscored the concepts-first group with a medium effect size, though it was not statistically significant. Generalization assessments measuring skill transfer found no differential effects. Overall, iterative instruction was at least as effective as a concepts-first sequence during a fraction intervention.

We provide theory and evidence about how the design of college financial aid programs affects a variety of high school, college, and life outcomes. The evidence comes from an eight-year randomized trial where 2,587 high school ninth graders received a $12,000 merit-based grant offer. During high school, the program increased their college expectations and non-merit effort but had no effect on merit-related effort (e.g., GPA). After high school, the program increased graduation from two-year colleges only, apparently because of the free college design/framing in only that sector. But we see no effects on incarceration or teen pregnancy. Overall, the results suggest that free college affects student outcomes in ways similar to what advocates of free college suggest and making aid commitments early, well before college starts, increases some forms of high school effort. But we see no evidence that merit requirements are effective. Both the standard human capital model and behavioral economics are required to explain these results.

Our field experiment extends prior work on college matriculation by testing the extent to which an artificially intelligent (AI) chatbot's outreach and support to college students (N = 4442) reduced summer melt and improved first-year college enrollment at a 4-year university. Specifically, we investigate which students the intervention proves most effective for. We find that the AI chatbot increased overall success with navigating financial aid processes, such that student take up of educational loans increased by four percentage points. This financial aid effect was concentrated among would-be first-generation college goers, for whom loan acceptances increased by eight percentage points. In addition, the outreach increased first-generation students' success with course registration and fall semester enrollment each by three percentage points. Our findings suggest that proactive chatbot outreach to students is likely to be most successful in reducing summer melt among those who may need the chatbot support the most.

Objective: Our objective was to evaluate the efficacy of the Sitting Together and Reaching to Play (START-Play) intervention in young infants with neuromotor disorders. Method: This randomized controlled trial compared usual care-early intervention (UC-EI) with START-Play plus UC-EI. Analyses included 112 infants with motor delay (55 UC-EI, 57 START-Play) recruited at 7 to 16 months of age across 5 sites. START-Play included twice-weekly home visits with the infant and caregiver for 12 weeks provided by physical therapists trained in the START-Play intervention; UC-EI was not disrupted. Outcome measures were the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Third Edition (Bayley); the Gross Motor Function Measure; reaching frequency; and the Assessment of Problem Solving in Play (APSP). Comparisons for the full group as well as separate comparisons for infants with mild motor delay and infants with significant motor delay were done. Piecewise linear mixed modeling estimated short- and long-term effects. Results: For infants with significant motor delay, positive effects of START-Play were observed at 3 months for Bayley cognition Bayley fine motor, and APSP and at 12 months for Bayley fine motor and reaching frequency outcomes. For infants with mild motor delay, positive effects of START-Play for the Bayley receptive communication outcome were found. For the UC-EI group, the only difference between groups was a positive effect for the APSP outcome, observed at 3 months. Conclusions: START-Play may advance reaching, problem-solving, cognitive, and fine motor skills for young infants with significant motor delay over UC-EI in the short term. START-Play in addition to UC-EI may not improve motor/cognitive outcomes for infants with milder motor delays over and above usual care. Impact: Concepts of embodied cognition, applied to early intervention in the START-Play intervention, may serve to advance cognition and motor skills in young infants with significant motor delays over usual care early intervention. Lay Summary: If you have a young infant with significant delays in motor skills, your physical therapist can work with you to develop play opportunities to enhance your child's problem-solving, such as that used in the START-Play intervention, in addition to usual care in order to help your child advance cognitive and motor skills.

The current study compared the effectiveness of a school-clinician administered cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) to treatment as usual (TAU) at post-treatment (i.e., after 12 weeks) and at a 1 year follow-up. Sixty-two school-based clinicians (37 in CBT; 25 in TAU) and 216 students (148 students in CBT; 68 in TAU) participated. Students were ages 6-18 (mean age 10.87; 64% Caucasian & 29% African American; 48.6% female) and all met DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for a primary anxiety disorder. Independent evaluators (IEs) assessed clinical improvement, global functioning, and loss of anxiety diagnoses; children and parents completed measures of anxiety symptoms. At post-treatment, no significant treatment main effects emerged on the primary outcome; 42% and 37% of youth were classified as treatment responders in CBT and TAU respectively. However, parent-report of child anxiety showed greater improvements in CBT relative to TAU (d = 0.29). Moderation analyses at post-treatment indicated that older youth, those with social phobia and more severe anxiety at baseline were more likely to be treatment responders in CBT compared to TAU. At the 1 year follow-up, treatment gains were maintained but no treatment group differences or moderators emerged. CBT and TAU for pediatric anxiety disorders, when delivered by school clinicians were generally similar in effectiveness for lowering anxiety and improving functioning at both post-treatment (on all but the parent measure and for specific subgroups) and 1 year follow-up. Implications for disseminating CBT in the school setting are discussed.

This randomized controlled trial examined the efficacy of an elementary school service-learning program, Connect Science (CS), on classroom practices and students' science achievement, civic engagement, and social skills. Fourth grade teachers were enrolled into intervention versus control conditions resulting in 41 classrooms (20 intervention) with 868 students (423 intervention). Intervention group teachers taught CS and control group teachers taught "business-as-usual" science over a 14-22 week period. CS had a positive impact on classroom practices (Next Generation Science Standards and CS practices). Analyses showed positive impact of CS on science achievement and energy attitudes and behaviors. Use of CS practices mediated the relation between CS and energy attitudes and behaviors. Improved social skills were evident in conditions of high fidelity of implementation. [This is the online version of an article published in "Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology."]

Background: Adolescents frequently miss breakfast which may impact cognitive, academic, and health outcomes. This analysis describes the effect of a trial to assess school level changes to increase breakfast consumption on grade point average (GPA). Methods: Sixteen rural Minnesota high schools were randomized to a policy and environmental change intervention or delayed intervention (control) group. Baseline screening identified, randomly selected and enrolled 9th and 10th grade students who eat breakfast =3 times per school week for assessment. Mean unweighted GPA was provided by 13 schools for 636 students. Student-level and administrative data were used for sociodemographic and free or reduced-price meals (FRPM). Linear mixed models and latent class analysis (LCA) were used to assess change in GPA. Results: Students were 54% female, 76% white, and 34% received FRPM. Unweighted cumulative GPA mean = 2.82 (0.78) at baseline. There was no significant intervention effect on GPA postintervention or 1-year follow-up. LCA revealed two classes: "higher" (N = 495) and "lower" (N = 141) resource. There was an intervention effect among low-resource students from baseline to 1-year post only among the control condition (delayed intervention). Conclusions: In combination with the full study results, increasing breakfast consumption may have an impact particularly for low resource students.

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the initial efficacy of a parent-assisted blended intervention combining components of Structured TEACCHing and Social Thinking, designed to increase social communication and self-regulation concept knowledge in 1st and 2nd graders (n = 17) diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their parents. Method: A randomized delayed treatment control group design with pre- and postintervention assessments of both parents and children was implemented within a community practice setting. Two follow-up assessments at 3 and 6 months post intervention were also completed. Results: Overall, results indicate that the intervention is efficacious in teaching social communication and self regulation concept knowledge to children with ASD and their parents. Both parents and children demonstrated an increase in social communication and self-regulation knowledge after participating in the Growing, Learning, and Living With Autism Group as compared to a delayed treatment control group. The effects of the intervention did not extend to parent-child interactions coded from video recordings. Child treatment effects were maintained at the 3- and 6-month follow-up assessments. Conclusions: Preliminary efficacy of the Growing, Learning, and Living With Autism Group was established. Based on parent report at the conclusion of the intervention, this is a socially valid intervention for teaching social communication and self-regulation skills to school-age children with ASD. [This is the online version of an article published in "Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools." For the final published version of this article, see EJ1222622.]

Pre-college advising programs exist in most disadvantaged high schools throughout the United States. These programs supplement traditional advising by high school guidance counselors and attempt to help underrepresented and disadvantaged students overcome the complexities of the postsecondary admission and financial aid processes. Existing evidence on these programs often uses within-school randomization where spillovers and alternative supports may confound estimates. We provide the first evidence on a whole school intervention resulting from a school-level randomized controlled trial in the United States. The college access program we study uses a near-peer model where a recent college graduate works at the school assisting students in the application and enrollment process. Pooled results across the first three years of program implementation find no significant impacts on overall college enrollment. However, subgroup analyses reveal positive, significant effects among the groups most targeted by the intervention: Hispanic and low-income students. Most of the impact comes through increasing two-year college enrollment, but this appears to be new entrants rather than inducing students to move from four-year to two-year colleges. The observed positive effects for these subgroups attenuate over time. We attribute this drop in the estimated impact to departures in fidelity of the experiment. Even among the cohorts for which we find positive enrollment impacts, we find no significant impacts on college persistence. [For the grantee submission, see ED594418.]

Empirical Education Inc. is the independent evaluator of SRI International's 2014 Investing in Innovation (i3) Development grant called Redesigning Secondary Courses to Improve Academic Outcomes for Adolescents with Disabilities and Other Underperforming Adolescents. The goal of the grant is to develop "Enhanced Units" that combine research-based content enhancement routines, collaboration strategy, and technology components for secondary U.S. History and biology classes. This report presents findings of a randomized control trial (RCT) during the 2017-18 school year. The RCT measured the impact of "Enhanced Units" on higher order content skills (as measured through unit tests) in high school biology and U.S. History classes in three districts in Virginia and California. SRI, the Center for Applied Special Education Technology (CAST), and their research and practitioner partners developed "Enhanced Units" (EU) with the goal of integrating research-based content enhancement routines with technological enhancements to improve student content learning and higher order reasoning, especially for students with disabilities or other learning challenges. This study also documents the extent to which the core components of EU were implemented with fidelity. The authors provide descriptive results on classroom practices (as measured by teacher surveys) and contextual factors that support or hinder implementation (as described during teacher interviews). Future improvements to EU should focus on answering the question: "What is/are the best way(s) for teachers to present SIM routines to their students, particularly for students with learning challenges through SIM intervention?"

Community colleges are a large sector of postsecondary education. In 2016-2017, the United States had nearly 1,000 public 2-year postsecondary institutions (community colleges), serving almost nine million students, representing 39% of all undergraduates. The majority of entering community college students require developmental (or remedial) math. Success rates in the developmental math course sequence and college more broadly are discouragingly low. Policymakers, practitioners, and researchers alike are eagerly searching for reforms to improve success rates, but there is a dearth of causal evidence on the effectiveness of most proposed reforms. We sought to answer the following question: what effect does a modularized, computer-assisted, self-paced approach to developmental math (compared with a more "traditional" direct-instruction course alternative) have on students' likelihood of completing the developmental math course sequence? Findings from a randomized controlled trial (n=1,403) are presented. The program was well implemented; however, we did not find evidence that this approach was superior to the "traditional" math class. Although these results are disappointing, they are important because modularization and self-paced computer-assisted instruction are popular reforms. [This article was published in "Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness" (EJ1229042).]

A classroom randomized efficacy trial conducted over four years in 7 community-based preschool and 6 Head Start programs investigated effects of the Second Step Early Learning (SSEL) curriculum on end of preschool executive functioning (EF) and social-emotional (SE) skills in low-income children. Outcomes are reported for n=770 four-year-olds independently assessed for EF and SE by study staff in fall and spring of the prekindergarten year. Main outcomes were analyzed using two, three- level hierarchical linear models, one each for EF and SE skills. A significant effect (effect size of 0.15) for EF and a nonsignificant effect for SE were found. Secondary analyses found no significant differences on pre-academic skills. SSEL appears to have a meaningful impact on at-risk children's EF skills that supports its continued dissemination.

The Good Behavior Game (GBG, Barrish, Saunders, & Wolf, 1969) and the PATHS Curriculum (Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies; Greenberg, Kusche, Cook, & Quamma, 1995) represent 2 universal, elementary school, preventive interventions which have been shown in large-scale, randomized controlled trials to have an immediate and beneficial impact (GBG, Dolan et al., 1993; PATHS, Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group [CPPRG], 1999) on aggressive/disruptive and off-task behavior. Importantly, both risk behaviors are strong predictors of antisocial behavior, drug abuse, and low educational and occupational attainment in adolescence and young adulthood (Kellam et al., 2008). What has yet to be explored within a randomized controlled trial is whether the combination of these interventions would yield significantly greater impact on aggressive/disruptive and off-task behavior than the GBG alone. One reason for expecting additive if not synergistic effects as a result of combining the two interventions is that the GBG, by increasing attention to task and reducing disruptive behavior in the classroom, may facilitate the acquisition of the emotion regulation, social problem-solving, and conflict resolution skills taught in PATHS. To that end, a group randomized, effectiveness trial was carried out, wherein 27 schools were randomly assigned to one of 3 conditions, (a) the PAX GBG Alone (Embry, Staatemeier, Richardson, Lauger, & Mitich, 2003), (b) PATHS to PAX (that is, the PAX GBG + PATHS), or (c) a standard setting (control) condition. Classroom observations and teacher ratings of student behavior were carried out at pretest and 6 months later at posttest. Limited evidence of the superiority of the combined approach was found and potential reasons why and future directions are discussed.

The Good Behavior Game (GBG, Barrish, Saunders, & Wolf, 1969) and the PATHS Curriculum (Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies; Greenberg, Kusche, Cook, & Quamma, 1995) represent 2 universal, elementary school, preventive interventions which have been shown in large-scale, randomized controlled trials to have an immediate and beneficial impact (GBG, Dolan et al., 1993; PATHS, Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group [CPPRG], 1999) on aggressive/disruptive and off-task behavior. Importantly, both risk behaviors are strong predictors of antisocial behavior, drug abuse, and low educational and occupational attainment in adolescence and young adulthood (Kellam et al., 2008). What has yet to be explored within a randomized controlled trial is whether the combination of these interventions would yield significantly greater impact on aggressive/disruptive and off-task behavior than the GBG alone. One reason for expecting additive if not synergistic effects as a result of combining the two interventions is that the GBG, by increasing attention to task and reducing disruptive behavior in the classroom, may facilitate the acquisition of the emotion regulation, social problem-solving, and conflict resolution skills taught in PATHS. To that end, a group randomized, effectiveness trial was carried out, wherein 27 schools were randomly assigned to one of 3 conditions, (a) the PAX GBG Alone (Embry, Staatemeier, Richardson, Lauger, & Mitich, 2003), (b) PATHS to PAX (that is, the PAX GBG + PATHS), or (c) a standard setting (control) condition. Classroom observations and teacher ratings of student behavior were carried out at pretest and 6 months later at posttest. Limited evidence of the superiority of the combined approach was found and potential reasons why and future directions are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a school-wide attendance and truancy intervention and universal procedures (ATI-UP) on student attendance. Student attendance was measured through average daily attendance and the percentage of students who would be considered chronically absent, i.e., missing 10% or more of school. The sample included 27 elementary schools in Oregon implementing school-wide positive behavior intervention and supports (SWPBIS) with varying levels of fidelity. Results indicate that schools can have a moderate effect on increasing average daily attendance (ADA) and a small effect on decreasing chronic absenteeism, although these results were not statistically significant. SWPBIS implementation did not act as a statistically significant moderator on the ATI-UP effects, although the treatment effect on ADA decreased with higher SWPBIS implementation. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Light-touch social psychological interventions have gained considerable attention for their potential to improve academic outcomes for underrepresented and/or disadvantaged students in postsecondary education. While findings from previous interventions have demonstrated positive effects for racial and ethnic minority and first-generation students in small samples, few interventions have been implemented at a larger scale with more heterogeneous student populations. To address this research gap, 7,686 students, representing more than 90% of incoming first-year students at a large Midwestern public university, were randomly assigned to an online growth mindset intervention, social belonging intervention, or a comparison group. Results suggest that after the fall semester, the growth mindset intervention significantly improved grade point averages for Latino/a students by about 0.40 points. This represents a 72% reduction in the GPA gap between White and Latino/a students. Further, this effect was replicated for both spring semester GPA and cumulative GPA. These findings indicate that light-touch interventions may be a minimally invasive approach to improving academic outcomes for underrepresented students. Our findings also highlight the complexity of implementing customized belonging interventions in heterogeneous contexts.

A randomized controlled trial was conducted to evaluate effects of the Joint Attention Mediated Learning (JAML) intervention. Toddlers with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) aged 16-30 months (n = 144) were randomized to intervention and community control conditions. Parents, who participated in 32 weekly home-based sessions, followed a mediated learning process to target preverbal social communication outcomes (social visual synchrony, reciprocity, and responding and initiating forms of joint attention) throughout daily interactions. The analysis found post-intervention effects for all outcomes, with all except initiating joint attention sustaining 6 months post-intervention. Findings support the value of very early intervention targeting explicitly social functions of preverbal communication and of promoting active engagement in the learning process for both toddlers and parents.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a universal social skills program, the Social Skills Improvement System Classwide Intervention Program (SSIS-CIP; Elliott & Gresham, 2007), for students in first grade. Classrooms from 6 elementary schools were randomly assigned to treatment or business-as-usual control conditions. Teachers assigned to the treatment condition implemented the SSIS-CIP over a 12-week period. Students' social skills, problem behaviors, and approaches to learning were assessed via teacher ratings and direct observations of classroom behavior. In addition, their early literacy and numeracy skills were measured via computer-adaptive standardized tests. SSIS-CIP participation yielded small positive effects in students' social skills (particularly empathy and social engagement) and approaches to learning (academic motivation and engagement). Students' problem behaviors and academic skills, however, were unaffected by SSIS-CIP exposure.

Prevent-Teach-Reinforce for Young Children (PTR-YC) is a standardized model of positive behavior support designed to deliver individualized interventions for preschool-aged children with severe and persistent challenging behaviors. A randomized controlled trial was conducted to compare effects of PTR-YC with those of a "business as usual" (BAU) comparison condition implemented over the course of one school semester (approximately 3-4 months). Participants were 169 children in pre-K and Head Start classrooms in two states in the western United States. Mixed ANOVAs revealed statistically significant differences in pre-post scores on the problem behavior and social skills subscales of the "Social Skills Improvement System" (SSIS) as well as direct observation from video samples of the children's appropriate engagement and challenging behavior, with all comparisons favoring the PTR-YC intervention. Results are discussed in terms of the need for effective strategies for enabling early childhood professionals to implement behavioral interventions with fidelity and effectiveness.

Using a randomized controlled trial, we tested a new teacher professional development program for increasing the language and literacy skills ofyoung Latino English learners with 45 teachers and 105 students in 12 elementary schools. School-based teams randomly assigned to the intervention received professional development focused on cultural wealth, high-impact instructional strategies, and a framework for collaboration. We observed each teacher three times during the school year and assessed students individually at the beginning and end of the school year using the Woodcock Muñoz Language Survey (WMLS). Using an intent-to-treat (ITT) analysis, we found effects for the intervention on teachers’ implementation of high impact instructional strategies and students’ language and literacy skills.

"U-Pace" instruction, comprised of concept mastery and amplified assistance, has shown promise in increasing undergraduate success. To evaluate the efficacy of "U-Pace" instruction for students at risk for college noncompletion and students not at risk and to determine whether concept mastery, amplified assistance, or both "U-Pace" components are responsible for the greater learning associated with "U-Pace" instruction, an experiment was conducted with four instructional conditions ("U-Pace", concept mastery, amplified assistance, and face-to-face). At a public university, 914 undergraduates (576 at risk) participated. "U-Pace" instruction produced greater learning on a proctored cumulative assessment than the comparisons. Additionally, "U-Pace" instruction produced greater academic success in terms of final course grades than face-to-face instruction. The percentage of final grades of A or B did not differ for concept mastery, amplified assistance, and "U-Pace" students. No interaction between instructional condition and risk status was found for final course grades or learning. The efficacy of "U-Pace" instruction for both at-risk students and students not at risk was supported.

Executive functions (EFs) develop rapidly in preschoolers and lay an important foundation for school readiness. One potential method of supporting EF development is through mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs). Whereas studies with older children and adults have supported this approach, research with young children has been more limited. In the current study, we evaluated the effectiveness, acceptability, and feasibility of "Mini-Mind," a 12-session MBI created specifically for preschoolers. We used a randomized controlled design in a sample of 27 (intervention n = 12) preschoolers (3-5 years old). The evaluation included indirect measures of EF skills completed by teachers who were blinded to the experimental condition of the students. Additionally, parents, teachers, children, and facilitators provided feedback about the acceptability and feasibility of the intervention. Findings revealed mostly nonsignificant, small-to-medium effects in favor of the intervention group on indirect measures of EF skills. Furthermore, "Mini-Mind" was rated as highly feasible and acceptable by children and stakeholders. Overall, the findings support the implementation and continued evaluation of "Mini-Mind" in more diverse settings.

This article reports on a 4-year follow-up study from the Learning Experiences and Alternative Program for Preschoolers and Their Parents (LEAP) randomized trial of early intervention for young children with autism. Overall, participants from LEAP classes were marginally superior to comparison class children on elementary school outcomes specific to communication, adaptive behavior, social, academic, and cognitive skills. Statistically significant group differences were noted in cognitive development and social skills. However, when placement was treated as an independent variable, very large effects were seen across all outcome measures, including autism symptoms, for children who were enrolled in inclusive settings. Data from adult family members confirmed important changes in perceived quality of life. [This paper was published in "Topics in Early Childhood Special Education" (EJ1148719).]

With a randomized field experiment of 433 preschoolers, we tested a tablet mathematics program designed to increase young children's mathematics learning. Intervention students played Math Shelf, a comprehensive iPad preschool and year 1 mathematics app, while comparison children received research-based hands-on mathematics instruction delivered by their classroom teachers. After 22 weeks, there was a large and statistically significant effect on mathematics achievement for Math Shelf students (Cohen's d = 0.94). Moderator analyses demonstrated an even larger effect for low achieving children (Cohen's d = 1.27). These results suggest that early education teachers can improve their students' mathematics outcomes by integrating experimentally proven tablet software into their daily routines.

A workshop with virtual consultation practice-based professional development model for self-regulated strategy development persuasive writing instruction was evaluated in a randomized controlled trial. Nineteen general education teachers and 564 Grade 5 and 6 students in 16 low-wealth rural schools participated. Following training, teachers provided instruction in their inclusive classrooms. Results indicated that students receiving instruction improved in the number of persuasive elements and words written when compared with students in the control group. Differences in element type were evaluated with largest effects noted for reasons and explanations. Student group differences were noted with nonstruggling students having greater gains than struggling students.

This study compared the effects of three different feedback formats provided to sixth grade mathematics students within a web-based online learning platform, ASSISTments. A sample of 196 students were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) text-based feedback; (2) image-based feedback; and (3) correctness only feedback. Regardless of condition, students solved a set of problems pertaining to the division of fractions by fractions. This mathematics content was representative of challenging sixth grade mathematics Common Core State Standard (6.NS.A.1). Students randomly assigned to receive text-based feedback (Condition A) or image-based feedback (Condition B) outperformed those randomly assigned to the correctness only group (Condition C). However, these differences were not statistically significant (F(2,108) = 1.394, p = 0.25). Results of this study also demonstrated a completion-bias. Students randomly assigned to Condition B were less likely to complete the problem set than those assigned to Conditions A and C. To conclude, we discuss the counterintuitive findings observed in this study and implications related to developing and implementing feedback in online learning environments for middle school mathematics.

This study compared the effects of three different feedback formats provided to sixth grade mathematics students within a web-based online learning platform, ASSISTments. A sample of 196 students were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) text-based feedback; (2) image-based feedback; and (3) correctness only feedback. Regardless of condition, students solved a set of problems pertaining to the division of fractions by fractions. This mathematics content was representative of challenging sixth grade mathematics Common Core State Standard (6.NS.A.1). Students randomly assigned to receive text-based feedback (Condition A) or image-based feedback (Condition B) outperformed those randomly assigned to the correctness only group (Condition C). However, these differences were not statistically significant (F(2,108) = 1.394, p = 0.25). Results of this study also demonstrated a completion-bias. Students randomly assigned to Condition B were less likely to complete the problem set than those assigned to Conditions A and C. To conclude, we discuss the counterintuitive findings observed in this study and implications related to developing and implementing feedback in online learning environments for middle school mathematics.

Prior research suggests that summer learning loss among low-income children contributes to income-based gaps in achievement and educational attainment. We present results from a randomized experiment of a summer mathematics program conducted in a large, high-poverty urban public school district. Children in the third to ninth grade (N = 263) were randomly assigned to an offer of an online summer mathematics program, the same program plus a free laptop computer, or the control group. Being randomly assigned to the program plus laptop condition caused children to experience significantly higher reported levels of summer home mathematics engagement relative to their peers in the control group. Treatment and control children performed similarly on distal measures of academic achievement. We discuss implications for future research.

Prior research suggests that summer learning loss among low-income children contributes to income-based gaps in achievement and educational attainment. We present results from a randomized experiment of a summer mathematics program conducted in a large, high-poverty urban public school district. Children in the third to ninth grade (N = 263) were randomly assigned to an offer of an online summer mathematics program, the same program plus a free laptop computer, or the control group. Being randomly assigned to the program plus laptop condition caused children to experience significantly higher reported levels of summer home mathematics engagement relative to their peers in the control group. Treatment and control children performed similarly on distal measures of academic achievement. We discuss implications for future research.

Strong correlational evidence suggests that involvement in the arts improves students' academic outcomes and memory of learning events (e.g., Peppler et al., 2014; Robinson, 2013; Scripps & Paradis, 2014). It is unclear, however, whether the improved outcomes are the result of general exposure to the arts, arts integrated into content instruction, the use of effective instructional practices, or a combination of these factors. Moreover, as a growing number of studies suggest that arts-integrated pedagogy enhances learning, few empirical studies have explicitly examined the direct effect of an arts-integrated curriculum on learning and specifically on students' memory for non-arts academic content. Thus, this study sought to determine the effects of arts-integrated lessons on long-term memory for science content. We hypothesized that embedding arts-based activities into conventionally taught lessons would produce learning outcomes as good as or better than traditional instruction. This paper describes the results of a randomized control trial that measured retention of science content using arts-integrated science units and matched units employing convention science instruction. The study was conducted in 16 fifth-grade classrooms in an urban mid-Atlantic school district.

Working memory (WM) is the ability to temporarily store and retrieve a limited amount of information during complex cognitive activities, especially in the face of distraction. The dual-component model describes WM as including active maintenance in primary memory (PM) and cue-dependent search and retrieval from secondary memory (SM). Previously, researchers have found that WM training (WMT) fails to enhance SM capacity, a component that mediates the relationship between WM and fluid reasoning (gF). Thus, a double-blinded, placebo-controlled, randomized trial was conducted to elucidate whether retrieval from SM could be targeted using a two-component WMT regimen versus two control conditions: adaptive one-component WMT targeting solely PM capacity and non-adaptive one-component WMT. Participants were 174 adolescents, aged 10 to 13 years, who were assessed before, after, and six-moths following training. Retrieval from SM was measured using delayed free recall tasks, far transfer to gF was assessed with matrix reasoning and verbal inference tests, and far transfer to academic performance was assessed with reading and math tests. It was predicted that solely two-component WMT would enhance retrieval from SM and result in far transfer. ANCOVAs with pre-test scores as the covariate indicated that two-component participants increased total errors over controls. There were no significant differences between the groups on recall latency, total correct, or gF measures. The non-adaptive one-component group significantly improved on reading, although a drop in the other two groups drove the effect. Additional research is needed to elucidate whether theoretically-motivated WMT can positively impact higher-level cognition through SM retrieval mechanisms. [This paper was published in "Journal of Cognitive Enhancement" v1 p455-477 2017.]

This randomized, controlled trial, comparing the Comprehensive Autism Program (CAP) and business as usual programs, studied outcomes for 3-5 year old students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Participants included 84 teachers and 302 students with ASD and their parents. CAP utilized specialized curricula and training components to implement specific evidence-based practices both at school and home. A comprehensive set of outcome areas was studied. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to estimate the treatment impact. CAP had small positive impacts on the students' receptive language (effect size of 0.13) and on their social skills as rated by teachers (effect size of 0.19). Treatment effects were moderated by severity of ASD.

Community college students often lack an academic plan to guide their choices of coursework to achieve their educational goals, in part because counseling departments typically lack the capacity to advise students at scale. This randomized controlled trial tests the impact of guaranteed access to one of two alternative counseling sessions (group workshops or one-on-one counseling), each of which was combined with targeted "nudging." Outcome measures included scheduling and attending the counseling session, completing an academic plan, and re-enrolling in the following semester. Evidence suggests that both variations on the intervention increase academic plan completion rates by over 20 percentage points compared to a control group that did not receive guaranteed access to a counseling session or the automated nudges. Exploratory evidence suggests that when combined with nudging, the guarantee of workshop counseling is as effective as the guarantee of one-on-one counseling in causing students to schedule and attend academic planning appointments. The following are appended: (1) Study background and intervention characteristics; (2) Study data sources, design and analysis; (3) Supplemental tables; and (4) Descriptions of MySite, Sherpa, and My Academic Plan systems.

Purpose: The present article reports on the implementation and results of a randomized intervention trial targeting the literate language skills of prekindergarten children without identified language disorders but with low oral language skills. Method: Children (N = 82; 45 boys and 37 girls) were screened-in and randomized to a business-as-usual control or to the pull-out treatment groups in which they received 4 instructional units addressing different sentence-level syntactic and semantic features: prepositions, conjunctions, adverbs, and negations. The intervention was delivered by paraprofessionals in small groups in the form of 20-min lessons 4 times a week for 12 weeks. Results: Overall, children receiving the supplemental instruction showed educationally meaningful gains in their oral language skills, relative to children in the control group. Significant group differences were found on researcher-designed oral language measures, with moderate to large effect sizes ranging from 0.44 to 0.88 on these measures. Conclusions: The intervention holds the potential to positively affect understanding and production of syntax and semantic features, such as prepositions and conjunctions, in young children with weak oral language skills.

In 2012, WestEd received a "Development" grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Investing in Innovation (i3) competition to develop and implement Internet-based Reading Apprenticeship Improving Science Education ("iRAISE"). "iRAISE" was implemented in Michigan and Pennsylvania and was provided to over 100 teachers who served approximately 20,000 students during the grant period. This report presents findings from the randomized control trial of "iRAISE," which took place during the 2014-15 school year and investigated the impact of the program on teacher and student outcomes. Data sources for this report include teacher surveys; PD observations and attendance records; school district student records; and an assessment of students' literacy skills. Despite levels of implementation that did not meet the expectations of the program developers, teachers self-reported that they did change their classroom practice as a result of the "iRAISE" program, and impacts of "iRAISE" were greater for students who were performing at lower levels of incoming achievement. Given that "iRAISE" had an impact on teacher practices in literacy instruction and increased benefits for low-achieving students-consistent with positive findings from prior studies, evaluators express confidence in the promise of low-cost, accessible, and high-quality online-only professional Development (PD), addressing the needs of schools struggling to meet the demands of literacy for college and career readiness. Appended are the following: (1) Considerations for Statistical Power; (2) Details of the Approach to Estimating Impacts; (3) Reporting the Results; (4) A Post-Experimental Method to Assessing Impact under Strong Implementation; (5) Fidelity of Implementation; and (6) Teacher Survey Constructs.

This study examined the effectiveness of a researcher-provided intervention with fourth graders with significant reading difficulties. The intervention emphasized multisyllable word reading, fluent reading of high-frequency words and phrases, vocabulary, and comprehension. To identify the participants, 1,695 fourth-grade students were screened using the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test, and those whose standard scores were 85 or lower were included in the study (N = 483). Participants were randomly assigned (2:1) to receive either researcher-provided intervention (n = 323) or intervention provided by school personnel (business as usual, BAU) (n = 161). Findings revealed no statistically significant differences between students in the researcher-provided intervention and BAU groups. Using effect sizes as an indicator of impact, students in the researcher-implemented treatment generally outperformed students in the school-implemented treatment (BAU). Examining growth in standard scores, both groups made significant gains in reading outcomes with standard score growth from pretest to posttest of 3 standard score points on decoding, 5 on fluency, and 2.0 to 7 standard score points on reading comprehension measures.

Research Findings: Effective preschool mathematics instruction is especially important for low-income children. Previous research demonstrates that low-income children enter kindergarten behind their middle-income peers. They receive less mathematics support at home and from public preschools. The aim of this study was to test Math Shelf, a tablet intervention designed to improve at-risk preschoolers' mathematics performance. A total of 100 children participated in a randomized controlled trial in a large urban Head Start center. Intervention students played Math Shelf on tablet computers for 6 weeks, whereas comparison students played the most downloaded and best reviewed preschool math apps on tablets for an equal amount of time. During game play, graduate student researchers supervised intervention and comparison students in separate rooms. Intervention and comparison groups did not differ on pretest assessments. Math Shelf students performed statistically significantly better (Cohen's d = 0.57) than comparison students at posttest. Practice or Policy: Math Shelf results suggest that teachers can enhance low-income preschoolers' mathematics knowledge in a relatively short amount of time by incorporating developmentally appropriate tablet interventions.

This article examines an educational experiment with a unique combination of 3 elements: homework, the use of information and communication technology and a large degree of freedom of choice (student autonomy). More particularly, we study the effectiveness of a web-based intelligent tutoring system (ITS) that a school offers to its students as optional homework, in a sample of 355 first-year secondary students, using an experimental design. The results show that whether students make this noncompulsory homework in the web-based ITS is dependent on their prior achievement and their teacher, and if they practice, they tend to choose easier modules. Students thus do not seem to optimize learning gains, but rather balance their perceived value of practicing and their "expectancy," as found previously for regular (compulsory, non-ITS) homework. Regarding the value of choice, findings suggest that students may be poor judges of their most beneficial exercises pattern. Differentiation in ITS does not guarantee learning, unless scaffolding is tightly linked to it. In line with previous research, this research shows that practice does matter, though at varying intensities. Yet it also clarifies that motivation to make an effort is required, which adds to the lessons learned from homework research; both the perceived value and expectancy are at play and can be enhanced, for example, by teachers.