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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Linking Learning to Careers (LLC) program offered high school students with disabilities an individualized and targeted approach to strategically plan for their futures. The Vermont Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR) designed LLC to build on its usual services for high school students to emphasize unpaid and paid work-based learning experiences (WBLEs) in integrated environments, college exploration and coursework opportunities at the Community College of Vermont, team-based guidance and support from DVR staff, dedicated support for assistive technology, and additional transportation funding. To support a rigorous evaluation, DVR relied on a randomized controlled trial design, recruiting 803 participants to participate. This report presents evidence on LLC's impacts up to two years after students enrolled in the program. The demonstration had impacts on services and education that were consistent with the LLC model and findings from the implementation evaluation. However, the program did not have consistent impacts on employment. [Mathematica prepared this report under contract to the Vermont Division of Vocational Rehabilitation under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education.]

Following up on a previous impact study of Early Colleges (EC) based on retrospective admission lotteries, this study assessed longer-term impacts on students' postsecondary outcomes with 4 more years of data. The study found that students who won EC admission lotteries were significantly more likely to enroll in college, enroll in 2-year colleges, complete a college degree, complete associate's degrees or certificates, and complete bachelor's degrees within 6 years after expected high school graduation than control students. Moreover, it found that treatment students completed postsecondary degrees earlier and faster than control students. Consistent with EC's focus on college exposure during high school, the EC impacts on college enrollment and the completion of associate's degrees largely occurred within high school. The study also found that EC impacts did not vary significantly by students' demographic characteristics; however, some impacts were significantly stronger for students with higher levels of prior achievement.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This study presents findings from three cohorts of students--the classes of 2003, 2004, and 2005, in the School District of Philadelphia--that were admitted to the district's career and technical education (CTE) schools through a randomized lottery process. This study takes advantage of this so-called "'natural experiment' to compare high school academic outcomes for" lottery applicants who were admitted with those for students who did not receive an acceptance. Results find that CTE students had significantly better outcomes in terms of graduation rates, credit accumulation, and the successful completion of the college preparatory mathematics sequence algebra 1, algebra 2, and geometry. Results for other outcomes such as the completion of science and foreign language course sequences, overall grade point average, and mathematics and reading comprehension achievement, were inconsistent across cohorts and statistical tests, neither favoring nor against students accepted to CTE schools.

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

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

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

For this study, the authors designed an experiment to test whether some high-achieving, low-income students would change their behavior if they knew more about colleges and, more importantly, whether a cost-effective way to help such students realize their full array of college opportunities can be implemented. This was done by randomly assigning interventions that provide different types of information to roughly 18,000 students, including 3,000 students who serve as controls. The most comprehensive form of the intervention, which is called the Expanding College Opportunities-Comprehensive (ECO-C) Intervention, combined application guidance, semicustomized information about the net cost of attending different colleges, and no-paperwork application fee waivers. Expanding College Opportunities Project was designed to to test several hypotheses about why most high-achieving, low-income students do not apply to and attend selective colleges. The application guidance component of ECO-C provides the kind of advice that an expert college counselor would give a high-achieving student. An expert counselor would advise such a student to apply to eight or more colleges, including a combination of "safety," "match," and "reach" colleges. The authors call this group of colleges that are within an appropriate range for a given student's achievement "peer" colleges. Using random assignment of thousands of students, the authors successfully demonstrated that a low-cost, fully scalable intervention can help many high-achieving, low-income students recognize their full array of college opportunities.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The career academy approach is one of the oldest and most widely established high school reforms in the U.S., stretching back for more than 30 years. A large-scale, multi-site, random assignment research design was conducted to determine the impact of career academies on student outcomes. Some of the findings of the study include the following: (1) the career academies in the study increased both the level of interpersonal support students experienced and their participation in career awareness and work-based learning activities; (2) the career academies substantially improved high school outcomes among students at high risk of dropping out; (3) among students least likely to drop out, the career academies increased the likelihood of graduating on time; (4) in academies that greatly enhanced interpersonal support from teachers and peers, the dropout rates dropped dramatically; (5) the academies did not improve standardized mathematics and reading test scores; and (6) the impact of the academies and the types of students who participated in them varied greatly from site to site. The study concluded that career academies can be an effective means of reducing the high school dropout rate and enhancing students' engagement with school, especially if they increase personal support of students through involvement with teachers and peers. (Contains 33 references and two appendixes that provide supplementary information about the career academies research study and strategies for creating subgroups of students defined by at-risk characteristics.) (KC)

This study examines relationships between dual enrollment and high school graduation, college enrollment, college choice (2-year or 4-year), and persistence in college among Nebraska's 2018 high school graduating class. Unlike previous studies that focus on states where dual enrollment is standardized and subsidized by state policy, the Nebraska context offers an opportunity to study potentially heterogeneous effects of dual enrollment where implementation is devolved to the local level. Using propensity score matching, we find that taking at least one dual enrollment course was positively associated with graduating from high school, going to college, choosing a 4-year college over a 2-year college, and re-enrolling in college in the second year. More importantly, the positive association was greater for racial minority students, first-generation students, and low-income students. Our findings suggest that dual enrollment may help close achievement gaps for historically underrepresented students. We provide policy implications on how states can use dual enrollment to improve higher education access and success.

New Mexico is one of 48 states that offer a biliteracy seal to high school graduates to recognize their proficiency in a non -English language. The Regional Educational Laboratory Southwest English Learners Research Partnership collaborated with a large urban district in New Mexico to study the characteristics and college readiness of students who earned different types of biliteracy seals (state, district, and global seals), the number of students who met some requirements for a seal but did not earn one, and the effect of earning a seal on college outcomes. The study used data from three cohorts of grade 12 students in the district from 2017/18 to 2019/20. Between 2017/18 and 2019/20, 7 percent of graduates earned at least one type of biliteracy seal, and these graduates were more likely than graduates who did not earn a seal to be Hispanic, to be eligible for the National School Lunch Program, to be a current English learner student, to have ever been an English learner student, and to speak Spanish at home. Graduates who earned a biliteracy seal were more likely than similar graduates who did not earn a seal to enroll in college within one year of high school graduation. Finally, among graduates who enrolled in college, graduates who earned a biliteracy seal were more likely than graduates who did not earn a seal to enroll in a four-year college and to enroll in college full time. The New Mexico Public Education Department and district leaders can use the findings to decide how to expand access to biliteracy seals. [For the Study Snapshot, see ED624244. For the appendixes, see ED624246.]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Across the country, school districts, their stakeholders, and policymakers have become increasingly concerned about suspensions, particularly about suspending students from elementary school and disproportionately suspending ethnic/racial minority students. Suspended students are less likely to graduate, possibly because they miss the instructional time they need to advance academically. Restorative practices have gained buy-in in the education community as a strategy to reduce suspension rates. Proactively improving relationships among students and staff and building a sense of community in classrooms and schools may make students less inclined to misbehave. And addressing severe misbehavior through a restorative approach may help students realize the impacts of their actions and make them less likely to offend again. This study of the implementation of restorative practices in the Pittsburgh Public Schools district (PPS) in school years 2015-16 and 2016-17 represents one of the first randomized controlled trials of the effects of restorative practices on classroom and school climates and suspension rates. The authors examined a specific restorative practices program -- the International Institute for Restorative Practices' SaferSanerSchools™ Whole-School Change program -- implemented in a selected group of PPS schools under a program called Pursuing Equitable and Restorative Communities, or PERC. The researchers found that PERC achieved several positive effects, including an improvement in overall school climates (as rated by teachers), a reduction in overall suspension rates, and a reduction in the disparities in suspension rates between African American and white students and between low- and higher-income students. Key Findings: Effects of the Pursuing Equitable and Restorative Communities (PERC) program in Pittsburgh Public Schools: (1) Implementation of restorative practices through PERC improved overall school climates, as rated by teachers; (2) Implementation of restorative practices reduced the average suspension rate: During the study period, average suspension rates decreased in both PERC and non-PERC schools, but rates decreased more in PERC schools; (3) Suspension rates of African American students and of those from low-income families also went down in PERC schools, shrinking the disparities in suspension rates between African American and white students and between low- and higher-income students; (4) Academic outcomes did not improve in PERC schools, and actually worsened for grades 6-8; and (5) Arrest rates among PERC schools did not decrease. Recommendations: (1) Given the constraints on teachers' time, emphasize restorative practices that can be woven into the school day; (2) Ensure that school leaders understand and can model restorative practices, including by providing mandatory professional development, books and other materials, and coaching on restorative practices; (3) Establish a mechanism for school staff to meet at least once per month as a professional learning community on restorative practices; (4) Ensure that leaders at the district level can coordinate this work; (5) Set, and update, clear expectations regarding the use of restorative practices; and (6) Implement data collection systems to collect accurate information on all types of behavioral incidents and remedies.

Since their inception in 1992, the number of charter schools has grown to more than 6,800 nationally, serving nearly three million students. Various studies have examined charter schools' impacts on test scores, and a few have begun to examine longer-term outcomes including graduation and college attendance. This paper is the first to estimate charter schools' effects on earnings in adulthood, alongside effects on educational attainment. Using data from Florida, we first confirm previous research (Booker et al., 2011) that students attending charter high schools are more likely to graduate from high school and enroll in college. We then examine two longer-term outcomes not previously studied in research on charter schools--college persistence and earnings. We find that students attending charter high schools are more likely to persist in college, and that in their mid-20s they experience higher earnings.

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

My Teaching Partner-Secondary (MTP-S) is a web-mediated coaching intervention, which an initial randomized trial, primarily in middle schools, found to improve teacher-student interactions and student achievement. Given the dearth of validated teacher development interventions showing consistent effects, we sought to both replicate and extend these findings with a modified version of the program in a predominantly high school population, and in a more urban, sociodemographically diverse school district. MTP-S produced substantial gains in student achievement across 86 secondary school classrooms involving 1,194 students. Gains were robust across subject areas and equivalent to moving the average student from the 50th to the 59th percentile in achievement scores. Results suggest that MTP-S can enhance student outcomes across diverse settings and implementation modalities.

The current teacher workforce is younger, less experienced, more likely to turnover, and more diverse in preparation experiences than the workforce of two decades ago. Research shows that inexperienced teachers are less effective, but we know little about the effectiveness of teachers with different types of preparation. In this study, we classify North Carolina public school teachers into "portals"--fixed and mutually exclusive categories that capture teachers' formal preparation and qualifications upon first entering the profession--and estimate the adjusted average test score gains of students taught by teachers from each portal. Compared with undergraduate-prepared teachers from in-state public universities, (a) out-of-state undergraduate-prepared teachers are less effective in elementary grades and high school, (b) alternative entry teachers are less effective in high school, and (c) Teach For America corps members are more effective in STEM subjects and secondary grades.

Despite the growing popularity of dual-credit courses as a college readiness strategy, numerous reviews of the literature have noted a number of important limitations of the research on the effects of dual-credit on student postsecondary outcomes. This study addressed these gaps in the literature by estimating the impact of dual-credit courses on postsecondary access, first-to-second year persistence, and eventual college attainment, and overcame many of the methodological limitations of previous studies. The study utilized a statewide longitudinal data system (SLDS), allowing us to track an entire cohort of students through their transition into postsecondary statewide. Propensity score matching was used in order to reduce the self-selection bias associated with high achieving students being more likely to take dual-credit courses. We explored how the number of dual-credit courses students complete and the subject of the courses influences their impact. We also compared the effects of dual-credit to alternative advanced courses. Our results suggest that dual-credit is a promising strategy for increasing the likelihood of students accessing, persisting through, and completing a degree in postsecondary, and is possibly even more impactful than advanced coursework. However, significant variation in the benefit of dual-credit exists.

New Leaders is a nonprofit organization with a mission to ensure high academic achievement for all students by developing outstanding school leaders to serve in urban schools. Its premise is that a combination of preparation and improved working conditions for principals, especially greater autonomy, would lead to improved student outcomes. Its approach involves both preparing principals and partnering with school districts and charter management organizations (CMOs) to improve the conditions in which its highly trained principals work. As part of the partnerships, New Leaders agrees to provide carefully selected and trained principals who can be placed in schools that need principals and to provide coaching and other support after those principals are placed. The districts and CMOs agree to establish working conditions that support, rather than hinder, the principals' efforts to improve student outcomes. This report describes how the New Leaders program was implemented in partner districts, and it provides evidence of the effect that New Leaders has on student achievement. [The research in this report was produced within RAND Education. For the appendices that accompany this report, see ED561154. For the research brief, "Principal Preparation Matters: How Leadership Development Affects Student Achievement. Research Brief," see ED561155.]

With funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, CRESST conducted a multi-year evaluation of a major school reform project at Alain Leroy Locke High School, historically one of California's lowest performing secondary schools. Beginning in 2007, Locke High School transitioned into a set of smaller, Green Dot Charter High Schools, subsequently referred to as Green Dot Locke (GDL) in this report. Based on 9th grade students who entered GDL in 2007 and 2008 respectively, CRESST used a range of student outcomes to monitor progress of the GDL transformation. The CRESST evaluation, employing a strong quasi-experimental design with propensity score matching, found statistically significant, positive effects for the GDL transformation including improved achievement, school persistence, and completion of college preparatory courses. Appended are: (1) Demographic Characteristics and Achievement of the Freshmen at GDL and LAUSD; (2) Cohort Specific Descriptives; and (3) General Descriptives. (Contains 17 figures, 43 tables and 6 footnotes.)

States and school districts are searching for strategies to raise the college and career readiness of high school graduates--imperative in an era when postsecondary credentials are the key to good jobs, better pay, and stronger economies. The creation and implementation of higher graduation standards aligned to college and career expectations is the most visible and emblematic effort by states to ensure students are prepared to succeed after high school, but it is far from the only one. A policy strategy of increasing interest is the practice of providing students with the opportunity to take college courses while in high school, known as dual enrollment. The premise of dual enrollment is that high school students can enhance their chances for college success if they better understand what it takes to succeed in college: they do this by actually experiencing real college coursework, often earning "dual credit" for both high school and college. New research, conducted in Texas by Jobs for the Future (JFF), points to the effectiveness of dual enrollment as a strategy for improving postsecondary success. This study focused on the academic outcomes of 32,908 Texas students from the high school graduating class of 2004. Like some of these studies, the authors' research used rigorous quasi-experimental methods to control for factors other than dual enrollment that could explain student success by comparing dual enrollees to non-dual enrollees who are otherwise closely matched academically and socially. JFF's methodological approach, known as a propensity score matching model, enabled the authors to account for student background characteristics to the highest degree possible short of a randomized study. This greatly increases the certainty that the better college outcomes found for dual enrollment participants are due t o the effects of the dual enrollment courses they completed. Appended are: (1) Propensity Score Model; (2) Cohort, Treatment, and Control Group, by Region; (3) Educational Attainment of Treatment and Control Groups; (4) Test Scores by Treatment and Control Groups; (5) Odds Ratios for College Access Model; (6) Odds Ratios for College Completion Model; and (7) Dual-credit Study Methodology. (Contains 2 figures, 7 tables, and 15 endnotes.)

Improving teaching quality is widely recognized as critical to addressing deficiencies in secondary school education, yet the field has struggled to identify rigorously evaluated teacher-development approaches that can produce reliable gains in student achievement. A randomized controlled trial of My Teaching Partner-Secondary--a Web-mediated approach focused on improving teacher-student interactions in the classroom--examined the efficacy of the approach in improving teacher quality and student achievement with 78 secondary school teachers and 2237 students. The intervention produced substantial gains in measured student achievement in the year following its completion, equivalent to moving the average student from the 50th to the 59th percentile in achievement test scores. Gains appeared to be mediated by changes in teacher-student interaction qualities targeted by the intervention. [For a related What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report, see ED557783.]

Teach For America (TFA) selects and places graduates from the most competitive colleges as teachers in the lowest-performing schools in the country. This paper is the first study that examines TFA effects in high school. We use rich longitudinal data from North Carolina and estimate TFA effects through cross-subject student and school fixed effects models. We find that TFA teachers tend to have a positive effect on high school student test scores relative to non-TFA teachers, including those who are certified in field. Such effects offset or exceed the impact of additional years of experience and are particularly strong in science. (Contains 1 figure, 14 tables and 14 footnotes.)

Over the last decade, New York City has been the site of a systemwide high school reform effort that is unprecedented in its scope and pace. Since 2002, the school district has closed more than 20 failing high schools, opened more than 200 new secondary schools, and implemented a centralized high school admission process in which approximately 80,000 students a year indicate their school preferences from a wide-ranging choice of programs. At the heart of these reforms lie the new schools that in this report are called "small schools of choice" (SSCs)--small, academically nonselective, public high schools that were opened between 2002 and 2008. Serving approximately 100 students per grade in grades 9 through 12 and open to students at all levels of academic achievement, the SSCs in this study were created to serve the district's most disadvantaged and historically underserved students. Prior to the 2002-2003 school year, these students would have had little option but to enroll in one of the city's large, zoned high schools when they made the transition from eighth to ninth grade. Many of the large schools were low-performing, with graduation rates below 50 percent. This report presents encouraging findings from an unusually large and rigorous study, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, of the effects of SSCs on students' academic achievement in high school. SSCs have a substantial positive impact on the transition into high school during ninth grade, according to data using all four cohorts: (1) SSC enrollees were 10.8 percentage points more likely than the students who enrolled in other schools to earn 10 or more credits during their first year--73.1 percent compared with 62.3 percent; (2) SSC enrollees were 7.8 percentage points less likely to fail more than one core subject (39 percent compared with 46.8 percent); (3) Combining these two indicators, 58.5 percent of SSC enrollees were on track to graduate in four years compared with 48.5 percent of their counterparts who attended a different type of school--a 10 percentage point difference; and (4) During the first year of high school, SSC enrollees earn almost one full credit more (0.9 credit) toward graduation than do their control group counterparts. These positive effects on the transition into high school during ninth grade were seen among nearly all subgroups as defined by students' academic proficiency, socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, and gender. For all students, second- and third-year follow-up data indicate that these effects are sustained and/or increased as they continue through high school. For the "first" cohort of students (the only cohort for whom there are four years of follow-up data), the evidence indicates that SSC improvements in students' academic progress and school engagement during the early years of high school translate into higher rates of on-time graduation after four years: (1) SSCs increase overall graduation rates by 6.8 percentage points, from 61.9 percent for students who attend schools other than SSCs to 68.7 percent for SSC enrollees; (2) A majority of the SSC effect on graduation rates reflects an increase in receipt of New York State Regents diplomas. For this type of diploma, students must pass a series of Regents examinations with a score of 65 points or above and pass all of their required courses; and (3) SSCs increase the proportion of students (by 5.3 percentage points) who passed the English Regents with a score of 75 points or higher, the threshold for exempting incoming students at the City University of New York from remedial courses. They did not have an effect on math Regents exams. (Contains 2 tables and 4 footnotes.) [For the full report, "Transforming the High School Experience: How New York City's New Small Schools Are Boosting Student Achievement and Graduation Rates," see ED511106.]

This study was conducted by members of a site of the California Writing Project in partnership with a large, urban, low-SES school district where 93% of the students speak English as a second language and 69% are designated Limited English Proficient. Over an eight-year period, a relatively stable group of 55 secondary teachers engaged in ongoing professional development implemented a cognitive strategies approach to reading and writing instruction, making visible for approximately 2000 students per year the thinking tools experienced readers and writers access in the process of meaning construction. The purpose of the study was to assess the impact of this approach on the reading and writing abilities of English language learners (ELLs) in all 13 secondary schools in the district. Students receiving cognitive strategies instruction significantly out-gained peers on holistically scored assessments of academic writing for seven consecutive years. Treatment-group students also performed significantly better than control-group students on GPA, standardized tests, and high-stakes writing assessments. Findings reinforce the importance of having high expectations for ELLs; exposing them to a rigorous language arts curriculum;explicitly teaching, modeling and providing guided practice in a variety of strategies to help students read and write about challenging texts; and involving students as partners in a community of learners. What distinguishes the project is its integrity with respect to its fidelity to three core dimensions: Teachers and students were exposed to an extensive set of cognitive strategies and a wide array of curricular approaches to strategy use (comprehensiveness) in a manner designed to cultivate deep knowledge and application of those strategies in reading and writing (density) over an extended period of time (duration). The consistency of positive outcomes on multiple measures strongly points to the efficacy of using this approach with ELLs. Appended are: (1) Great Expectations Writing Prompt; and (2) Student Models. (Contains 1 note, 5 tables, and 6 figures.)

We tested the efficacy of a comprehensive intervention program designed for high school students across the autism spectrum, the Center on Secondary Education for Students with Autism (CSESA) model, in a cluster randomized control trial involving 60 high schools in three states (California, North Carolina, Wisconsin), with implementation occurring over a 2-year period. We examined outcomes for the schools, students (N = 547), and families. At the conclusion of the study, CSESA schools had significantly higher program quality than the services-as-usual (SAU) schools. In addition, students in the CSESA schools had significantly higher total attainment of educational goals than students in SAU schools. There were not significant differences between the two groups on standardized assessment outcomes. We discuss implications for intervention implementation and future research with this population in the public school context.

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

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

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 Learning by Making (LbyM) project is funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Investing in Innovation Fund (i3). As a five-year development project (2014-2018), Sonoma State University (SSU), in partnership with high-need schools and districts, has been developing an innovative, integrated high school Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) curriculum. The curriculum consists of Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs) in earth science and biology as described in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS, 2013) and utilizes an easy-to-use Logo programming language that conducts data transfer and network communications in support of student-designed investigations. The purpose of this study is to understand how LbyM is implemented in high school classrooms in rural environments, to observe the influences of this curriculum on student learning and engagement, and to explore how teachers' instructional practices and technological capacities evolve while using the curriculum. The study used a quasi-experimental design. One hundred thirty-seven students were recruited to enroll in eight LbyM STEM classes in six participating high schools. Three of the participating high schools are small schools, and it is not possible to find comparison students from these small schools. Therefore, all comparison students were recruited from the larger schools, with a total of 141 comparison students from six classrooms in three out of six participating high schools. The results from the study indicated that the LbyM curriculum that was developed by SSU helped teachers integrate NGSS and project-based learning into classroom instruction. Teachers reported spending more instructional time supporting students to collect, organize, display, and present data. Students were highly engaged with the LbyM curriculum and demonstrated increased confidence and problem solving stamina. Teachers reported that some students who typically struggle to participate in class exhibited higher levels of participation in LbyM and even demonstrated leadership. They also reported that some students with special needs, while still requiring extra attention, remained engaged with the curriculum and were even quicker to complete certain activities than the other students. The LbyM curriculum was positively associated with significant gains in students' science content knowledge. It helped low-achieving students improve math understanding.

This study reports 2 years of findings from a randomized controlled trial designed to replicate and demonstrate the efficacy of an existing, successful professional development program, the Pathway Project, that uses a cognitive strategies approach to text-based analytical writing. Building on an earlier randomized field trial in a large, urban, low socioeconomic status (SES) district in which 98% of the students were Latino and 88% were mainstreamed English learners (ELs) at the intermediate level of fluency, the project aimed to help secondary school students, specifically Latinos and mainstreamed ELs, in another large, urban, low-SES district to develop the academic writing skills called for in the rigorous Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts. The Pathway Project draws on well-documented instructional frameworks that support approaches that incorporate strategy instruction to enhance students' academic literacy. Ninety-five teachers in 16 secondary schools were stratified by school and grade and then randomly assigned to the Pathway or control group. Pathway teachers participated in 46 hr of training to help students write analytical essays. Difference-in-differences and regression analyses revealed significant effects on student writing outcomes in both years of the intervention (Year 1, d = 0.48; Year 2, d = 0.60). Additionally, Pathway students had higher odds than control students of passing the California High School Exit Exam in both years.

The National Math + Science Initiative's (NMSI's) College Readiness Program (CRP) is an established program whose goal is to promote science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education in high schools to improve students' readiness for college. It provides teacher, student, and school supports to promote high school students' success in mathematics, science, and English Advanced Placement (AP) courses, with a focus on students who are traditionally underrepresented in the targeted AP courses. Through a federal Investing in Innovation Fund (i3) validation grant awarded to NMSI in 2011, CRP was implemented in a total of 58 high schools in two states--Colorado and Indiana--beginning in the 2012-13 school year. American Institutes for Research (AIR) conducted an independent evaluation of the impacts of CRP on students' AP outcomes in these schools for the three cohorts of schools that adopted the program in sequential years, using a comparative interrupted time series (CITS) design that matched comparison schools to program schools in the two states. Overall, schools implementing CRP demonstrated significantly larger increases in the share of students taking and passing AP tests in targeted areas relative to comparison schools in each of the three cohorts of schools, and the gains in CRP schools were sustained over time. Fidelity of program implementation was evaluated using a fidelity matrix approach required as part of the National Evaluation of the i3 program, which showed that not all elements of the program were implemented with high fidelity. Teachers and students were not always able to attend all meetings, and schools did not always meet negotiated enrollment targets. Teacher survey data indicated that teachers found the professional development activities provided by CRP to be the most helpful support they received under CRP, and students reported that the tutoring and special study sessions were the most helpful. Although the program provided financial incentives to both teachers and students that were tied to student performance on AP tests, these incentives were considered the least important element of the program by both teachers and students

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

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.

The purpose of this experimental study is to investigate the effects of using content acquisition podcasts (CAPs), an example of instructional technology, to provide vocabulary instruction to adolescents with and without learning disabilities (LD). A total of 279 urban high school students, including 30 with LD in an area related to reading, were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions with instruction occurring at individual computer terminals over a 3-week period. Each of the four conditions contained different configurations of multimedia-based instruction and evidence-based vocabulary instruction. Dependent measures of vocabulary knowledge indicated that students with LD who received vocabulary instruction using CAPs through an explicit instructional methodology and the keyword mnemonic strategy significantly outperformed other students with LD who were taught using the same content, but with multimedia instruction that did not adhere to a specific theoretical design framework. Results for general education students mirrored those for students with LD. Students also completed a satisfaction measure following instruction with multimedia and expressed overall agreement that CAPs are useful for learning vocabulary terms.

The Expository Reading and Writing Course (ERWC) was developed by California State University (CSU) faculty and high school educators to improve the academic literacy of high school seniors, thereby reducing the need for students to enroll in remedial English courses upon entering college. This report, produced by Innovation Studies at WestEd, presents the findings of an independent evaluation of the ERWC funded by an Investing in Innovation (i3) development grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The study sample for the evaluation included more than 5,000 12th grade students in 24 high schools across nine California school districts in the 2013/14 school year. The authors of the report found that the ERWC has a statistically significant positive impact on student achievement. Results from an analysis of implementation fidelity are also presented, along with qualitative findings based on survey data from study participants. Appendixes include: (1) Statistical Power for Impact Estimates; (2) Data Collection Instruments to Measure Fidelity of Implementation; and (3) Rubric for Calculating Fidelity of Implementation for Each Component of the Expository Reading and Writing Course.

Dual enrollment in high school is viewed by many as one mechanism for widening college admission and completion of low-income students. However, little evidence demonstrates that these students discretely benefit from dual enrollment and whether these programs narrow attainment gaps vis-a-vis students from middle-class or affluent family backgrounds. Using the National Longitudinal Study of 1988 ("N"= 8,800), I find significant benefits in boosting rates of college degree attainment for low-income students while holding weaker effects for peers from more affluent backgrounds. These results remain even with analyses from newer data of college freshman of 2004. I conduct sensitivity analyses and find that these results are robust to relatively large unobserved confounders. However, expanding dual enrollment programs would modestly reduce gaps in degree attainment. (Contains 1 note and 4 tables.)

This ex post facto study evaluated Achieving a College Education (ACE) Plus program, a credit-based transition program between a high school district and a community college. Achieving a College Education Plus is an early outreach program. It is designed to aid at-risk students in graduating from high school and making a smooth transition to higher education, while taking college courses and earning college credit. The authors examined the efficacy of Achieving a College Education Plus with respect to retention rates, graduation rates, and rate of transfer to colleges. Sixty high school students who had participated in Achieving a College Education Plus were matched to a sample of 60 non-Achieving a College Education Plus students. Archival records, postgraduate survey, and school district transcript information comprised three sources of data for this study. Using a series of logistic regression analyses to assess data and provide adequate controls for prior academic achievement, the authors determined that there were no differences in the findings with respect to gender, ethnicity, and language spoken in the home. However, statistically significant differences were found in favor of the Achieving a College Education Plus program with regard to student retention, graduation, and college enrollment. With an increasing emphasis on college readiness and student retention, this study is timely and contributes empirical data and findings to the community college literature. (Contains 4 tables.)

Aimed at low-income families in six of New York City's highest-poverty communities, Family Rewards ties cash rewards to a pre-specified set of activities and outcomes thought to be critical to families' short- and long-term success in the areas of children's education, family preventive health care, and parents' employment. The purpose of this project is to experimentally evaluate the effects of this three-year innovative holistic conditional cash transfer (CCT) initiative. This paper presents initial findings from an ongoing and comprehensive evaluation of Family Rewards. It examines the program's implementation in the field and families' responses to it during the first two of its three years of operations, and early findings on the program's impacts on children's educational processes and outcomes. More specifically, this paper addresses the following questions: (1) What are the effects of ONYC-Family Rewards on family income, poverty, and financial hardship?; (2) What are the effects of ONYC-Family Rewards on use of health care and health insurance?; (3) What are the effects of ONYC-Family Rewards on parents' employment and educational attainment?; and (4) What are the effects of ONYC-Family Rewards on children's educational outcomes? Overall, this study shows that, despite an extraordinarily rapid start-up, the program was operating largely as intended by its second year. Although many families struggled with the complexity of the program, most were substantially engaged with it and received a large amount of money for meeting the conditions it established. Specifically, nearly all families (98 percent) earned at least some rewards in both program years, with payments averaging more than $6,000 during the first two program years combined. The program reduced current poverty and hardship; increased savings; increased families' continuous use of health insurance coverage and increased their receipt of medical care; and increased employment in jobs that are not covered by the unemployment insurance (UI) system but reduced employment in UI-covered jobs. The program has had mixed success in improving children's academic performance specifically. Contrary to expectations, Family Rewards did not affect school attendance or annual standardized test scores in Math and English Language Arts (ELA) for either group of youngest children, but did lead to notable gains for a group of more academically prepared high school students. The program also had important effects on several key proposed mediators of the intervention. However, these effects vary by parents with different age groups of children. Appended are: (1) References; and (2) Tables and Figures. (Contains 2 tables.)

The District of Columbia School Choice Incentive Act of 2003, passed by Congress in January 2004, established the first federally funded, private school voucher program in the United States. Since that time, more than 8,400 students have applied for what is now called the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP), and a rigorous evaluation of the Program, mandated by Congress, has been underway. This last formal report from the ongoing evaluation describes the impacts of the Program at least four years after families who applied and were given the option to move from a public school to a participating private school of their choice. The research priorities for the evaluation were shaped largely by the primary topics of interest specified in the statute. This legislative mandate led the evaluators to focus on the following research questions: (1) What is the impact of the Program on student academic achievement? (2) What is the impact of the Program on other student measures? (3) What effect does the Program have on school safety and satisfaction? (4) What is the effect of attending private versus public schools? (5) To what extent is the Program influencing public schools and expanding choice options for parents in Washington, DC? These research questions are consistent with the topics that scholars and policymakers have identified as important questions of interest surrounding private school scholarship programs. The report found that that the Program had mixed longer-term effects on participating students and their parents, including: (1) No conclusive evidence that the OSP affected student achievement overall, or for the high-priority group of students who applied from "schools in need of improvement"; (2) The Program significantly improved students' chances of graduating from high school, according to parent reports. Overall, 82 percent of students offered scholarships received a high school diploma, compared to 70 percent of those who applied but were not offered scholarships. This graduation rate improvement also held for the subgroup of OSP students who came from "schools in need of improvement."; and (3) Although parents had higher satisfaction and rated schools as safer if their child was offered or used an OSP scholarship, students reported similar ratings for satisfaction and safety regardless of whether they were offered or used a scholarship. Appendices include: (1) Research Methodology; (2) Benjamini-Hochberg Adjustments for Multiple Comparisons; (3) Sensitivity Testing; (4) Relationship Between Attending a Private School and Key Outcomes; (5) Detailed ITT Tables; (6) Exploration of Whether Parents Get What They Seek From School Choice; (7) To What Extent Are Treatment Effects of the OSP Observed Across the Outcome Test-Score Distribution? Quantile Regression Analysis of the OSP; and (8) Intermediate Outcome Measures. (Contains 99 tables, 31 figures, and 61 footnotes.)

Young people who drop out of high school face long odds of success in a labor market that increasingly values education and skills. This report presents interim results from a rigorous, ongoing evaluation of the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program, which aims to "reclaim the lives of at-risk youth" who have dropped out of high school. ChalleNGe is an intensive residential program that currently operates in more than half the states. More than 90,000 young people have completed the program since it was launched in the early 1990s. MDRC, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization, is conducting the evaluation in collaboration with the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Transitions to Adulthood. Several private foundations and the U.S. Department of Defense are funding the evaluation. The 17-month ChalleNGe program is divided into three phases: Pre-ChalleNGe, a demanding two- week orientation and assessment period; a 20-week Residential Phase built around eight core components designed to promote positive youth development; and a one-year Postresidential Phase featuring a structured mentoring program. During the first two phases, participants live at the program site, often on a military base. The environment is "quasi-military," though there are no requirements for military service. The evaluation uses a random assignment design. Because there were more qualified applicants than slots, a lottery-like process was used to decide which applicants were admitted to the program. The young people who were admitted (the program group) are being compared over time with those who were not admitted (the control group); any significant differences that emerge between the groups can be attributed to ChalleNGe. About 3,000 young people entered the study in 10 ChalleNGe programs in 2005-2006. Key findings from the survey include: (1) The program group was much more likely than the control group to have obtained a high school diploma or a General Educational Development certificate (GED) and to have earned college credits; (2) At the time of the survey, program group members were somewhat more likely to be engaged in productive activities; (3) Young people in the two groups were equally likely to have been arrested in the year prior to the survey, but the program group was less likely to have been convicted of a crime or to have engaged in certain delinquent acts; and (4) There were few differences between groups in measures of physical or mental health. These interim results are impressive, but longer-term follow-up will be critical to understanding the full story of the program's effects. Results from a 36-month survey should be available by late 2010. Appendices include: (1) Analysis of Survey Response Bias; (2) Supplementary Tables on Delinquency and Criminal Activity; (3) Supplementary Tables Analyses on Life-Coping, Leadership, and Group Skills; (4) Items and Factor Loadings for Civic Engagement Scales; and (5) Supplementary Subgroup Tables. Individual chapters contain footnotes. (Contains 40 tables, 1 figure, and 3 boxes.) [For the executive summary, see ED514661.]

In the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), Congress called for the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to conduct a rigorous study of the conditions and practices under which educational technology is effective in increasing student academic achievement. A 2007 report presenting study findings for the 2004-2005 school year, indicated that, after one school year, differences in student test scores were not statistically significant between classrooms that were randomly assigned to use software products and those that were randomly assigned not to use products. School and teacher characteristics generally were not related to whether products were effective. The second year of the study examined whether an additional year of teaching experience using the software products increased the estimated effects of software products on student test scores. The evidence for this hypothesis is mixed. For reading, there were no statistically significant differences between the effects that products had on standardized student test scores in the first year and the second year. For sixth grade math, product effects on student test scores were statistically significantly lower (more negative) in the second year than in the first year, and for algebra I, effects on student test scores were statistically significantly higher in the second year than in the first year. The study also tested whether using any of the 10 software products increased student test scores. One product had a positive and statistically significant effect. Nine did not have statistically significant effects on test scores. Five of the insignificant effects were negative and four were positive. Study findings should be interpreted in the context of design and objectives. The study examined a range of reading and math software products in a range of diverse school districts and schools. But it did not study many forms of educational technology and it did not include many types of software products. How much information the findings provide about the effectiveness of products that are not in the study is an open question. Products in the study also were implemented in a specific set of districts and schools, and other districts and schools may have different experiences with the products. The findings should be viewed as one element within a larger set of research studies that have explored the effectiveness of software products. Three appendixes are included: (1) Second-Year Data Collection and Response Rates; (2) Description of Sample for the 10 Products; and (3) Details of Estimation Methods. (Contains 29 footnotes, 4 figures and 24 tables.

The "District of Columbia School Choice Incentive Act of 2003," passed by the Congress in January 2004, established the first federally funded, private school voucher program in the United States. The purpose of the new scholarship program was to provide low-income residents, particularly those whose children attend schools in need of improvement or corrective action under the "Elementary and Secondary Education Act," with "expanded opportunities to attend higher performing schools in the District of Columbia" (Sec. 303). As part of this legislation, the Congress mandated a rigorous evaluation of the impacts of the Program, now called the "DC Opportunity Scholarship Program" (OSP). This report presents findings from the evaluation on the impacts three years after families who applied were given the option to move from a public school to a participating private school of their choice. The evaluation is based on a randomized controlled trial design that compares the outcomes of eligible applicants randomly assigned to receive (treatment group) or not receive (control group) a scholarship through a series of lotteries. The main findings of the evaluation so far include: (1) After 3 years, there was a statistically significant positive impact on reading test scores, but not math test scores; (2) The OSP had a positive impact overall on parents' reports of school satisfaction and safety, but not on students' reports; (3) This same pattern of findings holds when the analysis is conducted to determine the impact of using a scholarship rather than being offered a scholarship; (4) The OSP improved reading achievement for 5 of the 10 subgroups examined; and (5) No achievement impacts were observed for five other subgroups of students, including those who entered the Program with relative academic disadvantage. Six appendices are included: (1) Research Methodology; (2) Benjamini-Hochberg Adjustments for Multiple Comparisons; (3) Sensitivity Testing; (4) Detailed ITT Tables; (5) Relationship Between Attending a Private School and Key Outcomes; and (6) Intermediate Outcome Measures.. (Contains 115 footnotes, 15 figures and 129 tables.) [For Executive Summary, see ED504784. For "Evaluation of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program: Impacts after Two Years", see ED501696. For "Evaluation of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program: Impacts after One Year", see ED497154.]

This research investigates the relative effectiveness (in terms of student tested achievement) of Teach for America (TFA) teachers, and examines the validity of the criticisms of TFA. Specifically, the authors look at TFA teachers in secondary schools, and especially in math and science, where considerable program growth is planned over the next few years. Using individual level student data linked to teacher data in North Carolina, the authors estimate the effects of having a TFA teacher compared to a traditional teacher on student performance. The North Carolina data they employ are uniquely suited for this type of analysis because it includes end of course (EOC) testing for students across multiple subjects. This allows them to employ statistical methods that attempt to account for the nonrandom nature of student assignments to classes/teachers, which have been shown to lead to biased estimates of the impact of teacher credentials (Clotfelter, Ladd, and Vigdor, 2007a; Goldhaber, 2007). The findings show that TFA teachers are more effective, as measured by student exam performance, than traditional teachers. Moreover, the authors suggest that the TFA effect, at least in the grades and subjects investigated, exceeds the impact of additional years of experience, implying that TFA teachers are more effective than experienced secondary school teachers. The positive TFA results are robust across subject areas, but are particularly strong for math and science classes. An appendix is included. (Contains 1 figure, 12 tables, 1 exhibit and 14 footnotes.) [This report was supported by the Steven L. Merrill Family Foundation.]

Low-income students and students whose parents have not attended college typically are less likely than middle- and upper-income students to complete high school and attend college, and are thus less likely to reap the benefits of attending college. Lack of information, resources, and exposure to others who have navigated the college process may be substantial hurdles for these students. Federal financial aid is available through Pell Grants, college tuition tax credits, and student loan programs, but low-income students may not be taking full advantage of these sources. Even low-income students with high educational aspirations may find the financial aid and college application processes overwhelming and discouraging. The Talent Search program primarily provides information on the types of high school courses students should take to prepare for college and on the financial aid available to pay for college. The program also helps students access financial aid through applications for grants, loans, and scholarships, and orients students to different types of colleges and the college application process. After a two-year implementation study, the U.S. Department of Education's Policy and Program Studies Service selected Mathematica Policy Research Inc. (MPR) in 2000 to assess the effect of Talent Search in selected states. The study team opted to compile data from administrative records from many sources, including program, state, and federal records, to evaluate the effectiveness of federal education programs, partly as a test of whether such an evaluation was feasible. The study also yielded useful information about the effectiveness of the Talent Search program. It included an analysis of the effectiveness of the Talent Search program in Florida, Indiana, and Texas. The study team's analysis was based on administrative data compiled in these three states and a quasi-experimental design to create matched comparison groups. The findings presented in this report suggest that assisting low-income students who have college aspirations to overcome information barriers--an important objective of the Talent Search program--may be effective in helping these students achieve their aspirations. Practical information--direct guidance on how to complete applications for financial aid and admission to college and what a college campus looks and feels like--may have been one of the key services that Talent Search projects delivered. Appended are: (1) Chapter Tables; and (2) Compilation of Data Sources and Feasibility of Evaluations Based on Administrative Records. (Contains 38 tables and 15 figures.)

Low-income students and students whose parents have not attended college typically are less likely than middle- and upper-income students to complete high school and attend college, and are thus less likely to reap the benefits of attending college. Lack of information, resources, and exposure to others who have navigated the college process may be substantial hurdles for these students. Federal financial aid is available through Pell Grants, college tuition tax credits, and student loan programs, but low-income students may not be taking full advantage of these sources. Even low-income students with high educational aspirations may find the financial aid and college application processes overwhelming and discouraging. The Talent Search program primarily provides information on the types of high school courses students should take to prepare for college and on the financial aid available to pay for college. The program also helps students access financial aid through applications for grants, loans, and scholarships, and orients students to different types of colleges and the college application process. After a two-year implementation study, the U.S. Department of Education's Policy and Program Studies Service selected Mathematica Policy Research Inc. (MPR) in 2000 to assess the effect of Talent Search in selected states. The study team opted to compile data from administrative records from many sources, including program, state, and federal records, to evaluate the effectiveness of federal education programs, partly as a test of whether such an evaluation was feasible. The study also yielded useful information about the effectiveness of the Talent Search program. It included an analysis of the effectiveness of the Talent Search program in Florida, Indiana, and Texas. The study team's analysis was based on administrative data compiled in these three states and a quasi-experimental design to create matched comparison groups. The findings presented in this report suggest that assisting low-income students who have college aspirations to overcome information barriers--an important objective of the Talent Search program--may be effective in helping these students achieve their aspirations. Practical information--direct guidance on how to complete applications for financial aid and admission to college and what a college campus looks and feels like--may have been one of the key services that Talent Search projects delivered. Appended are: (1) Chapter Tables; and (2) Compilation of Data Sources and Feasibility of Evaluations Based on Administrative Records. (Contains 38 tables and 15 figures.)

An experimental research design was used to examine the effectiveness of a targeted, long-term intervention to promote school completion and reduce dropout among urban high school students with emotional or behavioral disabilities. African American (67%) males (82%) composed a large portion of the sample. This intervention study was a replication of an empirically supported model referred to as check & connect. Study participants included 144 ninth graders, randomly assigned to the treatment or control group. The majority of youth were followed for 4 years, with a subsample followed for 5 years. Program outcomes included lower rates of dropout and mobility, higher rates of persistent attendance and enrollment status in school, and more comprehensive transition plans.

A study involving random assignment of all youth eligible for Job Corps to either a Job Corps program or to a control group was conducted to assess the impact of Job Corps on key participant outcomes. Participants in the study were nationwide youth eligible for Job Corps who applied for enrollment for the first time between November 16, 1994, and December 17, 1995. The study sought to determine the following:(1) how effectively Job Corps improves the employability of disadvantaged participants, (2) whether Job Corps impacts differ for youths with different baseline characteristics, and (3) how effective the residential and nonresidential components of Job Corp are. Findings over the first 4 years after random assignment include the following: (1) Job Corps provided extensive education, training, and other services to the program group and improved their educational attainment; (2) Job Corps generated positive employment and earnings impacts by the beginning of the third year after random assignment and the impacts persisted through the fourth year; (3) employment and earnings gains were found broadly across most subgroups of students; (4) the resident and nonresidential programs were each effective for the youths they served; (5) Job Corps significantly reduced youths' involvement with the criminal justice system; (6) Job Corps had small beneficial impacts on the receipt of public assistance and self-assessed health status, but no impacts on illegal drug use; and (7) Job Corps had no impacts on fertility or custodial responsibility, but it slightly promoted independent living and mobility. (The report include numerous tables and charts, 31 references, and five appendixes concerning the study methodology.) (KC)

Within the field of community services it is widely accepted that reflection is an important factor in personal and sociomoral development. The purpose of this research was to determine if a particular form of reflection-decision making with an emphasis on the ethical nature of community-has special value in achieving service-learning goals. (BF)

Explores the use of analogies while teaching important concepts in secondary content classrooms containing students of diverse abilities. Measures included students' knowledge of concepts, the numbers and types of analogies teachers used, and teacher and student satisfaction. Results reveal that teacher use of the routine led to increased student retention and expression of information. (Contains 49 references and 2 tables.) (Author/GCP)

This report focuses on young mothers who had children as teenagers, who had dropped out of high school, and who were receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children. It was a voluntary demonstration project that provided comprehensive education, training, and other services intended to increase the long-term self-sufficiency and well-being of these mothers and their children. The evaluation of New Chance is one of the few large-scale, rigorous evaluations of programs designed to change the outcomes for this population. This is the last in a series of reports from the study. A variety of community-based organizations implemented the program well in 16 diverse sites, although participation by the enrollees was uneven. At the 18-month follow-up point, the program had created a substantial increase in educational attainment, with acquisition of a General Educational Development certificate by many participants, greater use of good quality child care, and improvement in parenting skills, balanced against high rates of repeat pregnancy, inconsistent program attendance, and the fact that more than 80% of the participants were still on welfare. A monograph based on 50 interviews with participants explored some of the circumstances behind these findings. This report extends the study to 42 months of follow-up. The 2,079 young mothers who were studied in the follow-up are now 22.4 years of age on average. For many measures, outcomes have improved for these young women since they enrolled in New Chance, but the sobering news is that the absolute levels of progress leave these families far from self-sufficiency. For most outcomes, New Chance did not improve progress over and above that shown by an equivalent group of young women who did not attend New Chance. Although the New Chance experience provides few definitive answers about what should be done, it does raise critical questions about the direction and consequences of public policy, and it does indicate the need for public policies that move beyond the scope of the welfare system to enhance young mothers' efforts to become self-sufficient. (Contains eight tables.) (SLD)

This study investigated the effectiveness of using a computer program over six weeks to teach high school students to use Latin and Greek root words for deciphering English terms in order to increase their scores on the verbal portion of the Scholastic Aptitude Test. Results indicated that knowledge of Latin and Greek root words improved students' English skills. (SM)

The JOBSTART demonstration program provided education and vocational training, support services, and job placement assistance to educationally disadvantaged dropouts aged 17-21 at 13 sites. An evaluation assessed whether helping disadvantaged dropouts increase their educational attainment led to increased earnings. A total of 2,312 people were randomly assigned to an experimental group that received JOBSTART services and a control group that did not. Data from 1,941 youth for whom 48 months of follow-up data were available were analyzed. Findings indicated that JOBSTART led to a significant increase in the rate at which the youths passed the General Educational Development examination or completed high school. Youths in the experimental group earned less on average than those in the control group during the first year of follow-up. In the final 2 years, experimentals' earnings appeared to overtake those of controls for the full sample. Encouraging earnings impacts included those for young men who had been arrested between age 16 and program entry and for young men and women who had dropped out of school because they had educational difficulties. Earnings impacts were very large for one site: Center for Employment Training, San Jose, California. Overall, JOBSTART led to little change in youths' receipt of public assistance. From the perspectives of taxpayers and society as a whole, the investment in JOBSTART services was not repaid through increases in earnings or other quantified benefits by the end of the follow-up period. (Appendixes include descriptions of data sources, methodological issues of the JOBSTART impact analysis, description of the cost estimation, data tables, and 84 references.) (YLB)

This is the final report of an independent evaluation of the CompuPower program that was developed by Arizona State University's Center for Gender Equity in Science and Technology (ASU CGEST). CompuPower is a multifaceted program for high school students that is centered on a culturally responsive computing course that includes four key components: the CompuPower course curriculum, mentor teacher professional development, a multi-day CompuPower Residency Experience, and a series of parent workshops. The evaluation of the CompuPower program was funded with a development grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Investing in Innovation (i3) program and carried out by the American Institutes for Research (AIR) over the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years in nine mostly rural high schools. The evaluation employed a quasi-experimental matched comparison design to estimate the impact of CompuPower on one confirmatory student social emotional outcome--self-regulation--and two exploratory outcomes--critical thinking skills in everyday life and grade point average. The evaluation also assessed the implementation fidelity of the four key CompuPower program components. Across the four program components, only the mentor teacher professional development was implemented with fidelity. Most implementation challenges for the other three program components resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic, but there were other challenges as well. CompuPower students showed slightly higher scores on self-regulation, critical thinking skills in everyday life, and GPA measures than comparison group students, but the differences were not statistically significant.

Although Oregon has made recent gains in its overall high school graduation rate, 21?percent of public school students entering grade?9 in 2014 did not graduate within four years, by 2018. To improve graduation rates, Oregon voters approved Ballot Measure 98 in 2016 to fund dropout prevention and college and career readiness initiatives in high schools. Many districts used the funding to adopt an early indicator and intervention system (EIIS) to identify students who are not on track to graduate on time by monitoring related indicators, such as chronic absenteeism, disciplinary infractions, course progression, and academic performance, through a frequently updated data system. Districts can tailor the system by setting their own on-track thresholds for each indicator to identify students at risk of not graduating on time, assigning those students to interventions, and monitoring student response to the interventions. This study took advantage of the additional funding being offered to districts across the state to look at first-year effects on chronic absenteeism, disciplinary infractions, course progression, and academic performance by comparing the outcomes in 65 districts that adopted an EIIS to the outcomes in a set of similar districts that used the additional funding for other dropout prevention or college and career readiness initiatives. The study offers insight into the effectiveness of early efforts to scale up EIISs, a popular school-level intervention. EIIS adoption appears to have reduced the percentage of students who were chronically absent by 3.9?percentage points but does not appear to have had positive effects on the three other student outcomes during the first year: the percentage of students with disciplinary infractions, the percentage of grade?10 students who had acquired enough credits by the end of grade?9 to be considered on track for on-time graduation, or the percentage of grade?11 students meeting or exceeding proficiency standards on state math and English language arts tests. The findings offer the Oregon Department of Education information on the early effects of its efforts to promote EIIS across Oregon. The findings can also be used by other state and district education leaders to inform their considerations to scale up EIIS or other similar programs. [For the Study Snapshot, see ED614631. For the appendixes, see ED614632.]

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.

The Louisiana Scholarship Program (LSP) offers publicly funded vouchers to moderate- and low-income students in low-performing public schools to enroll in participating private schools. Established in 2008 as a pilot program in New Orleans, the LSP expanded statewide in 2012. Drawing upon the random lotteries that placed students in LSP schools, we estimate the causal impact of using an LSP voucher to enroll in a private school on student achievement on the state accountability assessments in math, English Language Arts, and science over a four-year period, as well as on the likelihood of enrolling in college. The results from our primary analytic sample indicate substantial negative achievement impacts, especially in math, that diminish after the first year but persist after four years. In contrast, when considering the likelihood of students entering college, we observe no statistically significant difference between scholarship users and their control counterparts.

In 2016, McREL and the University of Southern California (USC) were awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund (Award Number U411C150011) to develop a translation of the identity-based motivation (IBM) in vivo program "Pathways to Success" to a digital platform to deliver IBM to middle and high school students. The resulting digital "Pathways to Success" program consisted of 12 15-minute digital platform activities, planned to take place over the first six to eight weeks in the Fall semester of 2017 in 10 schools from five districts in Colorado. While the former McREL research director and the original external evaluator led the field operation and the randomization process, in 2018, there was a change in the Principal Investigator at McREL, and an evaluator from USC was contacted to conduct the independent evaluation. Project data, including student and teacher responses and administrative data from schools in years 2016-2017, 2017-2018, and 2018-2019 were provided by McREL to the USC evaluator. The report documented the implementation fidelity and examined the impact of digital "Pathways to Success" on students' overall, English language, and Math achievement, and "non-cognitive" variables in the IBM theory.

Technology-facilitated interventions following high school graduation have shown promise for increasing the likelihood of college matriculation, but we know little about how to fine-tune these tools. I conducted an experiment in which college-intending Tennessee high school graduates received informational messages in distinct behavioral frames: business-as-usual, in which they received the same messages as the prior cohort; loss aversion, which emphasized what students would lose if they did not act; reduction of ambiguity, which provided details on necessary actions and anticipated completion times; and peer support, which encouraged students to work with friends on enrollment tasks. There was no main effect of the treatment frames. Heterogeneity analyses suggest that, at certain eligibility checkpoints, a loss aversion frame may negatively affect men and the peer support frame may negatively affect first-generation and Black participants. I situate the findings in the literature and recommend future directions for research on informational intervention delivery.

Informational and behavioral barriers hinder social benefit take-up. We investigate the impact of mitigating these barriers through providing personalized information on benefits application status and application assistance on filing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), the gateway to college financial aid. Through a multidistrict experiment, we assess the impact of this outreach, delivered via text message. This data-driven strategy improves FAFSA completion and college matriculation and potentially reduces the negative consequences of additional procedural hurdles such as FAFSA income verification, required of approximately one third of filers nationally.

I conduct a statewide experiment in Michigan with nearly 50,000 high-achieving high school seniors. Treated students are mailed a letter encouraging them to consider college and providing them with the web address of a college information website. I find that very high-achieving, low-income students, and very high-achieving, minority students are the most likely to navigate to the website. Small changes to letter content affect take-up. For example, highlighting college affordability induces 18 percent more students to the website than highlighting college choice, and 37 percent more than highlighting how to apply to college. I find a statistically precise zero impact on college enrollment among all students who were mailed the letter. However, low-income students experience a small increase in the probability that they enroll in college, driven by increases at four-year institutions. An examination of persistence through college, while imprecise, suggests that the students induced into college by the intervention persist at a lower rate than the inframarginal student.

Dual-credit courses expose high school students to college-level content and provide the opportunity to earn college credits, in part to smooth the transition to college. With the Tennessee Department of Education, we conduct the first randomized controlled trial of the effects of dual-credit math coursework on a range of high school and college outcomes. We find that the dual-credit advanced algebra course alters students' subsequent high school math course-taking, reducing enrollment in remedial math and boosting enrollment in precalculus and Advanced Placement math courses. We fail to detect an effect of the dual-credit math course on overall rates of college enrollment. However, the course induces some students to choose four-year universities instead of two-year colleges, particularly for those in the middle of the math achievement distribution and those first exposed to the opportunity to take the course in eleventh rather than twelfth grade. We see limited evidence of improvements in early math performance during college.

Dual-credit courses expose high school students to college-level content and provide the opportunity to earn college credits, in part to smooth the transition to college. With the Tennessee Department of Education, we conduct the first randomized controlled trial of the effects of dual-credit math coursework on a range of high school and college outcomes. We find that the dual-credit advanced algebra course alters students' subsequent high school math course-taking, reducing enrollment in remedial math and boosting enrollment in precalculus and Advanced Placement math courses. We fail to detect an effect of the dual-credit math course on overall rates of college enrollment. However, the course induces some students to choose four-year universities instead of two-year colleges, particularly for those in the middle of the math achievement distribution and those first exposed to the opportunity to take the course in eleventh rather than twelfth grade. We see limited evidence of improvements in early math performance during college.

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

Purpose: In January 2015, the Northwest Board of Cooperative Educational Services (NW BOCES) received a five-year Investing in Innovation (i3) grant to develop and implement the System for Educator Effectiveness Development (SEED) program--an innovative professional development (PD) system designed to provide geographically isolated educators an impactful tool to improve teacher effectiveness. The purpose of this report is to document the implementation and impact evaluation of the grant on educator and student outcomes. Methods: Twenty-one schools in rural areas, where obtaining PD can be a challenge, participated in SEED between 2015 and 2020. One school closed during the study period but the majority of its students transferred to other participating schools. Because SEED was a school-level intervention, the target population consisted of all principals, assistant principals, teachers, and students in the participating sites. Correlational designs were implemented to examine the relationships between teacher-level and school-level SEED participation and the outcomes of interest, such as (1) principal engagement in teacher professional growth, (2) teacher access to and use of evidence-based and up-to-date practices, (3) teacher implementation of practice learned from PD in the classroom. A quasi-experimental design (QED) using propensity score matching (PSM) method was employed to examine difference in student achievement outcomes between the SEED schools and the matched non-SEED schools. Results: Correlational findings suggest that teachers who participated in SEED reported better outcomes compared to teachers who did not participate in SEED. Schools with high level of SEED participation had better outcomes compared to schools with low level of SEED participation. Findings of QED PSM design revealed that SEED had a statistically significant positive effect on one outcome measure (minority students' English language acquisition, or ELA) and marginally significant positive effects on four outcome measures (all related to English language acquisition and math outcomes among racial/ethnic minority and free and reduced-lunch, or FRL, students). Implications: Evaluation findings provided some positive and promising pieces of evidence to support SEED efficacy. Implementation findings suggest that the program was largely implemented with fidelity; yet, there are opportunities for improvement. Future research may consider replicating the program design and identify strategies to increase teacher participation at school level. Additional Materials: The following are appended: (1) SEED Evaluation: Technical Report; (2) Assessment of Fidelity of Implementation; and (3) Baseline Equivalence and Impact Analysis Outputs and Results.

This study reports findings from a multisite cluster randomized controlled trial designed to validate and scale up an existing successful professional development program that uses a cognitive strategies approach to text-based analytical writing. The Pathway to Academic Success Project worked with partner districts affiliated with 4 National Writing Project (NWP) sites in southern California. Informed by a wide body of research on the efficacy of strategy instruction to enhance students' academic literacy, the intervention aimed to help secondary school students, particularly Latinos and mainstreamed English learners, to develop the academic writing skills called for in the rigorous Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts. Two hundred thirty teachers from partner districts affiliated with the NWP sites were stratified by school and grade and then randomly assigned to the treatment or control group. Treatment teachers participated in 46 hrs of training and learned how to apply cognitive strategies by using an on-demand writing assessment to help students understand, interpret, and write analytical essays about nonfiction texts. Multilevel models revealed significant effects on a holistic measure of an on-demand writing assessment (d = 0.32) as well as on 4 analytic attributes: content (d = 0.31), structure (d = 0.29), fluency (d = 0.27), and conventions (d = 0.32). Four dimensions of scaling up--spread, reform ownership, depth, and sustainability--are also discussed.

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?"

Group contingencies have been indicated to be effective in reducing disruptive behavior and increasing academic engagement in school settings. Previous research has demonstrated their efficacy with a wide range of student ages, but there have been few studies with older students who engage in severe disruptive behavior. In the current study, we implemented an interdependent group contingency in three high school classrooms of students aged 14-19 years with histories of delinquency, emotional and behavioral disorder diagnoses, or both. Results indicated that interdependent group contingencies can be effective in reducing the disruptive classroom behavior of these students. Implications for future research and special considerations for this population are discussed.

The three-tiered Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) framework promotes the development of systems and data analysis to guide the selection and implementation of evidence based practices across multiple tiers. The current study examined the effects of universal (tier 1) or school-wide PBIS (SW-PBIS) in one state's scale-up of this tier of the framework. Annual propensity score weights were generated to examine the longitudinal effects of SW-PBIS from 2006–07 through 2011–12. School-level archival and administrative data outcomes were examined using panel models with an autoregressive structure. The sample included 1316 elementary, middle, and high schools. Elementary schools trained in SW-PBIS demonstrated statistically significantly lower suspensions during the fourth and fifth study years (i.e., small effect size) and higher reading and math proficiency rates during the first two study years as well as in one and two later years (i.e., small to large effect sizes), respectively. Secondary schools implementing SW-PBIS had statistically significantly lower suspensions and truancy rates during the second study year and higher reading and math proficiency rates during the second and third study years. These findings demonstrate medium effect sizes for all outcomes except suspensions. Given the widespread use of SW-PBIS across nearly 26,000 schools in the U.S., this study has important implications for educational practices and policies.

The Parent Leadership Institute (PLI) of Children's Aid (CA), funded via a 2013 Investing in Innovation (i3) development grant operated between the 2014-15 through 2018-19 school years. Key goals of the PLI included: (1) improving the capacity of parents to effectively engage in the school community in support of their child; and (2) increasing the capacity of school staff to create and support environments which are welcoming to and supportive of the active engagement of parents as key members of the school community. Through implementation of the PLI, CA expanded its partnership with six schools located in the South Bronx community of Morrisania, an area characterized by high levels of poverty, health disparities, and crime, and low levels of academic achievement and attainment among both children and adults. This report serves as the final report on this phase of the PLI and includes an exploration of implementation during year 4 (2016-17 school year) and analyses of quantitative data on student academic performance. [This report was prepared for Children's Aid New York.]

The study examined the effect of National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) in instructional leadership roles, operationalized as mentors to novice teachers, on (a) classroom practices of mentored novice teachers in Grades K-12 and (b) student achievement of mentored teachers' students in Grades 4-8. The study compared outcomes between NBCT mentors and non-NBCT mentors. The study examined the effect of NBCT mentors after one academic year and was conducted in San Francisco Unified School District. Using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System, we examined novice teachers' classroom practices on the domains of Emotional Support, Classroom Organization, Instructional Support, and across all three domains. The results did not reach statistical significance, but the effect sizes for Emotional Support, Classroom Organization, and a global measure across all domains suggest meaningful differences between classroom practices of novice teachers mentored by NBCTs and non-NBCTs. These effect sizes were 0.28, 0.28, and 0.21 standard deviations, respectively. The effect size for the domain of Instructional Support was near zero at -0.06 standard deviations. Our sample size for the analysis of classroom practices did not have sufficient power to estimate differences at a statistically significant level. We examined student achievement using the state's standardized test scores in mathematics and English language arts. Our achievement measure includes either subject: That is, we did not estimate effects separately for mathematics and English language arts. The results suggest that students taught by teachers mentored by NBCTs had a higher level of achievement than students mentored by non-NBCTs. The difference was statistically significant at a p value of 0.05, and the effect size was meaningful at 0.18 standard deviations. Small sample sizes and low statistical power prevent us from making confident conclusions about the effect of NBCTs in instructional leadership roles on classroom practices of supported teachers and student achievement. However, the evidence is encouraging and warrants additional rigorous research on the impact of NBCTs as instructional leaders.

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.]

The College Board sought to reduce barriers in the college application process by minimizing information aggregation costs, encouraging a broad application portfolio, and providing an impetus to start the search process. Some students were offered additional encouragements, such as text message reminders or college application fee waivers. In a randomized control trial with 785,000 low- and middle-income students in the top 50% of the PSAT and SAT distributions, we find no changes in college enrollment patterns, with the exception of a 0.02[sigma] increase in college quality measures for African-American and Hispanic students

As the New York City economy becomes increasingly reliant on workers who have some postsecondary education or training in a specialized field, there is a growing need for local policymakers and educators to identify the most efficient ways to prepare high school students to take on these "middle-skill jobs." These needs are particularly acute in the transportation and manufacturing industries. To address these needs, the New York City Department of Small Business Services (SBS) and Department of Education (DOE) created Scholars at Work (SAW), a program available to an eligible subset of New York City high school students enrolled in Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs. The goal of the SAW program is to expose students to career opportunities, to provide them with real-life work experience alongside adults, and to develop their workplace skills. This report presents findings from the RAND Corporation's evaluation of the SAW program. The evaluation has two components: an implementation study that examines and describes SAW's activities and processes, to understand the extent to which those are functioning as the designers and implementers of the program expect, and an outcomes study, which analyzes how SAW participants are faring in the labor market compared to comparable NYC public school graduates. [This report was supported by the New York City's Mayor's Office for Economic Opportunity.]

As the New York City economy becomes increasingly reliant on workers who have some postsecondary education or training in a specialized field, there is a growing need for local policymakers and educators to identify the most efficient ways to prepare high school students to take on these "middle-skill jobs." These needs are particularly acute in the transportation and manufacturing industries. To address these needs, the New York City Department of Small Business Services (SBS) and Department of Education (DOE) created Scholars at Work (SAW), a program available to an eligible subset of New York City high school students enrolled in Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs. The goal of the SAW program is to expose students to career opportunities, to provide them with real-life work experience alongside adults, and to develop their workplace skills. This report presents findings from the RAND Corporation's evaluation of the SAW program. The evaluation has two components: an implementation study that examines and describes SAW's activities and processes, to understand the extent to which those are functioning as the designers and implementers of the program expect, and an outcomes study, which analyzes how SAW participants are faring in the labor market compared to comparable NYC public school graduates. [This report was supported by the New York City's Mayor's Office for Economic Opportunity.]

Low-income students, even those with strong academic credentials, are unlikely to attend a highly selective college. With a field experiment, we test an intervention to increase enrollment of low-income students at the highly selective University of Michigan. We contact students (as well as their parents and principals) with an encouragement to apply and a promise of four years of free tuition and fees upon admission. Materials emphasize that this offer is not contingent on completing aid applications (e.g., the FAFSA or PROFILE). Treated students were more than twice as likely to apply to (67 percent vs. 26 percent) and enroll at (27 percent vs. 12 percent) the University of Michigan. There was no diversion from schools as (or more) selective as UM. The enrollment effect of 15 percentage points (pp) comprises students who would otherwise attend a less selective, four-year college (7 pp), a community college (4 pp), or no college (4 pp). Effects persist through two years of follow-up. The intervention closed by half the income gaps in college choice among Michigan's high-achieving students. We conclude that an encouragement to apply, paired with a promise of aid, when communicated to students and influential adults, can substantially close income gaps in college choices.

This report is an evaluation of the i3 development grant Think College Transition (TCT), an inclusive dual enrollment transition model to improve achievement and post-school outcomes for students with intellectual disabilities or autism (ID/A). The model offers an innovative approach to transition services for students with intellectual disabilities and autism by providing participation in inclusive academic and social environments of a college campus with same-aged peers rather than continuing to receive transition services in typical high school environments. This evaluation examined the impact of TCT services on the job-seeking skills, career readiness, self-determination, college self-efficacy, and employment of ID/A youth. A quasi-experimental design was used to compare baseline and end-of-the year data on outcome variables from students with ID/A participating in the TCT model at three institutes of higher education in Massachusetts with students with ID/A participating in business-as-usual transition services through their school districts. The fidelity with which the TCT model was implemented at the intervention sites was also evaluated. Results from the evaluation found that, after controlling for student baseline scores, the TCT model had a significant effect on students' scores of self-determination after one year of participation. This is one of the first quantitative studies to examine college-based transition programs using a rigorous research design. Future research will need to be conducted to learn what TCT model components specifically affect self-determination and what other long-term effects participation in the TCT model might have. [Additional financial support for this research was provided by the Peter and Elizabeth C. Tower Foundation.]

"12 for Life" is an Investing in Innovation (i3) development grant funded by the Office of Innovation and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education. "12 for Life" provides a rigorous STEM curriculum, combined with on-the-job-training, work/life skills development, mentoring, and employment opportunities to high school students who are at high risk of dropping out of school. The impact evaluation used a quasi-experimental design (QED) to examine the effect of "12 for Life" on grade point average (GPA), number of suspensions, and incidence of dropping out of school. "12 for Life" students who enrolled in the program during the 2014-15 school year were followed for three years. Outcomes for "12 for Life" students were compared to a matched sample of students with similar risk factors for dropping out of school who started 10th grade in fall 2014 and who participate in business-as-usual, traditional academic instruction in the high school environment. Comparison students were followed for three years. Results showed no statistically significant impact on grade point average (GPA) at the end of 12th grade, number of suspensions, or incidence of dropping out of school.

The National Math + Science Initiative's (NMSI's) College Readiness Program (CRP) is an established program whose goal is to promote science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education in high schools to improve students' readiness for college. The program provides teacher, student, and school supports to promote high school students' success in mathematics, science, and English Advanced Placement (AP) courses, with a focus on students who are traditionally underrepresented in the targeted AP courses. Through a scale-up grant awarded to NMSI by the Investing in Innovation (i3) program, the CRP was implemented in 28 schools in the 2016-2017 school year. CRESST conducted an independent evaluation of the impact of the CRP on students' AP outcomes using a randomized cluster trial with 28 CRP schools and 24 control schools in 10 states. The evaluation of the CRP consisted of two parts: (1) assessment of the program's impact on selected student AP exam outcomes and (2) assessment of the fidelity of implementation of the CRP. Program impact was evaluated using a 2-level hierarchical generalized linear model (HGLM) with students nested within schools The descriptive statistics showed that a higher percetange of students in the treatment schools took at least one AP course (30.7%) compared to those in the control schools (26.4%) by approximately 4.3%, however the difference was not statistically significant. In addition, students in the treatment schools were not more likely to achieve a score of 3 or higher, when compared to the delayed treatment schools. We further examined the effectiveness of the CRP using the prior year's school-level performance on the AP exam as a covariate. As with the above findings, the results indicated the probability of a student taking at least one AP course or scoring 3 or higher on at least one AP exam is not statistically different between students in the treatment schools and those in the control treatment schools. Fidelity of implementation was evaluated using a fidelity matrix approach (required as part of the evaluation of the i3 program), which showed that not all elements of the program were implemented with high fidelity. Overall results, however, indicated that 23 schools out of 28 treatment schools (82.1%) achieved 80% or better implementation fidelity, for an average fidelity score of 89.5%. Seven schools achieved a perfect 100% fidelity score. Looking at the different indicator groups (school, teacher and student), we found that all school support measures across all schools were implemented with fidelity. In over 80% of schools, not all teachers fulfilled their requirements for attending all training sessions, and so this component was not implemented with fidelity. Stipends and teacher awards were paid as expected as were student award payments. Teacher survey data indicated that teachers found the training and professional development activities provided by the CRP to be the most beneficial program supports relating to helping increase student achievement in AP courses. Teacher incentives were chosen as the least important program component relating to increasing student performance by 16% of teachers and student incentives by 12% of teachers. Teachers did, however, view the student incentives as an important program component to encourage enrollment in AP courses. Likewise, students rated the financial incentives on average as somewhat important in encouraging them to participate in AP courses.

As originally conceptualized, Early Colleges were small schools focused purposefully on college readiness for all students. Frequently located on college campuses, Early Colleges targeted students who might face challenges in postsecondary education, including students who were the first in their family to go to college, economically disadvantaged students, English Language Learners (ELL), or students who are members of racial or ethnic groups underrepresented in college. The Early College Expansion Partnership (ECEP) is among the first large-scale effort to apply Early College strategies into comprehensive high schools. Supported by a $15 million grant from U.S. Department of Education's Investing in Innovation (i3) program, the ECEP was designed to increase the number of students graduating from high school prepared for enrollment and success in postsecondary education. The project sought to blend high school and college by applying strategies from the successful Early College high school model to 14 middle schools, 12 high schools, and two 6th-12th-grade schools in three districts in two states: Colorado and Texas. ECEP implemented an adapted version of the Early College High School Model. The program provided a set of services that supported implementation of a whole-school reform model emphasizing the creation of a college-preparatory school environment. A primary emphasis of the program was increasing the number of students who participated in college-credit-bearing courses while in high school. This report describes the approach used to assess student impacts and to track changes over time; uses survey and site visit data to describe key changes that have been made at the district and school levels; presents the impact estimates for the core student-level outcomes; places the findings in context and discusses the broader implications of this work; and summarizes the overall findings. [For the companion report, "Implementation Supports of the Early College Expansion Partnership," see ED618696.]

The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of evaluation findings at the culmination of the Collaborative Regional Education (CORE) i3 2013 grant, including implementation and impact results from the local and national study phases. The goal of CORE is to have a positive impact on students' college and work readiness outcomes by improving teachers' use of classroom technology and project-based learning (PBL). This report provides details on data collection procedures and results obtained during school year (SY) 2017-18, which represents the second year of the national-phase study and final year of the evaluation. Impact and implementation study findings from all grant years are presented separately in the report.

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

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.

The purpose of the present study was to extend previous research by evaluating the effect of the interdependent group contingency procedure known as the Good Behavior Game (GBG) on decreasing disruptive behaviors with general-education high school students. Although many studies exist that have used the GBG to alter behaviors across ages ranging from preschool to adulthood, few studies exist in which the GBG has been used in general-education high school classrooms. The present study used separate ABAB withdrawal designs in three classrooms, with withdrawal and reimplementation in two of the classrooms. All three classrooms demonstrated large effect sizes with clear and substantial decreases in disruptive behaviors during the intervention phases. Teachers found the intervention acceptable, supporting the use of a modified version of the GBG in high school classrooms. Students found it generally acceptable as well, though with some reservations regarding certain aspects of the procedure.

The Reading Apprenticeship instructional framework was developed by WestEd's Strategic Literacy Initiative (SLI) two decades ago to help teachers provide the literacy support students need to be successful readers in the content areas. It has since reached over 100,000 teachers in schools across the country, at the middle school, high school, and college levels. The Reading Apprenticeship framework focuses on four interacting dimensions of classroom learning culture: Social, Personal, Cognitive, and Knowledge-Building. These four dimensions are woven into subject-area teaching through metacognitive conversation--conversations about the thinking processes students and teachers engage in as they read. The context in which this all takes place is extensive reading--increased in-class opportunities for students to practice reading complex academic texts in more skillful ways. Teachers also work with students on explicit comprehension strategy instruction, vocabulary and academic language development techniques, text-based discussion, and writing. Reading Apprenticeship is designed to help teachers create classroom cultures in which students feel safe to share reading processes, problems, and solutions. In 2010, WestEd received a "Validation" grant from the Department of Education's Investing in Innovation Fund (i3) competition to scale-up and conduct a randomized controlled trial of the intervention through a project called Reading Apprenticeship Improving Secondary Success (RAISE). RAISE took place in California, Michigan, Utah, Pennsylvania, and Indiana and worked with nearly 2,000 teachers who served approximately 630,000 students during the grant period. This report presents findings from the randomized controlled trial conducted in two of those states: California and Pennsylvania. The report presents key implementation and impact findings from the i3 impact evaluation of the RAISE project. Most of the findings in this report are from the sample of students and data collected during teachers' second year in the study, after treatment teachers had received the full "dose" of professional development delivered over 12 months and could therefore be expected to fully implement Reading Apprenticeship. Data sources for this report include principal, teacher, and student surveys; professional development observations and attendance records; school district student records; and an assessment of students' literacy skills. Overall, the study's findings demonstrate the potential of RAISE to address the paucity of content-specific reading instruction in U.S. secondary schools--especially in science, where the need may be greatest. Appended are the following: (1) Impact Estimation Model; (2) Student Survey Constructs; (3) Teacher Survey Constructs; (4) Analytic Sample Baseline Equivalence; (5) Student Literacy Assessment; (6) Sample Attrition; (7) Additional Impact Analyses for Teacher Mediating Outcomes; (8) Additional Impact Analyses for Student Mediating Outcomes; (9) Additional Impact Analyses for Student Literacy; (10) Fidelity of Implementation Summary; and (11) Context for Program Implementation.

This study uses a randomized design to assess the impact of the Balanced Leadership program on principal leadership, instructional climate, principal efficacy, staff turnover, and student achievement in a sample of rural northern Michigan schools. Participating principals report feeling more efficacious, using more effective leadership practices, and having a better instructional climate than control group principals. However, teacher reports indicate that the instructional climate of the schools did not change. Furthermore, we find no impact of the program on student achievement. There was an impact of the program on staff turnover, with principals and teachers in treatment schools significantly more likely to remain in the same school over the 3 years of the study than staff in control schools.

Too many students drop out and never earn their high school diploma. For students at risk of dropping out, academic, social, and other supports may help. "Communities In Schools" seeks to organize and provide these supports to at-risk students in the nation's poorest-performing schools, including through "case-managed" services. This report, the first of two from a random assignment evaluation of "Communities In Schools" case management, focuses primarily on the implementation of case management in 28 secondary schools during the 2012-2013 school year. The report also includes interim one-year findings about case management's impact on student outcomes. The report concludes with suggestions for improvement for "Communities In Schools" based mainly on the implementation findings. The next report will present two-year impact findings and more about the implementation of case management in the 2013-2014 school year. Appended to the report are: (1) Statistical Model and Statistical Power; and (2) Sample and Response Analysis.

This article examines the effectiveness of a technology-based algebra curriculum in a wide variety of middle schools and high schools in seven states. Participating schools were matched into similar pairs and randomly assigned to either continue with the current algebra curriculum for 2 years or to adopt Cognitive Tutor Algebra I (CTAI), which uses a personalized, mastery-learning, blended-learning approach. Schools assigned to implement CTAI did so under conditions similar to schools that independently adopt it. Analysis of posttest outcomes on an algebra proficiency exam finds no effects in the first year of implementation, but finds evidence in support of positive effects in the second year. The estimated effect is statistically significant for high schools but not for middle schools; in both cases, the magnitude is sufficient to improve the median student's performance by approximately eight percentile points.

This addendum to previously published results presents alternative analyses of data from large-scale effectiveness studies of Cognitive Tutor Algebra I in middle schools and high schools. These alternative analyses produce results that are substantively the same as previously reported. We find a significant positive effect of 0.21 standard deviation units for high school students in the second year of the study. An appendix containing additional tables is included. [See the study: "Effectiveness of Cognitive Tutor Algebra I at Scale," "Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis," v36 n2 p127-144 Jun 2014 at EJ1024233.]

In this study, 72 secondary English teachers from the Santa Ana Unified School District were randomly assigned to participate in the Pathway Project, a cognitive strategies approach to teaching interpretive reading and analytical writing, or to a control condition involving typical district training focusing on teaching content from the textbook. Pathway teachers learned how to use an on-demand writing assessment to help mainstreamed English learners understand, interpret, and write analytical essays. In Year 2, treatment effects were replicated on an on-demand writing assessment (d = 0.67) and showed evidence of transfer to improved performance on a standardized writing test (d = 0.10). The results underscore the efficacy of a cognitive strategies reading/writing intervention for mainstreamed English learners (ELs) in the secondary grades. (Contains 1 note, 4 tables, and 3 figures.)

This study investigated the effects of functional communication training (FCT) implemented with concurrent schedules of differing magnitudes of reinforcement in lieu of extinction to reduce inappropriate behaviors and increase alternative mands. Participants were four adolescent students diagnosed with severe emotional and behavior disorders (SEBD), and mild to severe intellectual disabilities. Functional analyses revealed inappropriate behaviors as escape maintained. During subsequent FCT, the reinforcement provided for inappropriate behaviors was escape from task for 30 s (S[superscript R-]). The reinforcement for the alternative mand was a 30-s escape from task during which access to a preferred activity was provided (S[superscript R-]/PA). Results for three of the participants who had mild to moderate intellectual disabilities were highly successful. Time on task and generalization data also were recorded for two of the participants All sessions were implemented in the participants' natural classrooms by their classroom teachers, without the adverse side effects of extinction. (Contains 2 figures.)

Charter schools--public schools of choice that are operated autonomously, outside the direct control of local school districts--have become more prevalent over the past two decades. There is no consensus about whether, on average, charter schools are doing better or worse than conventional public schools at promoting the achievement of their students. Nonetheless, one research finding is clear: Effects vary widely among different charter schools. Many educators, policymakers, and funders are interested in ways to identify and replicate successful charter schools and help other public schools adopt effective charter school practices. Charter-school management organizations (CMOs), which establish and operate multiple charter schools, represent one prominent attempt to bring high performance to scale. The National Study of CMO Effectiveness aims to fill the gap in systematic evidence about CMOs, providing the first rigorous nationwide examination of CMOs' effects on students' achievement and attainment. The study includes an examination of the relationships between the practices of individual CMOs and their effects on student achievement, with the aim of providing useful guidance to the field. This updated edition of the report provides key findings from the study on CMO practices, impacts, and the relationships between them. A forthcoming report will explore promising practices in greater depth. This study uses multiple data sources to describe CMOs, assess their impacts on students, and identify practices associated with positive impacts in order to address the following research questions: (1) How quickly are CMOs growing? Which students and areas do they serve and what resources do they use? What are the practices and structures of CMOs? What state policies and other factors appear to influence the location and growth of CMOs?; (2) What are the impacts of CMOs on student outcomes and to what extent do these impacts vary across CMOs?; and (3) Which CMO practices and structures are positively associated with impacts? To examine eligible CMOs and address the research questions, the authors conducted a survey of CMO central office staff, surveys of CMO principals and principals in nearby conventional public schools, a survey of CMO teachers, and site visits to 10 CMOs and 20 schools. In addition, they collected and analyzed school records with data on student characteristics and outcomes (including test scores), and they examined CMO financial records and business plans. Findings include: (1) Comprehensive behavior policies are positively associated with student impacts; (2) Intensive teacher coaching is positively associated with student impacts; (3) CMOs using TFA and teaching fellow teachers have higher impacts, but other staffing decisions are not associated with impacts; (4) CMOs categorized as "data-driven" and "time on task" have larger impacts, on average, than two other categories of CMOs; and (5) Tightness of CMO management is weakly associated with impacts. As is often the case in studies of this kind, some of the interesting findings raise other important questions. The following questions are discussed in this report: (1) To what extent do CMOs produce positive effects on longer term student outcomes?; (2) What explains why some CMOs have negative impacts on test scores?; (3) Which promising strategies should CMOs implement and how should they implement them?; (5) To what extent do CMOs add value compared to independent charter schools?; (6) Are new CMOs using the same strategies and producing the same impacts as more established CMOs?; and (7) What other factors might contribute to CMO impacts? Appended are: (1) Construction and Analysis of Measures Used in Chapter III; (2) Experimental Impacts; (3) Validation of Impact Estimation Approach; (4) Methodology for Estimating CMO and School- Level Impacts on Achievement in Middle- Schools; (5) Baseline Equivalence; (6) Method for Dealing with Grade Repetition; (7) Methodology and Results for CMO Impacts on High School Achievement and Attainment; (8) Impacts on Middle School Test Scores by CMO, Year, and Subject; (9) Comparing CMO and Independent Charter Impacts; (10) Subgroup Impacts; (11) Multiple Comparison Adjustments for Impact Analyses; (12) Methods for Correlating Impacts and CMO Characteristics; and (13) Correlational Analysis Results. Individual chapters contain footnotes. (Contains 56 tables and 49 figures.) [This document was commissioned by NewSchools Venture Fund and written with assistance from Michael Barna, Emily Caffery, Hanley Chiang, John Deke, Melissa Dugger, Emma Ernst, Alena Davidoff-Gore, Eric Grau, Thomas Decker, Mason DeCamillis, Philip Gleason, Amanda Hakanson, Jane Nelson, Antoniya Owens, Julie Redline, Davin Reed, Chris Rodger, Margaret Sullivan, Christina Tuttle, Justin Vigeant, Tiffany Waits, and Clare Wolfendale. For an earlier edition of this report, "The National Study of Charter Management Organization (CMO) Effectiveness. Charter-School Management Organizations: Diverse Strategies and Diverse Student Impacts," see ED526951.]

Financial incentives for teachers to increase student performance is an increasingly popular education policy around the world. This paper describes a school-based randomized trial in over two-hundred New York City public schools designed to better understand the impact of teacher incentives on student achievement. I find no evidence that teacher incentives increase student performance, attendance, or graduation, nor do I find any evidence that the incentives change student or teacher behavior. If anything, teacher incentives may decrease student achievement, especially in larger schools. The paper concludes with a speculative discussion of theories that may explain these stark results.

In the 2007-2008 school year, the New York City Department of Education and the United Federation of Teachers jointly implemented the Schoolwide Performance Bonus Program in a random sample of the city's high-needs public schools. The program lasted for three school years, and its broad objective was to improve student performance through school-based financial incentives. The question, of course, was whether it was doing so. To examine its implementation and effects, the department tasked a RAND Corporation-led partnership with the National Center on Performance Incentives at Vanderbilt University to conduct a two-year study of the program that would offer an independent assessment. This report describes the results of our analyses for all three years of the program, from 2007-2008 through 2009-2010. This work built on past research and was guided by a theory of action articulated by program leaders. Researchers examined student test scores; teacher, school staff, and administrator surveys; and interviews with administrators, staff members, program sponsors, and union and district officials. The researchers found that the program did not, by itself, improve student achievement, perhaps in part because conditions needed to motivate staff were not achieved (e.g., understanding, buy-in for the bonus criteria) and because of the high level of accountability pressure all the schools already faced. Individual chapters contain footnotes. (Contains 12 figures and 66 tables.) [Additional funding for this paper was provided by the New York City Fund for Public Schools. For "What New York City's Experiment with Schoolwide Performance Bonuses Tells Us about Pay for Performance. Research Brief," see ED521918.]

This experimental study was conducted to examine the efficacy of repeated reading and wide reading practice interventions for high school students with severe reading disabilities. Effects on comprehension, fluency, and word reading were evaluated. Participants were 96 students with reading disabilities in grades 9-12. Students were paired within classes and pairs were randomly assigned to one of three groups: repeated reading (N = 33), wide reading (N = 34), or typical instruction (N = 29). Intervention was provided daily for approximately 15-20 minutes for 10 weeks. Results indicated no overall statistically significant differences for any condition, with effect sizes ranging from -0.31 to 0.27. Findings do not support either approach for severely impaired readers at the high school level. We hypothesize that these students require more intensive interventions that include direct and explicit instruction in word- and text-level skills as well as engaged reading practice with effective feedback.

Although writing learning journals is a powerful learning tool, instructional support is needed to overcome deficits in the use of self-regulated learning strategies. In a 2 x 2 experimental design with high-school students (N = 70), we analysed the effects of two modes of instruction (namely, informed prompting and learning-journal example) along with prompts. Informed prompting that provided background information on the prompted strategies enhanced learning in the training and transfer session. A learning-journal example that modelled the application of the strategies primarily fostered the strategy used in the training session and learning in the transfer session. Theoretically, the results provide support for the self-regulation view of writing-to-learn. (Contains 1 figure and 2 tables.)

This randomized, controlled field trial estimated the causal impact of a technology-based geometry curriculum on students' geometry achievement, as well as their attitudes toward mathematics and technology. The curriculum combines learner-centered classroom pedagogy with individualized, computer-based student instruction. Conducted over a 3-year period in eight high schools within an urban fringe district, the study found that students assigned to the treatment curriculum scored 19% of a standard deviation lower on the geometry posttest than their counterparts assigned to the district's standard curriculum, but found no statistically significant impact on students' attitudes toward mathematics and technology. Researchers also collected observation and interview data on teachers' instructional practices. These data suggest that many teachers had difficulty implementing the treatment curriculum's learner-centered pedagogy. In fact, observed levels of learner-centered practices were only modestly higher in treatment classes than in control classes. In both treatment and control classes, however, higher levels of learner-centered pedagogy were associated with higher student achievement in geometry. (Contains 4 figures, 10 footnotes, and 5 tables.)

Since 1995, the Buck Institute has partnered with university economists and expert teachers to create the Problem Based Economics curriculum. The curriculum was developed to respond to NCEE (National Council on Economic Education) standards, and it is supported by professional development for teachers. This study examines whether the Problem Based Economics curriculum developed by the Buck Institute for Education improves grade 12 students' content knowledge as measured by the Test of Economic Literacy, a test refined by NCEE over decades. Students' problem-solving skills in economics were also examined using a performance task assessment. In addition to the primary focus on student achievement outcomes, the study examined changes in teachers' content knowledge in economics and their pedagogical practices, as well as their satisfaction with the curriculum. From observations in intervention and control classrooms, it did not appear to the research team that having and using the problem-based learning curriculum automatically enforced a more hands-on, exploratory classroom learning style. Additional study in this area might help to refine the pedagogical strategies and allow for additional support and practice for teachers on implementing the curriculum effectively. Appendices include: (1) Study power estimates based on the final analytic samples; (2) Procedure for assigning new strata to the final analytic sample; (3) Scoring procedures for the performance task assessments; (4) Sample test/survey administration guide; (5) Teacher-level baseline equivalence tests; (6) Additional student-level baseline equivalence tests; (7) Estimation methods; (8) Summary statistics of teacher data from teacher surveys; (9) Sensitivity of impact estimates to alternative model specifications; and (10) Explanations for sample attrition. (Contains 7 figures, 35 tables, 2 boxes and 16 footnotes.)

High school dropouts face daunting odds of success in a labor market that increasingly rewards education and skills. This report presents very early results from a rigorous, independent evaluation of the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program, an intensive residential program that aims to "reclaim the lives" of young people ages 16 to 18 who have dropped out of school. ChalleNGe currently operates in more than half the states. About 75,000 young people have completed the program since the early 1990s. MDRC, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization, is conducting the evaluation, along with the MacArthur Foundation's Research Network on Transitions to Adulthood. The 17-month ChalleNGe program is divided into three phases: Pre-ChalleNGe, which is a two-week orientation and assessment period; a 20-week Residential Phase built around eight core components designed to promote positive youth development; and a one-year Postresidential Phase featuring a structured mentoring program. During the first two phases, participants in the program live at the program site, often on a military base. The environment is described as "quasi-military," though there are no requirements for military service. The evaluation uses a random assignment research design. Because there were more qualified applicants than slots, a lottery-like process was used to decide which applicants were admitted to the program. The young people who were admitted (the program group) are being compared over time with those who were not admitted (the control group); any significant differences that emerge between the groups can be attributed to ChalleNGe. About 3,000 young people entered the study in 10 ChalleNGe programs in 2005-2006. Early results find that the program group was much more likely than the control group to have obtained a high school diploma or a General Educational Development certificate (GED). The program group was more likely than the control group to be working and attending college; members of the control group were more likely to have returned to high school. The program group reported better health and higher levels of self-efficacy and were less likely to have been arrested. It is too early to draw any conclusions about the long-term effects of ChalleNGe. Nevertheless, the early results suggest that partway through their ChalleNGe experience, young people in the program group are better positioned to move forward in their transition to adulthood. Results from an 18-month survey will be available in late 2009. This report divides into four chapters. Following an Introduction, Chapter 2 describes the young people who are participating in the study and the ChalleNGe staff. Chapter 3, based largely on visits to the programs, describes how ChalleNGe operates in the participating sites. Sections focus on how participants are recruited and enrolled, the Pre-ChalleNGe Phase, the Residential Phase and the eight core components, and the Postresidential Phase and the mentoring program. Chapter 4 uses data from the ChalleNGe management information system to describe the extent to which program group members participated in ChalleNGe, and also draws from the nine-month survey to present some very early evidence about the program's effects on education, employment, and health outcomes. (Contains 13 tables and 4 figures.) [Additional funding for this report was provided by the MCJ Foundation. For the Executive Summary, see ED504644.]

Numerous high school students, including many who are enrolled in career and technical education (CTE) courses, do not have the math skills necessary for today's high-skill workplace or college entrance requirements. This study tests a model for enhancing mathematics instruction in five high school CTE programs (agriculture, auto technology, business and marketing, health, and information technology). The model includes a pedagogy and intense teacher professional development. Volunteer CTE teachers were randomly assigned to an experimental (n = 59) or control (n = 78) group. The experimental teachers worked with math teachers to develop CTE instructional activities that integrated more mathematics into the occupational curriculum. After 1 year of the math-enhanced CTE lessons, students in the experimental classrooms performed equally on technical skills and significantly better than control students on two standardized tests of math ability (TerraNova and ACCUPLACER[R]). (Contains 5 tables, 1 figure, and 9 notes.)

These two recipients of this year's Alan C. Purves Award reflect on their work (reported in "RTE" Vol. 41, No. 3, pp. 269-303) on "A Cognitive Strategies Approach to Reading and Writing Instruction for English Language Learners in Secondary School" and the lessons they learned from their original research study as they tried to replicate the project in two additional districts outside their service area, to determine if the implications of their study would hold beyond the local context. The Alan C. Purves Award is given to the "RTE" article in the previous volume year judged most likely to impact educational practice. (Contains 1 figure and 4 tables.)

Under the "Math Science Partnership Grant," the Maui Hawaii Educational Consortium sought scientifically based evidence for the effectiveness of Carnegie Learning's "Cognitive Tutor[R]" (CT) program as part of the adoption process for pre-Algebra program. During the 2006-2007 school year, the researchers conducted a follow-on study to a previous randomized experiment in the Maui School District of the effectiveness of "CT" in Algebra I. In this second year, the focus was on the newly developed "Bridge to Algebra" program for pre-Algebra. The question being addressed specifically by the research is whether students in classes that use "CT" materials achieve higher scores on the standardized math assessment, as measured by the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) General Math Test, than they would if they had been in a control classroom using the pre-Algebra curricula the Maui schools currently have in place. The researchers found that most students in both "CT" and control groups improved overall on the NWEA General Math Test. They did not find a difference in student performance in math between groups. Their analysis of the Algebraic Operations sub-strand revealed that many students in both groups did not demonstrate the growth in this scale, again with no discernible group differences. However, for Algebraic Operations outcomes, the researchers found a significant interaction between the pre-test and "CT": student scoring low before participating in "CT" got more benefit from the program's algebraic operations instruction than students with high initial scores. (Contains 8 figures, 33 tables, and 14 footnotes.) [For "Comparative Effectiveness of Carnegie Learning's "Cognitive Tutor Bridge to Algebra" Curriculum: A Report of a Randomized Experiment in the Maui School District. Research Summary," see ED538962.]

Because a significant portion of U.S. students lacks critical mathematic skills, schools across the country are investing heavily in computerized curriculums as a way to enhance education output, even though there is surprisingly little evidence that they actually improve student achievement. In this paper we present results from a randomized study in three urban school districts of a well-defined use of computers in schools: a popular instructional computer program which is designed to teach pre-algebra and algebra. We assess the impact of the program using statewide tests that cover a range of math skills and tests designed specifically to target pre-algebra and algebra skills. We find that students randomly assigned to computer-aided instruction score at least 0.17 of a standard deviation higher on a pre-algebra/algebra test than students randomly assigned to traditional instruction. We hypothesize that the effectiveness arises from increased individualized instruction as the effects appear larger for students in larger classes and those in classes in which students are frequently absent. (Detailed data information is appended. Contains 40 footnotes and 17 tables.)

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, nearly 4 in 10 fourth graders read below the basic level. These literacy problems get worse as students advance through school and are exposed to progressively more complex concepts and courses. The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of four remedial reading programs in improving the reading skills of 3rd and 5th graders, whether the impacts of the programs vary across students with difference baseline characteristics, and to what extent can this instruction close the reading gap and bring struggling readers within the normal range--relative to the instruction normally provided by their schools. The study took place in elementary schools in 27 districts of the Allegheny Intermediate Unit outside Pittsburgh, PA during the 2003-04 school year. Within each of 50 schools, 3rd and 5th grade students were identified as struggling readers by their teachers. These students were tested and were eligible for the study if they scored at or below the 30th percentile on a word-level reading test and at or above the 5th percentile on a vocabulary test. The final sample contains a total of 742 students. There are 335 3rd graders ? 208 treatment and 127 control students. There are 407 5th graders ? 228 treatment and 179 control students. Four existing programs were used: Spell Read P.A.T., Corrective Reading, Wilson Reading, and Failure Free Reading. Corrective Reading and Wilson Reading were modified to focus only on word-level skills. Spell Read P.A.T. and Failure Free Reading were intended to focus equally on word-level skills and reading comprehension/vocabulary. Teachers received 70 hours of professional development and support during the year. Instruction was delivered in small groups of 3 students, 5 days a week, for a total of 90 hours. Seven measures of reading skill were administered at the beginning and end of the school year to assess student progress: Word Attack, Word Identification Comprehension (Woodcock Reading Mastery Test); Phonemic Decoding Efficiency and Sight Word Efficiency (Test of Word Reading Efficiency); Oral Reading Fluency (Edformation); and Passage Comprehension (Group Reading Assessment and Diagnostic Evaluation). After one year of instruction, there were significant impacts on phonemic decoding, word reading accuracy and fluency, and comprehension for 3rd graders, but not for 5th graders. For third graders in the reading programs, the gap in word attach skills between struggling readers and average readers was reduced by about two-thirds. It was found that reading skills of 3rd graders can be significantly improved through instruction in word-level skills, but not the reading skills of 5th graders. The following are appended: (1) Details of Study Design and Implementation; (2) Data Collection; (3) Weighting Adjustment and Missing Data; (4) Details of Statistical Methods; (5) Intervention Impacts on Spelling and Calculation; (6) Instructional Group Clustering; (7) Parent Survey; (8) Teacher Survey and Behavioral Rating Forms; (9) Instructional Group Clustering; (10) Videotape Coding Guidelines for Each Reading Program; (11) Supporting Tables; (12) Sample Test Items; (13) Impact Estimate Standard Errors and P-Values; (14) Association between Instructional Group Heterogeneity and The Outcome; (15) Teacher Rating Form; (16) School Survey; and (17) Scientific Advisory Board. [This report was produced by the Corporation for the Advancement of Policy Evaluation. Additional support provided by the Barksdale Reading Institute, and the Haan Foundation for Children.]

This report describes the effects of Project Graduation Really Achieves Dreams (GRAD) on student progress at three high schools in Houston (the initiative's original site) and at high schools in two other school districts (Columbus, Ohio, and Atlanta, Georgia). MDRC--a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization--conducted a third-party evaluation to determine the effects of Project GRAD by comparing the changes in student outcomes at Project GRAD schools with changes at similar, non-Project GRAD schools in the same districts. (A companion report discusses findings for Project GRAD elementary schools.) In general, Project GRAD student outcomes are tracked from the implementation of the first components of the model at each site until the 2002-2003 school year. The key findings of this report are: At Jefferson Davis High School in Houston, the initiative's flagship school, Project GRAD had a statistically significant positive impact on the proportion of students who completed a core academic curriculum on time--that is, received an average grade of 75 out of 100 in their core courses; earned four credits in English, three in math, two in science, and two in social students; and graduated from high school within four years. As Project GRAD expanded into two other Houston high schools, these positive effects on students' academic preparation were not evident. Student outcomes at the newer Project GRAD high schools improved, but generally this progress was matched by progress at the comparison high schools. Improvements in graduation rates at the three Project GRAD Houston high schools were generally matched by improvements in graduation rates at the comparison schools. Looking at early indicators of student success, the initial Project GRAD high schools in Columbus and Atlanta showed improvements in attendance and promotion to tenth grade that appear to have outpaced improvements at the comparison schools, although the differences are only sometimes statistically significant. The following are appended: (1) The Impacts on High School Graduation among All Ninth-Grade Students in Houston; (2) High School Achievement in Houston: Was There Shifting of the Pool of Test-Takers?; and (3) Selecting Comparison Schools. (Contains 3 boxes, 6 tables, and 20 figures.) [Additional supplemental funding for this document was provided by the Lucent Technologies Foundation; and Project GRAD USA.]

In low-performing public high schools in U.S. cities, high proportions of students drop out, students who stay in school typically do not succeed academically, and efforts to make substantial reforms often meet with little success. The Talent Development High School model is a comprehensive school reform initiative that has been developed to address these challenges. Targeting some of the most troubled schools in the country, the model seeks to raise the expectations of teachers and students and to prepare all students for postsecondary education and employment. MDRC, a nonpartisan, nonprofit education and social policy research organization, conducted an independent, third-party evaluation of Talent Development. This rigorous evaluation focuses on the first five high schools to begin using the model in the School District of Philadelphia. The evaluation follows 20 cohorts of ninth-grade students for up to four years of high school using a comparative interrupted time series research design. Appended are: (1) Tables for First-Time Ninth-Grade Students; and (2) Tables for Repeating Ninth-Grade Students. (Contains 16 tables, 9 figures, and 3 boxes.)[Dissemination of MDRC publications is also supported by Starr Foundation.]

Policymakers have long been concerned about the disparities in college attendance between more and less advantaged groups of students. Upward Bound is one of the largest and longest running federal programs designed to help economically disadvantaged students prepare for, enter and succeed in college. Since December 1991, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., (MPR) has been conducting the national evaluation of Upward Bound for the U.S. Department of Education (ED). The evaluation has focused on program implementation issues and the effects of the program on student outcomes. The "impact study" is designed to measure the impacts or effects of regular Upward Bound on student outcomes, and it is based on a longitudinal evaluation in which eligible applicants from a nationally representative sample of projects were randomly assigned to Upward Bound or to a control group. The results in this document are based on the national evaluation's third follow-up data collection, which was completed in 2000. Because the entire sample of students was beyond high school age by that time, the report includes updated findings on the effects of Upward Bound on high school outcomes. In addition, based on data covering the first few years after sample members left high school, the report addresses the following research questions: (1) What effect does Upward Bound have on students' postsecondary experiences? (2) Who benefits most from Upward Bound? and (3) What is the association between staying in Upward Bound and student outcomes? Findings in this report suggest that for the average student, Upward Bound: (1) increased the number of high school math credits earned by participants; (2) did not affect other measures of high school academic preparation; (3) may have increased enrollment at four-year institutions; and (4) did not affect enrollment at postsecondary institutions more generally when all types of postsecondary institutions are considered. Appended are: (1) Sample Design Unit Nonresponse and Weights; (2) Baseline Characteristics of the Treatment and Control Groups, Third Follow-Up Survey Respondents; (3) Program Effects and Standard Errors; (4) The Effect of Upward Bound on High School Outcomes by Selected Subgroups; (5) The Effect of Upward Bound on College Engagement by Selected Subgroups; (6) Methods Used to Estimate the Effects of Additional Upward Bound Participation; (7) Weighted Standard Deviations for All Outcome Variables; (8) Data Collection; and (9) Sample Sizes and Standard Errors for Reported Impact Estimates. (Contains 29 tables and 3 figures.)

Career academies are characterized by these three basic features: a school-within-a-school organizational structure, curricula that combine academic and career or technical courses based on a career theme, and partnerships with local employers. In a 10-year longitudinal study of the academy model, begun in 1993 in 9 schools around the country, some 1,700 academy applicants in the 8th or 9th grade were randomly assigned to their high schools' academy or any other high school program. The evaluation found, as of the year after scheduled high school graduation, that although the career academies enhanced the high school experiences of their students in ways that were consistent with the reform's short-term goals, these positive effects did not translate into changes in high school graduation rates or initial transitions to postsecondary education and jobs. Other key findings included: (1) the academies had little influence on course content, classroom instructional practices, and standardized test scores; (2) for students at high risk of dropping out, the academies increased the likelihood of staying in school through 12th grade, improved attendance, and increased number of credits earned; and (3) relative to similar students nationally, both studied groups had high rates of high school graduation, college enrollment, and employment. The results suggest that career academies should consider expanding their efforts to recruit students who may not be motivated to enroll in academies on their own, to provide college counseling, and to increase teacher professional development activities in order to improve curriculum and instruction. (Contains 25 references, 10 figures, and 6 tables.) (KC)

"Test preparation" activities can range from simple practice to in-depth instruction, but most of these activities use some form of test familiarization, drill and practice with feedback, training in strategies for specific item types, and general test-taking, subject-matter review, and skill development exercises. Two experiments were conducted to study the effects of test preparation on results from the American College Testing program (ACT) Assessment. In the first experiment, a random sample of 10% was selected from one students who took the ACT between October 1, 1994 and September 20, 1995 (69,251 students). These students had answered test preparation questions as part of the information they supplied for the ACT. Gender, ethnic/racial, and family income differences in test preparation were also examined. Almost half of the students had engaged in some form of test preparation, with lower income and minority students reporting engaging in combinations of activities more than other student groups. The types of test preparation studied had little impact on student performance, with only practice tests showing a positive, although small, impact. The second study considered students who had taken the ACT more than once in the time period of the previous study. The sample consisted of 126,253 repeaters. The same information was obtained and the same analyses performed. Over half of these repeat test takers engaged in some type of test preparation before the second ACT, but results suggest that test preparation activities have only a minimal impact on increasing the second ACT Assessment scores beyond gains from simply retaking the test. Results overall suggest that test preparation activities have little impact on scores. (Contains six tables and eight references.) (SLD)

This report presents the fourth-year findings on the effectiveness of Ohio's Learning, Earning, and Parenting (LEAP) Program, a statewide welfare initiative that uses financial incentives and penalties to promote school attendance by pregnant and parenting teenagers on welfare. The report looks at LEAP's effects on school completion, employment, welfare receipt, and other outcomes for a subsample of teens in 7 of the 12 counties 3 years after they were determined to be eligible for LEAP. The results differ sharply for teens who were and were not enrolled in school when they qualified for LEAP. For initially enrolled teens, LEAP increased school completion (although primarily Graduate Equivalency Degree completion) by almost 20 percent and increased employment by over 40 percent. For dropouts, there was no increase in school completion or employment, despite a high degree of sanctioning. Overall, fewer teens remained on welfare, although the receipt rates were still very high. In Cleveland, but not in the other large cities, LEAP substantially increased high school graduation rates, suggesting the importance of both providing special services to keep teens in school and setting restrictions on leaving high school to enter a GED program. Most of the data are from a survey of 913 teens (446 in the program group and 467 in the control group) and from school-outcome records for 4,325 program participants. A total of 26 tables and 8 figures are included. Appendices contain supplemental tables and figures. A list of selected publications by Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation is included. (Contains 28 references.) (LMI)

In 2 experiments with 74 high school students, subjects studied worked examples while learning how to translate English expressions into algebraic equations. Those using worked examples outperformed the control group on posttests, made fewer errors, completed work more rapidly, and required less assistance from the teacher. (SLD)