Researchers draw on the American Instructional Resources Survey (AIRS) and interviews with 45 English language arts (ELA) and math teachers to examine the prevalence of different types of benchmark assessments and explore educators' perceptions about the extent to which benchmark assessments align with other components of their schools'…

To update its teaching and departmental review processes, Phillips Academy Andover, an independent boarding school in Massachusetts, commissioned RAND Corporation researchers to review the school's policies, conduct a literature review, interview other independent high schools, develop potential recommendations for revision of Andover's processes,…

Media literacy (ML) education has emerged as a promising approach to slowing the spread of "Truth Decay," described as the diminishing role that facts, data, and analysis play in political and civil discourse. Several factors contribute to Truth Decay, including a rapidly evolving information ecosystem and overburdened educational…

This report describes the authors' findings from a scoping literature review on the topic of instructional system coherence. The authors reviewed 77 pieces on coherence published from 1990 to 2023, including articles, reports, books, dissertations, and conference papers. The scope and definition of alignment and coherence have seemed to expand…

This report uses data from the RAND Corporation's American Educator Panels to understand the state of infrastructure to support elementary social studies instruction during the 2021-2022 school year. The report is focused at the elementary (specifically, kindergarten through grade 5 [K-5]) level because the authors hypothesized that infrastructure…

In an effort to improve high school graduation and college enrollment rates among students who are Black, Latino, or experiencing poverty, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation established the Networks for School Improvement (NSI) initiative and awarded five-year grants to intermediary organizations to develop networks of school teams that work…

Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) are government-funded accounts typically established for parents who opt not to enroll their children in public kindergarten through grade 12 (K--12) schools. ESAs allow parents to spend funds that the state would have spent for their student to attend their local public school on a broad array of educational…

The urgent need to help students -- and particularly students who are Black or Hispanic -- recover from the negative effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on mathematics learning and access equitable opportunities in mathematics will require that teachers use every available tool to diagnose student learning needs and…

This report summarizes the findings from a two-year mixed methods evaluation of the effect of the Teach For Nigeria (TFN) teacher training program on whole child development, perceptions of teaching quality, and the school community. This report contributes to a growing body of research on Teach For All organizations across the globe and the…

Providing and using technical assistance for capacity building within educational agencies is a complex endeavor. The U.S. Department of Education funds technical assistance centers to support state education agencies (SEAs) and local education agencies (LEAs) in the capacity-building process. Established in 2018, the Center to Improve Social and…

Teachers, like the students they serve, never stop learning. In-service teacher professional development (PD) gives educators opportunities over the course of the year to learn more about pedagogy and improve their own instruction methods to boost students' academic and social and emotional outcomes. On average, teachers participate in ten days of…

Experts from the RAND Corporation prepared this independent report on New Jersey's Tuition Aid Grant (TAG) program for low-income college students. TAG is the nation's most generous state-funded financial aid program on a per-resident-undergraduate basis. Currently, TAG distributes around $475 million in grants per year, and an award covers about…

More than ever, nations around the world understand that science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills are key to driving economic growth and overall competitiveness. A compact between the United States, through the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and the country of Georgia's government sought to bring international higher…

Since March 2020, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has placed unprecedented stresses on the public education system in the United States. At every level, from the U.S. Department of Education down through local districts and individual schools, the pandemic has presented formidable challenges. Many of these challenges have been…

This report is one in a series of case studies RAND researchers are conducting as part of an independent evaluation of the BHP Foundation's Education Equity program. This case study traces the development of two efforts by UN Women's Second Chance Education Programme (SCE) in India to support policy changes that improve women's access to education…