The purpose of this technical appendix is to share more detailed results and to describe more fully the sample and methods used in the research included in the brief, "Progress toward Pandemic Recovery: Continued Signs of Rebounding Achievement at the Start of the 2022-23 School Year" (ED627355). The two main research questions…

The purpose of this technical appendix is to share more detailed results and to describe more fully the sample and methods used in the research included in the brief, "Learning during COVID-19: An Update on Student Achievement and Growth at the Start of the 2021-22 School Year." The goal of this brief is to summarize student achievement…

Ratio and proportional relationships, along with the interrelated topics of fractions, decimals, and percent provide a critical foundation for algebra (National Mathematics Advisory Panel, 2008). Solving even simple proportion problems is challenging for many children and adolescents. A small number of studies have examined the efficacy of…

This article tests hypotheses by examining variations in the percentage of elementary and middle schools offering gifted and talented programs as well as gifted student participation and representation between 2012 and 2016. Using the Office of Civil Rights and the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) Common Core data, we find that…

The current study examined the developmental trajectory of same-race friendship preference of racially/ethnically diverse students over the course of middle school. Participants were African American, Asian, Latinx, and White youth recruited at the start of middle school in 6th grade (N = 4,361; M[subscript age] = 11.33 years) and followed across…

Leveraging achievement data measured in the fall and spring of kindergarten through eighth grade for 840,000 students attending 8,800 public schools, we report novel evidence on how achievement and growth patterns differ between rural and nonrural schools. Rural students start kindergarten slightly ahead of nonrural students but fall behind by…

This paper examines whether schoolwide free meals affect disciplinary outcomes, focusing on the use of suspensions. Under the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), schools serving sufficiently high-poverty populations may enroll their entire student bodies in free lunch and breakfast programs, extending free meals to some students who would not…

There is empirical evidence of substantial heterogeneity in economic mobility across geographic areas and the efficacy of schools has been suggested as an explanatory factor. Using administrative microdata from seven states covering nearly 3 million students, we explore the potential role of schools in promoting economic mobility by estimating…

How students feel about their schools--their perception of the safety, inclusiveness, rigor, and level of collaboration in the learning environment--is an increasingly important part of conversations about school quality and improvement. For these reasons, measures of school climate have become central to school accountability systems across the…

The Pennsylvania Department of Education's (PDE's) Office for Safe Schools partnered with REL Mid-Atlantic to conduct a study using data from PDE's school climate survey. This survey, which is available on a voluntary basis to any school in the state, provides a way to track school climate and identify schools that need additional support to…

These are the appendixes for the full report, "Changes in School Climate during COVID-19 in a Sample of Pennsylvania Schools." The REL study analyzed changes in scores from a pre-pandemic year (2018/19) to the 2020/21 and 2021/22 school years, both of which were affected by COVID-19 and related policy changes. These technical appendixes…

Over the last several decades, "zero-tolerance" policies have been implemented by federal, state, and local educational systems, which have altered the culture of learning. A consequence of this "tough on education" culture is what some scholars have called the "school-to-prison-pipeline" which disproportionately…

This study investigates multiple-level antecedents of cyberbullying victimization among early adolescents. Data from the Health Behavior in School-Aged Children, 2009 to 2010 cohort study in the United States were used. The sample included White, Black, Latino, and Asian adolescents, ages 10-14 (N = 8481). Bivariate analysis, logistic regression,…

The Every Student Succeeds Act requires states to identify schools with low-performing student subgroups for Targeted Support and Improvement or Additional Targeted Support and Improvement. Random differences between students' true abilities and their test scores, also called measurement error, reduce the statistical reliability of the performance…

This Snapshot highlights key findings from a study that used Bayesian stabilization to improve the reliability (long-term stability) of subgroup proficiency measures that the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) uses to identify schools for Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI) or Additional Targeted Support and Improvement (ATSI). The…