In 2011, the state of Maine introduced a statute that required all diplomas to be awarded on the basis of proficiency by 2017. During this period of time, school districts moved to incorporate Proficiency-based Education (PBE) systems of instruction and learning. This prompted educators to bring clarity to standards, assessment, and grading…

Many adolescents struggle with reading comprehension, despite an emphasis on reading instruction over recent decades. Evidence suggests that informational text is particularly challenging for students. To implement assessments within a multi-tiered framework, schools must have psychometrically adequate tools. Using data of 473 students in Grades 6…

We report on a randomized controlled trial of an intervention that leverages the availability of laptops for all public-school students in the state of Maine. The intervention, called "ASSISTments," provides feedback to students as they solve mathematics homework problems and automatically prepares reports for teachers about student…

We report on a randomized controlled trial of an intervention that leverages the availability of laptops for all public-school students in the state of Maine. The intervention, called "ASSISTments," provides feedback to students as they solve mathematics homework problems and automatically prepares reports for teachers about student…

In this paper we discuss how the products of student work during long-term, interdisciplinary curricular units at King Middle School, a grades 6-8 public school in Portland, Maine, through their aesthetic qualities, transformed people's understanding of what children were capable of. We argue that, to effectively understand student work of this…

Restorative practices in schools lack rigorous evaluation studies. As an example of rigorous school-based research, this article describes the first randomized control trial of restorative practices to date, the Study of Restorative Practices. It is a 5-year, cluster-randomized controlled trial (RCT) of the Restorative Practices Intervention (RPI)…

In a randomized field trial with 2,850 seventh-grade mathematics students, we evaluated whether an educational technology intervention increased mathematics learning. Assigning homework is common yet sometimes controversial. Building on prior research on formative assessment and adaptive teaching, we predicted that combining an online homework…

The Building Assets, Reducing Risks (BARR) model is a comprehensive, strength-based approach to education that aims to improve achievement for all students by improving a school's effectiveness at building relationships, leveraging real-time student data, and capitalizing on the strengths of each student. The U.S. Department of Education's…

Much research has been done on the development of an intelligent tutoring system (ITS), and small empirical studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of ITS at promoting student learning. However, large-scale implementation of ITS in school settings has not been researched thoroughly. In this paper, we describe an ongoing randomized controlled…

Although advances in prevention science over the past two decades have produced a growing list of tested and effective programs and policies for preventing adolescent delinquency and drug use, widespread dissemination and high-quality implementation of effective programs and policies in communities has not been achieved. The Community Youth…

This report presents findings from a randomized control trial designed to inform the decisions of policymakers who are considering using online courses to provide access to Algebra I in grade 8. It focuses on students judged by their schools to be ready to take Algebra I in grade 8 but who attend schools that do not offer the course. The study…

In 2006, 4-H National Headquarters and National 4-H Council introduced an initiative aimed at increasing the number and quality of science, engineering, and technology programs that 4-H offers around the country, and increasing the number of youth involved in these programs. By engaging youth in informal science educational opportunities through…

Guided by a new framework, the NAEP science assessment was updated in 2009 to keep the content current with key developments in science, curriculum standards, assessments, and research. The 2009 framework organizes science content into three broad content areas. Physical science includes concepts related to properties and changes of matter, forms…

A representative sample of 122,000 eighth-graders participated in the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) science assessment, which is designed to measure students' knowledge and abilities in the areas of physical science, life science, and Earth and space sciences. This report covers the overall results, achievement level…

When Texas' Technology Immersion Project began in the spring of 2004, a grant from the US Department of Education allowed a parallel project to launch--eTxTIP--to evaluate and measure the success of the program, which equips middle school students in high-risk, high-need areas with laptops. Data is beginning to come in on several of the first…