The Massachusetts Early Childhood Support Organization (ECSO) initiative seeks to improve the quality of early education programs (EEPs) by supporting leaders to strengthen their organizational climate, provide job-embedded professional learning opportunities for educators, support the use of instructional curriculum and child assessments in their…

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) American Apprenticeship Initiative (AAI) funded 46 grantees across the country to expand registered apprenticeship into new sectors, such as healthcare, and to populations historically underrepresented in apprenticeships. DOL commissioned an evaluation of the AAI grants to build evidence about the effectiveness…

The Massachusetts Early Childhood Support Organization (ECSO) initiative seeks to improve the quality of early education programs (EEPs) by supporting leaders to strengthen their organizational climate, provide job-embedded professional learning opportunities for educators, support the use of instructional curriculum and child assessments in their…

After reviewing evidence from more than 280 studies conducted in 25 countries, Abt found consistent evidence that inclusive educational settings--in which children with disabilities are educated alongside their non-disabled peers--can have substantial benefits for the cognitive and social development of those children. The research also suggests…

The Massachusetts Expanded Learning Time (ELT) initiative is designed to improve academic outcomes by increasing the amount of learning time for students. Schools are expected to provide opportunities to teachers for collaborative planning and professional development as well as add time to the school day or year for instructional and enrichment…

This brief highlights key information about enrichment activities, which represent one of the main components of the Massachusetts Expanded Learning Time (ELT) initiative. Over time, the ELT initiative has supported over two dozen schools across the Commonwealth. A comprehensive evaluation of the ELT initiative found that implementation of the…

Expanded learning time seems to be a simple idea: by lengthening the school day (or year), students have more time to learn. Yet as schools revisit their schedules and decide how to allocate time in their academic calendars, they can and do face challenging decisions related to time allocations. This brief highlights lessons learned from some…

The Massachusetts Expanded Learning Time (ELT) initiative was established in 2005 with planning grants that allowed a limited number of schools to explore a redesign of their respective schedules and add time to their day or year. Participating schools are required to expand learning time by at least 300 hours per academic year to improve student…

In 1998 the National Science Foundation launched the Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program, a major initiative aimed at Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) graduate education. IGERT was developed to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists, engineers, and educators with…