To confront the challenge of high levels of student absenteeism, a network of rural districts in New York and Ohio embarked on a continuous improvement process with the National Center for Rural Education Research Networks (NCRERN) in the 2020-21 school year. In this paper, we present a case study from this Rural Research Network, describing how 8…

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the role of the Early Language Comprehension Individualized Instruction (ELCII) program in supporting kindergarteners' learning of inference-making during the COVID-19 pandemic. Two different cohorts of pre- and in-pandemic students completed the ELCII program, which was designed to teach them how to make…

Early numeracy skills are vital for kindergarten students because they provide the foundation for acquiring mathematics skills in both kindergarten and subsequent years. Teacher support to intervene on kindergarteners at-risk for poor mathematics learning outcomes is a promising approach to address this achievement gap. The current study…

Panel data methods, which include difference-in-differences and comparative interrupted time series, have become increasingly com- mon in education policy research. The key idea is to use variation across time and space (e.g., school districts) to estimate the effects of policy or programmatic changes that happen in some localities but not others.…

This study examined the impact of a classroom-level component of The Inclusive Skill-building Learning Approach (ISLA), an instructional and restorative alternative to exclusionary discipline, on student behaviors and school discipline practices in middle schools. Intervention implementation, classroom observations, and all other data collection…

Absenteeism in K-12 schools has remained high following the COVID-19 pandemic and districts need low-cost strategies to improve attendance. In 2020-21, the National Center for Rural Education Research Networks (NCRERN) piloted a personalized messaging intervention in 8 rural districts in New York and Ohio that led to a roughly 2 percent decrease…

We adapted the Family Check-Up Online (FCU-O): 1) to support families coping with pandemic-related stressors to prevent behavioral and emotional problems among middle school youth, and 2) for smartphone delivery to increase access and reach during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study evaluated the direct and indirect effects of the adapted FCU-O at…

This brief provides an overview of the four attendance-focused interventions districts partnering with the National Center for Rural Education Research Networks (NCRERN) implemented and evaluated through randomized controlled trials in the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years. The tested interventions were personalized messaging, mentoring, family…

Young students at risk for reading difficulties are likely to have long-term reading difficulties if they are not provided with evidence-based, supplemental instruction. This pilot study evaluated the feasibility of a Tier 2 reading intervention ("Reading RULES! Kindergarten"; RRK) and its promise to improve outcomes for kindergarten…

We present outcomes from a study testing the effect of professional development (PD) focused on integrating restorative practices into multi-tiered student support systems on how high school staff, students, and parents perceive their school's discipline practices. A total of 16 high schools enrolled in the 2-year study during which COVID-related…

Objective: This study examined how family factors impacted parents' attitudes toward integrated behavioral health (IBH) in pediatric primary care during the COVID-19 pandemic. We hypothesized that COVID-19 impact would predict family functioning challenges, and that pre-existing familial contextual factors would predict parents' interest in IBH…

COVID-19 contributed to the largest student performance decline in mathematics since 1990. The nation needs cost-effective mathematic interventions to address this drop and improve students' mathematics performance. This study presents a cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) of three algebraic technological applications, across four conditions:…

The learning losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic make this an important time to identify strategies that can help students accelerate their learning. The Strategic Adolescent Reading Intervention (STARI) is a year-long supplemental reading intervention that is intentionally designed to address the motivational barriers of middle school students…

At the onset of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) global pandemic, our interdisciplinary team hypothesized that a mathematical misconception--whole number bias (WNB)--contributed to beliefs that COVID-19 was less fatal than the flu. We created a brief online educational intervention for adults, leveraging evidence-based cognitive science…

There is growing evidence of the efficacy of evidence-based interventions in improving the academic and social outcomes of children who exhibit challenging behaviors during program implementation periods. However, less is known about the extent to which practices learned as part of these interventions are sustained after these projects end, when…