Despite evidence of the benefits of early care and education (ECE) for child development and family employment, the supply of providers is scarce and variable; leading many families with young children to experience limited and inequitable access. To examine the multidetermined nature of access, this study leverages a multidimensional,…

Recently, multiple health organizations and advocacy groups have pushed for giving an R-rating for movies depicting tobacco imagery. This study examined several predictors of U.S. adults' opinion toward an R-rating policy for movies depicting cigarette smoking. We used data from the Health Information National Trends Survey (2020 cycle), for a…

Adult numeracy is one of the essential skill sets to navigate through numeric information-rich labour markets in general, and STEM industries in particular. Yet, relatively little is known about how numeracy skills are used in different settings in the USA. This study examined numeracy skill use patterns of STEM and non-STEM workers at work and…

The Official ACT® Self-Paced Course, Powered by Kaplan® is a test preparation solution in partnership between Kaplan and ACT. In April of 2022, the authors surveyed users of the self-paced course who took the ACT test between August 2020 and February 2022 to better understand: (1) ways the solution helped them when they took the ACT; (2) what…

This study leverages six years of public prekindergarten (pre-K) and kindergarten data (N = 22,469) from the Boston Public Schools (BPS) to examine enrollment in BPS pre-K from 2012-2017 for students from different racial/ethnic, socioeconomic, and linguistic groups. The largest differences in enrollment emerged with respect to race and…

Families across the United States face a variety of challenges securing early care and education (ECE) for their children. The supply and price of ECE programs in local areas tell part but not all the access story for families. Describing access across multiple dimensions provides decision makers with a deeper understanding of families' ECE needs…

Adult numeracy is one of the essential skill sets to navigate through numeric information-rich labor markets in general, and STEM industries in particular. Yet, relatively little is known about how numeracy skills are used in different settings in the USA. This study examined numeracy skill use patterns of STEM and non-STEM workers at work and…

School safety has been widely studied from the perspectives of administrators, teachers, and students in traditional education settings. However, parents' perceptions of school safety have been largely overlooked. Moreover, it is unknown how homeschool parents conceptualize safety in educational settings despite school safety being a known…

This introductory report outlines the challenges of postsecondary completion, the variable value provided by a postsecondary pathway, and the corresponding cost and debt. Together, these challenges create an inequitable, ineffective, and unsustainable U.S. postsecondary system in which individuals are increasingly reluctant to participate or…

This research brief is the first in Research & Development's "Career and Technical Education Series." It uses longitudinal data to document how women, racial and ethnic groups, individuals with disabilities, and those from economically disadvantaged families are represented across the different Career and Technical Education (CTE)…

Social and emotional (SE) skills are "individual capacities that (a) are manifested in consistent patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, (b) can be developed through formal and informal learning experiences, and (c) influence important socioeconomic outcomes throughout the individual's life" (Organisation for Economic…

High school students' optimism pertaining to future life outcomes, such as having a career they enjoy, owning a home, and having a better life than their parents had, might have been influenced negatively by recent events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been particularly stressful for students. Using data from a sample of current high…

Understanding the concerns high school students have about college presents opportunities to address college-bound students' needs before they arrive on campus, potentially increasing enrollment and retention. In this study, we investigated the academic, campus, social, and personal concerns of college-bound high school students and how these…

Background: Place-based efforts offer promise in reducing childhood obesity. Yet, lack of public demand and support may hinder implementation. Aims: This study aimed to assess whether the emphasis on place-based solutions, community-wide strategies, and multisector engagement in the Healthy Schools Healthy Communities (HSHC) initiative would shift…

Polling data routinely indicate broad support for the concept of diverse schools, but integration initiatives--both racial and socioeconomic--regularly encounter significant opposition. We leverage a nationally representative survey experiment to provide novel evidence on public support for integration initiatives. Specifically, we present…