Over 1.5 million students in the United States experience homelessness. These students are entitled to educational support through the Education for Homeless Children and Youth program. However, many homeless students are not identified and therefore never receive this support. Across 1,732 local education agencies in New Jersey, New Mexico, and…

During the worldwide pandemic, youth were isolated from each other. In response, New Jersey 4-H, a part of Rutgers Cooperative Extension, created the Junior Explorers, a virtual exchange program bringing together 4-H members with youth from other countries. This program provides youth ages 10-13 with access to international exchange opportunities…

Social and emotional learning (SEL) has been increasingly emphasized in educational research and practice for promoting children's wellbeing. Perhaps the most well-known SEL framework is the model provided by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). This framework has become the dominant framework informing state SEL…

Experts from the RAND Corporation prepared this independent report on New Jersey's Tuition Aid Grant (TAG) program for low-income college students. TAG is the nation's most generous state-funded financial aid program on a per-resident-undergraduate basis. Currently, TAG distributes around $475 million in grants per year, and an award covers about…

In 2019, MDRC launched the Scaling Up College Completion Efforts for Student Success (SUCCESS) project to improve college completion rates for traditionally underserved students, such as students from low-income backgrounds and students of color, at community and broad-access colleges (those that have open or minimally selective admissions…

Objective: Empowerment Self-Defense (ESD) is a sexual violence prevention approach backed by rigorous empirical research, yet its availability on college campuses is limited. This manuscript evaluates the feasibility and efficacy of an ESD program embedded within a university counseling center. Methods: Participants completed an 8-session ESD…

11 community colleges in New Jersey and two Historically Black Community Colleges (one in Alabama and one in Mississippi) joined the OnPath project, which had the goal to help community college students stay enrolled during the pandemic. OnPath facilitated a powerful combination of people and knowledge by bringing together college staff members…

In response to both the lack of formal leadership training and the challenges facing leaders across higher education, a number of programs are being planned and initiated at colleges and universities. This application brief highlights the conceptual foundations, structural components, and operational considerations of one such program, the Rutgers…

In 2016, Union County College began a four-year experiment with corequisite developmental mathematics as part of a grant from the U.S. Department of Education's First in the World (FITW) program. In this experiment, students assessed as needing to take developmental mathematics courses would be eligible to receive a waiver from their developmental…

How gifted students needs are addressed in elementary schools is different from school to school. They are a population of students who at times, are underserved and left to work independently. This is often because teachers do not have the foundational understanding of gifted pedagogy. The purpose of this study was to determine how three…

"Odyssey® Math" is a web-based program developed by Compass Learning® for mathematics instruction in grades K-8. The online program includes a mathematics curriculum and formative assessments designed to support differentiated and data-driven instruction. Based on assessment results, the program generates an individualized sequence of…

This guide aims to support state education agencies and early education partners develop coherent, research-based policy by guiding thinking, discussion, data collection, and gap analyses of current practices and policies that can lead to more intentional decision making relative to young Dual Language Learners (DLL) and English Learners (EL).…

This brief identifies important elements of high-quality early childhood education programs as indicated by research and professional standards. These include: (1) Early learning standards and curricula that address the whole child, are developmentally appropriate, and are effectively implemented; (2) Assessments that consider children's academic,…

The authors introduce the Preparation in STEM Leadership Program at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. This NSF-Funded program and research study creates a centralized training program for peer leaders that includes a battery of assessments to evaluate peer leaders' content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, communication skills, and…

This dissertation examines the history, funding, structure, efficacy, and challenges of dual enrollment programs in English (and more specifically in First-Year Composition, FYC, courses) that provide access to higher education for high school students prior to graduation, as these programs have developed and currently operate in the United…