The charter school movement encompasses many school models. In Massachusetts in the 2010's, the site of our study, urban charter schools primarily used "No Excuses" practices, whereas nonurban charters had greater model variety. Using randomized admissions lotteries, we estimate the impact of charter schools by locality on college…

Many programs and practices aim to improve college persistence and completion, including "Single Stop USA's Community College Initiative," hereafter referred to as "Single Stop." "Single Stop" supports community college students with screening and applications for public benefits and other wraparound services that can…

This technical appendix provides additional information about the sample, data, and estimation strategy used for a series of American Educator Panels (AEP) Data Notes published by the RAND Corporation in 2019. The Data Note series is intended to provide brief but incisive analyses of teacher and school leader survey results that may be of…

Many programs and practices aim to improve college persistence and completion, including "Single Stop USA's Community College Initiative," hereafter referred to as "Single Stop." "Single Stop" supports community college students with screening and applications for public benefits and other wraparound services that can…

Many programs and practices aim to improve college persistence and completion, including "Single Stop USA's Community College Initiative," hereafter referred to as "Single Stop." "Single Stop" supports community college students with screening and applications for public benefits and other wraparound services that can…

On a spring morning in Maine, traps made of nets rise above vernal pools in a small wetland, ready to collect salamanders. The traps were designed by groups of rural and urban high school students from Maine and Massachusetts participating in the University of Maine Upward Bound Math Science Program (UBMS) at the university campus in Orono, Maine.…

Nearly one-quarter of U.S. eighth graders score below basic on national assessments of reading (NCES, 2013) and are poorly equipped for the reading demands of secondary school. Struggling adolescent readers cannot summarize a simple passage, use context to determine word meanings, and have difficulties making text-based inferences. In addition,…

Strong and stable school leadership is critical for success in schools across the nation. The duties of the principal are many and varied. Principals, for example, can oversee instruction, purchase curricular materials and supplies, and provide professional learning and supports for teachers. Carrying out these duties effectively makes a…

The Center on Standards, Alignment, Instruction, and Learning (C-SAIL), funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, examines how college- and career-readiness (CCR) standards are implemented, if they improve student learning, and what instructional tools measure and support their implementation. This brief presents findings from C-SAIL's…

Principals play a key role in the improvement of student learning. School leaders have been shown to have a noticeable impact on the learning outcomes of students, even though this impact is often complicated and indirect (Hallinger, Bickman & Davis 1996). Principals that focus on improving the teaching and learning in classrooms are known as…

Effective teachers make a real difference for student learning. But research shows that both in Massachusetts and nationwide, academically struggling students and those from historically low performing subgroups are less likely to be assigned to the teachers who are most likely to generate strong results. This results in missed opportunities to…

The roughly one-quarter of U.S. eighth graders who score below basic on national assessments of reading are poorly equipped for the reading demands of secondary school. They struggle with summarizing and making text-based inferences (NCES, 2013). Intervention in middle school needs to be comprehensive, both because of the heterogeneity of the…

How can we best prepare pre-service teachers to succeed in the classroom--and to stay in teaching over time? The one-size-fits-all model of traditional teacher education programs has been widely criticized, yet the most popular alternative--fast-track programs--have at best a mixed record of success. An increasing number of districts and charter…

Mathematics and science knowledge/skills are most commonly associated with engineering's pre-requisite knowledge. Our goals in this paper are to argue for a more systematic inclusion of social science and humanities knowledge in the introduction of engineering to K-12 students. As part of this argument, we present a construct for framing the…

In the era of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, school districts are under increasing pressure from policymakers to hold all students to high performance standards. In response, a growing number of schools are embracing the principles of student-centered learning (SCL). SCL is a contemporary approach that combines progressive and…