The National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Urban College (UC) Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) program was designed to comprehensively support academically talented low-income students. The program served 45 students between the fall semesters of 2012 and 2015. The primary goals of the program were…

In this study, we explored whether a residence life plan designed to meet the academic and psychosocial development of at-risk housing students, where oversight and support were provided on a weekly basis, and a proactive, intrusive counseling approach was implemented, would be effective for academic success. Participants included 74 urban at-risk…

Taking advantage of lottery-like features in New York City's high school admissions process, previous MDRC reports have provided rigorous evidence that new small public high schools are narrowing the educational attainment gap and markedly improving high school graduation prospects, particularly for disadvantaged students. The new findings in this…

We conducted a randomized field trial to test an academic vocabulary intervention designed to bolster the language and literacy skills of linguistically diverse sixth-grade students (N = 2,082; n = 1,469 from a home where English is not the primary language), many demonstrating low achievement, enrolled in 14 urban middle schools. The 20-week…

Efforts to support children in schools require addressing not only academic issues, but also out-of-school factors that can affect students' ability to succeed. This study examined academic achievement of students participating in City Connects, a student support intervention operating in high-poverty elementary schools. The sample included 7,948…

The Early College High School (ECHS) initiative developed in response to calls to significantly decrease the number of first-generation college and underserved students of color and from poverty who are high school dropouts or marginally graduates (i.e., ill prepared for college). The ECHS model is different from other educational reforms in that…

With the changing U.S. demographics, higher numbers of diverse, low-income, first-generation students are underprepared for the academic rigors of four-year institutions oftentimes requiring assistance, and remedial and/or developmental coursework in English and mathematics. Without intervention approaches these students are at high risk for…

The purpose of this ex post facto study was to analyze archive data to investigate the effects of Read 180, a computer-based supplemental reading intervention, on students' academic achievement for the academic school year 2011-2012. Further analyses examined if influences existed in variables such as grade level, gender, and ethnicity of the…

In 2005, the achievement gap between African-American and Caucasian students doubled in the state of Louisiana. Sixty-three percent of the public schools in an urban school district in southeastern Louisiana received an Academically Unacceptable Status (AUS) rating according to Louisiana accountability standards. In 2006, the Louisiana Board of…

ASSISTments is a web-based math tutor designed to address the need for timely student assessment while simultaneously providing instruction, thereby avoiding lost instruction time that typically occurs during assessment. This article presents a quasi-experiment that evaluates whether ASSISTments use has an effect on improving middle school…

Culturally based instruction has long been touted as a preferred approach to improving the performance of American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) students? academic performance. However, there has been scant research to support this conjecture, particularly when quantitative data and quasi-experimental designs are included. The results of this…