There are large gaps in reading skills by family income among school-aged children in the United States. Correlational evidence suggests that reading skills are strongly related to the amount of reading students do outside of school. Experimental evidence testing whether this relationship is causal is lacking. We report the results from a…

This study evaluated effects of Positive Action (PA), a school-based social-emotional and character development program, on self-esteem levels and processes among minority, low-income, urban youth. A matched-pair, cluster-randomized controlled trial was conducted in 14 Chicago Public Schools with outcomes assessed longitudinally for a cohort of…

Teachers in the United States are compensated largely on the basis of fixed schedules that reward experience and credentials. However, there is a growing interest in whether performance-based incentives based on rigorous teacher evaluations can improve teacher retention and performance. The evidence available to date has been mixed at best. This…

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…

This program evaluation investigated differences in reading achievement for students receiving Reading Recovery or Developmental First Grade. The researcher examined DRA reading scores during the first and second grade and STAR reading scores from second grade through middle school for students in a rural public school district in Northeastern…

This 4-year study examined implementation of the Baltimore Curriculum Project (BCP) in six Baltimore City public schools. BCP used a combination of direct instruction (DI) and core knowledge as its reform curriculum. Each school was demographically matched with a similar, within-district school. Two cohorts of students were followed throughout the…