While the ongoing academic impacts of the COVID pandemic in grades 3-8 has been well documented, far less is known about its effects on students who were in pre-K or kindergarten when the pandemic started in March 2020. In this brief, we focus on students who were in first and second grade in the 2021-22 school year, and for whom the majority of…

We investigate the beginning of the school discipline pipeline using a reform in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools that limited the use of out-of-school suspension for students in grades K-2. We find that the reform reduced the likelihood of out-of-school suspension by 1.4 percentage points (56%) and had precise null effects on test scores and…

The Big Lift™ (Big Lift) is a preschool-third-grade collective impact initiative in San Mateo County, California. The initiative is a partnership of the County of San Mateo, San Mateo County Office of Education, and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. Launched in 2012, the initiative aims to boost children's reading proficiency by third grade…

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to overwhelm the functioning and outcomes of educational systems throughout the nation. The public education system is under particular scrutiny given that students, families, and educators are under considerable stress to maintain academic progress. Since the beginning of the crisis, school-systems…

California's Kindergarten Readiness Act of 2010 established transitional kindergarten (TK), the first year of a two-year kindergarten program for students affected by the change in the birthdate cutoff for entry into kindergarten from December 2 to September 1. This final report from the program's evaluation focuses on results from a five-year…

In Spring 2018--almost a decade into province-wide implementation of Full-day Kindergarten--the British Columbia Teachers' Federation (BCTF) Research Department and British Columbia Primary Teachers' Association (BCPTA) investigated who the K/K-1 teachers are, how they teach and learn, and whether they have the resources and supports needed to…

Each year, the Houston Independent School District (HISD) offers a summer education program designed to assist students with a variety of instructional needs. Centrally coordinated summer school programs in 2017 included accelerated instruction for State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) and STAAR End-of-Course (EOC) re-testers;…

Each year, the Houston Independent School District (HISD) offers a summer education program designed to assist students with a variety of instructional needs. Centrally coordinated summer school programs in 2018 included accelerated instruction for State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) and STAAR End-of-Course (EOC) re-testers;…

English learner students are challenged by the difficult task of learning English concurrently with learning content in areas such as reading and math. English learner students who have not attained proficiency in English or learned core course content by the middle and upper grades may not have the requisite skills to enroll in courses required…

Each year, the Houston Independent School District (HISD) offers a summer education program designed to assist students with a variety of instructional needs. The 2016 summer education program allowed students the opportunity to repeat required courses needed for promotion, to get ahead by taking required courses before the next school year, or to…

This study applies a randomized controlled trial to examine the effects of supplemental instruction using two online mathematics curricula--DreamBox and Reasoning Mind. It is an independent evaluation intended to generate unbiased results that will help inform the ongoing development of a charter school network's hybrid instructional model, which…

There are many types of programs for Spanish speaking students in the US, with varying methods and goals. Some preliminary work suggests that bilingual classrooms may differ widely in instruction, even under the same program labels. However, there are few studies which have compared the extent to which various bilingual program models differ in…

Each year, the Houston Independent School District (HISD) offers a summer education program designed to assist students with a variety of instructional needs. The 2015 summer education program allowed students the opportunity to repeat required courses needed for promotion, to get ahead by taking required courses before the next school year, or to…

Utah has successfully implemented a variety of endeavors to ensure literacy for all students. Proficiency rates in language arts in Utah have improved in all grade levels since 2005. Emphasis has been placed on grades K-3 and early intervention for students at risk. Resources available to these students include optional extended-day kindergarten,…

This Issue Brief reports the timing of entry into special education and the number of grades in which students receive special education across the primary grades. About 12 percent of students receive special education in at least one of the grades: kindergarten, first, and third grade, including 16 percent of boys, 8 percent of girls, 18 percent…