This toolkit offers guidance on how to implement efficient, engaging, and effective enhanced outreach to students. It includes both messaging strategies and ways to analyze the results of outreach messaging to determine what is working and what is not. The guidance in this toolkit explains how to craft messages and analyze engagement data to…

This report is prepared in compliance with SB 5950, Section 4(e), which directs the Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) to report enrollments and active caseload for the Working Connections Child Care (WCCC) program to the governor and the legislative fiscal committees and the legislative-executive WorkFirst Poverty…

In Spring 2025, the Washington Student Achievement Council (WSAC) launched one of its most concentrated financial aid outreach campaigns yet. The goal: Raise Washington's historically low Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) completion rates so more students could access the aid they deserve. With only three months left in the school…

Community-led solutions to educational challenges "can and will" sustainably increase the number of Washingtonians with education and training after high school. This framework demonstrates how the authors measure short- and long-term outcomes to capture partnership impact and population-level change. Washington Student Achievement…

In 2014, OSEP instituted the Statewide Systemic Improvement Plan (SSIP) reporting requirement. The SSIP was designed as a comprehensive multi-year plan for improving results for infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families through system strengthening efforts. States/entities work to improve their infrastructure, implement…

Home visiting connects expectant parents, new caregivers, and their young children with a support person, called a home visitor. The home visitor meets regularly with the family, develops a relationship with them, and supports them to achieve their goals and meet their needs. To reach the thousands of additional families who could benefit from…

State law requires the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to annually report to the Legislature the number of schools participating in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Community Eligibility Provision (CEP). The report must identify barriers to participation and make recommendations to increase participation. The CEP…

This brief summarizes five key lessons aimed at strengthening the support institutions provide to help students in accessing public benefits and basic needs supports. Insights from the pilot learning engagement highlight the potential and the complexity of outreach efforts to connect eligible students with public benefits. Drawing on practitioner…

The STEM Public Outreach Team (SPOT) at the University of Washington Bothell (UWB) provides training and community building opportunities for diverse STEM students that impact their persistence in STEM majors and careers. The University of Washington Center for Evaluation and Research for STEM Equity (CERSE) evaluated the experiences of SPOT…

Partnerships funded by the Washington Student Achievement Council's (WSAC) Regional Challenge Grant (RCG) are only in their second year of funded work. Still, early evidence makes clear the impact of these disciplined investments. Financial aid application rates, high school graduation rates, and even college retention rates--these critical…

The National Guard Youth ChalleNGe program is a residential, quasi-military program that serves young people ages 16 to 18 who are struggling to complete their high school credential. This is the ninth report in an annual series that RAND researchers have issued. The prior annual reports cover 2015 through 2022. Each annual report documents the…

Background/Context: Inequitable access to higher education continues to be driven by socioeconomic inequalities (Wolniak et al., 2016). Aid spending by state governments has been found to bolster higher enrollment and degree awards at two-year colleges (Monarrez et al., 2021). Where federal funds have taken on a larger portion of funding in the…

The "EdResearch for Action Design Principles Series" focuses on a single program or practice that has been proven to have positive effects on student outcomes. Authors -- leading experts from across the field of education research -- look across many high-quality studies of similar programs to identify the components and conditions that…

This article examines Noah, a sport management major and Honors student, who has worked in a supportive housing community for over 2 years. His journey started in a community-engaged learning (CEL) course and grew into an Honors project, focused on developing a sports outreach program to meet local needs. Using reflective practice and a case study…

The Engaged Engineering Program (EEP) project at ABC University is a five-year Track 2 NSF S-STEM that responds to challenges in recruiting and retaining academically talented, low-socioeconomic status students from diverse backgrounds into undergraduate engineering programs. The EEP project has successfully recruited four cohorts of Scholars and…