This study examines U.S. national colleges and universities that have de-emphasized or eliminated ACT and SAT scores and have implemented test-optional policies for undergraduate admissions. The study investigates the test-optional admissions trend and provides a "pre-post" quantitative analysis of test-optional policy effects on the…

Background/Context: The landscape of college remediation programs experienced significant shifts from prerequisite models to corequisite models in the past few years across the nation. The traditional prerequisite models required students placed below college level to pass a sequence of remedial courses before they could enroll in college-level…

Region One Education Service Center (Region One) was awarded an Investing in Innovation (i3) development grant funded by the Office of Innovation and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, entitled Project Health Education for ALL (HEAL[superscript 2]). Project HEAL[superscript 2] i3 initiative served a pipeline of high school grades 9 to 12…

The adoption of telepresence technology in K-12 schools potentially expands students' access to course offerings and new ways of learning, but little is known about its implementation and promise for improving student outcomes. We employ a mixed-methods analysis to examine the experiences of students and teachers in telepresence courses in a…

This project took place at four Montana middle and high schools in three rural settings located across the state. Study participants included students and teachers located in four middle and high schools. Each of the schools had large percentages of struggling readers, American Indian students, English learners, and low-income students. Comparison…

In Fall 2010, the Niswonger Foundation received a five-year validation grant from the Investing in Innovation Fund (i3) to create the Northeast Tennessee College and Career Ready Consortium of 29 high schools and five colleges. This report evaluates the Consortium's impact on student outcomes during each of the four years of program…

Senior year of high school can be a pivotal time in a young person's life. For some, it is the last step on the path to college and work. For others, finding stable employment or attending university after high school is far from guaranteed. Urban Alliance, headquartered in Washington, DC, helps students at risk of becoming disconnected from work…

The Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative and Green River Regional Educational Cooperative received an Investing in Innovation (i3) development grant from the U.S. Department of Education to implement the Creating College and Career Readiness (C3R) initiative. The initiative offered a suite of software developed by WIN Learning (WIN) to support…

Researchers from MDRC and Johns Hopkins University partnered with Florida's Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) in 2009 to launch an independent evaluation of the district's initiative to implement Ninth Grade Academies (NGAs) in every district high school. An NGA is a self-contained learning community for ninth-graders that operates as a school…

In 2017-2018, the Houston Independent School District (HISD) launched Achieve 180, a program centered upon a comprehensive action plan to increase student achievement at 45 schools, including the 27 schools that received the Texas Education Agency Campus Accountability rating of "Improvement Required" (IR) in 2016-2017 and 18 former IR…

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…

Recognizing the challenges rural districts face in providing broad curricular offerings and supplemental educational services to students, in 2007, the 80th Texas Legislature authorized the creation of a pilot program designed to provide technology-based supplemental educational services to rural school districts that show an overall academic need…

In 2007, the Texas Legislature (80th Texas Legislature, Regular Session, 2007) authorized the creation of the Texas Rural Technology (R-Tech) Pilot program, which provides $8 million in funding to support rural districts in implementing technology-based supplemental education programs. In order to be eligible for funding, districts must have…

Recognizing the challenges rural districts face in providing broad curricular offerings and supplemental educational services to students, in 2007, the 80th Texas Legislature authorized the creation of a pilot program designed to provide technology-based supplemental educational services to rural school districts that show an overall academic need…