Many states seek to increase the education levels of their early childhood education (ECE) workforce to improve the quality of care for children. Oregon encourages all ECE workforce members to sign up for a career lattice, a career pathway system that helps them determine goals related to increasing their education. The state also offers…

Choosing a school for a child can be a rewarding, but difficult task for parents. A recent survey reported that parents often feel confused by the information available to them as part of the school choice process. This can be exacerbated by limited time and resources to devote to the process--constraints that can particularly affect low-income…

The purpose of this study was to examine how school counselors', and principals' primary counseling goals and expectations impact postsecondary enrollment in order to learn what best helps students achieve their postsecondary goals. It was found that school counselors' expectations of students were positively related to students' postsecondary…

This study adds to the currently limited evidence base on the efficacy of interventions targeting non-college-ready high school students by examining the impact of Kentucky's Targeted Interventions (TI) program. We focus on interventions that students received under TI in the senior year of high school based on their 11th grade ACT test scores.…

In this study, we use microdata from 12 Florida county-level school districts and a regression discontinuity design to examine the effects of early grade retention on the short-, medium-, and long-term outcomes of English learners. We find that retention in the third-grade substantially improves the English skills of these students, reducing the…

High rates of attrition make it challenging for schools to provide qualified special education teachers for students with disabilities, especially given chronic teacher shortages. We synthesize 30 studies from 2002 to 2017, examining factors associated with special educator attrition and retention, including (a) teacher preparation and…

The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of internship participation on college students, specifically the effect on college GPA. Further, because of the capacity to disaggregate students by race in the sample, this study is significant because it provides much needed empirical evidence surrounding the impact of participation in…

This article reports on a study that investigated achievement in math of third and fourth grade dual language immersion (DLI) students, building on research that has demonstrated the academic achievement of students who receive content instruction predominantly in the target language. Our study expands the scope and methodology of prior research…

Educator performance evaluation systems are a potential tool for improving student achievement by increasing the effectiveness of the educator workforce. For example, recent research suggests that giving more frequent, specific feedback on classroom practice may lead to improvements in teacher performance and student achievement. This report is…

Educator performance evaluation systems are a potential tool for improving student achievement by increasing the effectiveness of the educator workforce. For example, recent research suggests that giving more frequent, specific feedback on classroom practice may lead to improvements in teacher performance and student achievement. This report is…

Interest has been growing in the role of students' attitudes, beliefs, and dispositions as key factors that can support or inhibit student success. A large body of emerging evidence, including multiple randomized controlled trials, shows that interventions that target academic mindsets, attitudes, and beliefs about the nature of ability and the…

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…

In an American economy where the advancement of technology and globalization means that a high school diploma alone is no longer able to provide family-sustaining earnings to many, certificates represent one piece of a multi-pronged solution on the road to a workforce with 60 percent postsecondary attainment. Though certificates currently aren't…

Communities In Schools, Inc. (CIS) is a nationwide initiative designed to connect needed community resources with schools to help students, particularly those identified as at-risk, successfully learn, stay in school, and prepare for life. As part of a comprehensive 5-year national evaluation of CIS, ICF International conducted a school-level…

This study proposes and tests a multilevel structural model of school context, composition, and school leadership on school instructional practices and outcomes in elementary schools in a western state in the United States. We focus on direct and indirect relationships implied in our proposed model using an "added year of schooling" in…