To promote diversity in the STEM workforce, undergraduate research training programs incorporating a variety of intervention strategies have been developed to support students from historically underrepresented backgrounds in overcoming numerous systemic barriers to pursuing careers in science. However, relatively little research has focused on…

In this paper we provide a rigorous review of evaluations of education programmes in developing countries. This review is organised to provide guidance to policy-makers by identifying education interventions that are effective, sometimes effective, and not effective and by presenting some information on the cost effectiveness of different types of…

The COVID-19 pandemic has re-emphasized the need to develop innovative solutions to unprecedented problems in health, education, and other sectors. The learning crisis in education is reaching catastrophic levels, the consequences of which are disproportionately felt in populations that are already marginalized. School closures, together with…

The University of Pittsburgh Office of Child Development (OCD) has practiced university-community engagement activities for 30 years. This has included hundreds of specific projects conducted with community partners, all funded by outside grants. Based on our experience, we describe some lessons learned regarding the operation of a…

In experimental evaluations of health and social programs, the role of dosage is rarely explored because researchers cannot usually randomize individuals to experience varying dosage levels. Instead, such evaluations reveal the average effects of exposure to an intervention, although program exposure may vary widely. This article compares three…

The Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund was established by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which called on the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to provide student achievement awards to local education agencies and nonprofits with a record of improving student achievement. ED set priorities for the program and specified them in…

With the push for evidence-informed policy and practice, schools and policy makers are now increasingly encouraged and supported to use and enagage with research evidence. This means that consumers of research will now need to be discerning in judging the quality of research evidence that will inform their decisions. This paper evaluates the…

"The Mentoring Toolkit 2.0: Resources for Developing Programs for Incarcerated Youth" provides information, program descriptions, and links to important resources that can assist juvenile correctional facilities and other organizations to design effective mentoring programs for neglected and delinquent youth, particularly those who are…

The study examined in this paper focuses on whether monetary bonuses for teachers improved schoolwide academic achievement in New York City public schools. Study authors analyzed data from 389 high-need elementary, middle, and high schools in New York City in the first year of the bonus program (2007-08) and from 371 of those same schools in the…

This report analyzes case studies of "more and better learning time" efforts around the country. With support from the Ford Foundation, America's Promise Alliance looked in Grand Rapids, MI; Louisville, KY; Memphis, TN; and Rochester, NY to see how time spent out of the classroom improved outcomes for students in low-income neighborhoods…

The Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency (BIAS) project is the first major opportunity to use a behavioral economics lens to look at programs that serve poor and vulnerable people in the United States. Sponsored by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) within the U.S.…

Background: The philosophical underpinnings of evaluation guidelines set forth by a funding agency can sometimes seem inconsistent with that of the intervention. Purpose: Our purpose is to introduce questions pertaining to the contrast between the instructional program's underlying philosophical beliefs and assumptions and those underlying our…

This revised report was prepared for the Canadian Literacy and Learning Network (CLLN) and the thirteen-member provincial and territorial literacy coalitions. The purpose of the report is: (1) To provide background information on the labour market transfers from the Federal Government to the provincial and territorial governments; (2) To outline…

In 2000, the California State Legislature passed the Schiff-Cardenas Crime Prevention Act, which authorized funding for county juvenile-justice programs and designated the Corrections Standards Authority (CSA) (formerly named the Board of Corrections) the administrator of funding. A 2001 California Senate bill extended the funding and changed the…

Multilevel programs--that is, programs with multiple levels of administration, funding, and implementation--present dynamic and challenging environments for the conduct and use of evaluation. The challenges include questions, priorities, audiences, and purposes that vary at each level. This chapter discusses the challenges as well as the…