In this paper, we present an extended evaluation of a course recommender system designed to support students who struggle in the first semesters of their studies and are at risk of dropping out. The system, which was developed in earlier work using a student-centered design and which is based on the explainable k-nearest neighbor algorithm,…

West Bengal, once a leading educational hub in India, has experienced significant stagnation in its school education system over the past two decades, with progressively declining enrolment rates. To address this issue, the state government introduced the Kanyashree Prakalpa in 2013, a Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) scheme aimed at reducing…

We describe the challenge of college non-completion in the U.S. and a variety of explanations for the high rate of non-completion. We then provide an overview of the implementation of and evidence from eight specific college completion interventions designed to increase college completion rates through a comprehensive set of services. The eight…

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…

Students' perception of excessive difficulty in STEM degrees lowers their motivation and, therefore, affects their performance. According to prior research, the use of gamification techniques promote engagement, motivation, and fun when learning. Badges, which are a distinction that is given as a reward to students, are a well-known gamification…

Young players report that they dropout of organized football due to excessive emphasis on technical execution, low success, and the lack of autonomy and motivation experienced by players during training sessions. Purpose: To determine whether a TGfU intervention during a youth football program led players to improve in variables related to…

This study examined the effectiveness of caregiver consultations in caregiver's child's play therapy process through a program evaluation lens. Archival data was used from a counseling clinic located in the central southwestern United States. Quantitative data was collected from caregiver who filled out assessments (PSI-4 and CBCL) about their…

Educators across the U.S. struggle to provide an equitable education to their diverse students. Since the 2020 COVID pandemic and the national call to end racism after George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis, chronic absenteeism and students' substantial mental health challenges have disrupted their efforts. Schools have struggled more than ever to…

Students who have dropped out of high school--and those at risk of doing so--are at greater risk of lifelong poverty, involvement with the criminal justice system, dependence on government welfare programs, and even premature death. In the last few years, however, the problems at high schools have compounded, as pandemic-era school closures led to…

The National Guard Youth ChalleNGe program is a residential, quasi-military program for youth ages 16 to 18 who are experiencing difficulty in traditional high school. This report covers the program years 2018-2019 and is the fourth in a series of annual reports that RAND Corporation researchers have issued over the course of a research project…

School closures from COVID-19 have resulted in large learning losses, from 0.05 to 0.17 standard deviations in high income countries, equivalent to two to six months of lost learning. However, the extent of primary-level learning loss in low-income countries remains unclear, studies lack information on individual students' learning trajectories,…

The landscape of developmental education has experienced significant shifts over the last decade nationwide, as more than twenty states and higher education systems have transitioned from the traditional prerequisite model to corequisite remediation. Drawing on administrative data from Tennessee community colleges from 2010 to 2020, we examined…

Contribution: A peer-mentoring plan designed to support engineering students during their transition from high school to university. This article addresses the adaptation challenges faced by first-year students in engineering programs. Background: The transition to university is a critical period for students, marked by significant lifestyle…

The Foster Care Success Act (House Bill 22-1374) provides funds to both the Colorado Department of Human Services (CDHS) and the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) to improve the educational attainment of students in out-of-home placement. The Act requires CDE to identify specific goals for its Foster Care Education Program (FCEP) to achieve…

In this study, we analyze the effects of Project GRIT (Generating Resiliency and Inspiring Transformation), a six-week intervention program that worked with a group of high school "pushouts," students who were encouraged to leave school, in a school district in southern California. We interviewed thirty-nine former high school students…