Comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) is a key component of efforts to improve sexual and reproductive outcomes for young people. While many governments have established policies and curricula for CSE, there are no quantitative measures of the quality of their implementation in schools. We describe the construction of a school-level index to…

PBIS is has been consistently correlated with reductions in student exclusion including suspensions, expulsions, poor attendance, and high school dropout rates. However, school-wide strategies that do not specifically involve effective instruction in academic areas are unlikely to result in increased academic achievement. To address this reality,…

Although there is a strong legislative base and perceived efficacy for multidisciplinary team decision making, limited evidence supports its effectiveness or consistency of implementation in practice. In recent research, we used the Decision Observation, Recording, and Analysis (DORA) tool to document activities and adult behaviors during positive…

Spurred by the federal Race to the Top competition, the state of Tennessee implemented a comprehensive statewide educator evaluation system in 2011. The new system is designed to increase the rigor of evaluations and better differentiate teachers based on performance. The use of more differentiated ratings represents a significant shift in…

Austin Independent School District (AISD) Social Emotional Learning (SEL) coaches rated schools on the degree to which they implemented 10 domains believed to best exemplify program goals. This study examines the validity and reliability of the implementation rubric they used. A separate full report also was published. [For the full report, see…

Austin Independent School District (AISD) Social Emotional Learning (SEL) coaches rated schools on the degree to which they implemented 10 domains believed to best exemplify program goals. This study examines the validity and reliability of the implementation rubric they used. A separate research brief report also was published. [For the research…

In this article the authors provide practitioners and researchers with three illustrations of how to use systematic screening tools within the context of three-tiered models of support to (a) measure the overall level of risk present in a school over time and (b) identify students who may require more targeted supports in the form of secondary and…

The goal of this study was to explore whether "Strong Kids" could result in improved social and emotional competence when implemented as a school-wide universal intervention. No prior studies have examined this question. This study also evaluated whether teachers could implement "Strong Kids" as it was designed and whether they…

Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR) is a set of instructional strategies designed to improve the reading comprehension of students with diverse abilities (Klingner and Vaughn 1996). Teachers implement CSR at the classroom level using scaffolded instruction to guide students in the independent use of four comprehension strategies; students apply…

The 1992-93 school year saw the second statewide implementation of the Vermont portfolio-assessment program, and RAND continued its ongoing evaluation of the program's implementation, effects, and data quality. While the first year's study found evidence of the impact of the assessment program and low reliability of portfolio scoring, this year's…