In this brief, Research for Action examines the prevalence of school policing in Pennsylvania schools. While data on police presence is limited, this brief is able to examine: (1) race/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in school police staffing and spending; (2) race/ethnic disparities in referrals to law enforcement and school-based arrests by…

The federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) that passed in 2015 changed many aspects of school accountability across the United States. Under ESSA states had to interpret new requirements and create accountability plans. As part of Maryland's ESSA plan, a new school report, the Maryland Report Card, was developed to evaluate school performance…

This brief is the first in Baltimore Education Research Consortium's (BERC's) "Launching into Adulthood" series, which examines the trajectories of Baltimore graduates. A partnership with Baltimore's Promise and the Maryland Longitudinal Data System made it possible to examine both college and earnings outcomes for Baltimore City Public…

This brief is the seventh in Baltimore Education Research Consortium's (BERC's) "Launching into Adulthood" series, which examines the trajectories of Baltimore graduates over six years. BERC established a partnership with Baltimore's Promise and the Maryland Longitudinal Data System (MLDS) that has made it possible to examine both…

The COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to virtual learning created an unprecedented context for high school and college students who had to navigate new learning structures amidst immense health, financial, and emotional challenges. In the absence of reliable data, practitioners and policymakers have been forced to make assumptions about what…

In the 2015-16 school year, 75 percent of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) ninth-graders opted out of their assigned high school. These students could choose from more than 300 programs at 138 public high schools. Selective enrollment high schools (SEHSs) were among the most high-profile and most sought-out options. SEHSs aim to provide high-achieving…

High school course grades are a primary source of information about students' academic readiness, yet they are often viewed as inconsistent measures of student achievement-- influenced by idiosyncratic practices across schools and teachers, systematic differences in course content and structure, compositional effects of peers, and student…

This is the technical appendix for the report: "Social-Emotional Learning and Academic Growth: Insights from an Innovative Research-Practice Partnership." Contents of the appendix include: (1) Sample; (2) The Student Success Network (SSN) Survey; and (3) Analytic Framework and Estimates. [For the full report, see ED615830.]

Young people need a combination of academic skills and other key mindsets and behaviors to succeed in school and become healthy, employed, civically engaged adults. In recent years, there has been growing interest in the relationship between academics and social-emotional learning (SEL)--a broad set of competencies that includes, for example,…

As educational priorities have changed, so have the standards for success. New York City has made dramatic progress reducing high school dropouts and boosting on-time graduation rates, which rose from 47 percent in 2005 to 70 percent in 2016. At the same time, changing priorities and expectations have led to an increased emphasis on graduating…

As educational priorities have changed, so have the standards for success. New York City has made dramatic progress reducing high school dropouts and boosting on-time graduation rates, which rose from 47 percent in 2005 to 70 percent in 2016. At the same time, changing priorities and expectations have led to an increased emphasis on graduating…

As educational priorities have changed, so have the standards for success. New York City has made dramatic progress reducing high school dropouts and boosting on-time graduation rates, which rose from 47 percent in 2005 to 70 percent in 2016. At the same time, changing priorities and expectations have led to an increased emphasis on graduating…

In March 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic caused schools to close for the remainder of the school year, all Pennsylvania school districts and charter schools were required to "make good faith efforts to implement continuity of education plans for the duration of the 2019-20 school year." RFA analyzed these plans for each of the 43…

Nearly one in five New York City public school children is diagnosed with a disability, making them eligible to receive special education services. These students are diverse in terms of their skills, abilities, and background characteristics. Historically, students with disabilities have had less access to learning opportunities and lower…

This document provides the technical appendices to the full report entitled: iMentor's College Ready Program Examining Implementation and Impacts for 10th Graders, Dec 2017. The appendices provide the following information: (1) Background Characteristics and Baseline Equivalence; (2) Methods for Calculating iMentor's Effects on Non-Cognitive…