School engagement is an important factor in academic success and social belonging for postsecondary education. Dually identified students receiving special education and English learner services may face obstacles to engagement. We conducted secondary analyses of the National Longitudinal Transition Study from 2012 to provide a description of high…

Background: School-based treatments for anxiety disorders are needed to address barriers to accessing community-based services. A key question for school administers are the costs related to these treatments. Aims of the Study: This study examined the cost-effectiveness of a school-based modular cognitive behavioral therapy (M-CBT) for pediatric…

High-achieving, low-income students attend selective colleges at far lower rates than upper-income students with similar achievement. Behavioral biases, intensified by complexity and uncertainty in the admissions and aid process, may explain this gap. In a large-scale experiment we test an early commitment of free tuition at a flagship university.…

Dual enrollment allows high school students to take college courses and earn college credits that can provide a valuable head start toward a college degree. The practice has multiple benefits for students in both systems, improving college preparation and increasing efficiency toward completion of degrees and certificates. Many states--including…

School engagement predicts academic achievement and attainment, yet remains under-theorized in the sociological literature. While psychologists describe three distinct yet mutually reinforcing categories of school engagement (behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement), sociologists have largely neglected to analyze cognitive engagement.…

Few empirical studies describe the interior world of alternative school settings. We conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with 11 alternative school students, discussing factors that contribute to absenteeism as well as the circumstances that led them to enroll in an alternative setting. We find that students' regular attendance is…

We used longitudinal data on high school students in Washington State to assess the relationships between English Language Arts (ELA) teacher qualifications and the high school and postsecondary outcomes of their students, and whether these relationships differed for students with and without disabilities. We found that students assigned to…

Middle grades teachers want early adolescents to take responsibility for their own learning and success in school. One way to encourage this is with "interactive homework," which enables students to lead conversations with a parent or family partner about something interesting they are learning in class. An exploratory study tested…

Although research suggests that phone usage during academic activities is problematic for learning and performance, little is known about high school students' digital multitasking during homework. This exploratory descriptive study surveyed 135 students from four public U.S. high schools to investigate teenagers' attitudes towards digital…

EMPOWER was an Investing in Innovation (i3) development grant awarded to Cabarrus County Schools by the Office of Innovation and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education. EMPOWER provided social-emotional, academic, and non-cognitive supports in magnet school settings to students from low-income families. Family engagement and teacher…

Opportunities and experiences for all students, including students with intellectual and developmental disabilities, to build self-determination abilities and skills is critical to enable positive postsecondary outcomes (e.g., competitive and integrated employment, community access participation). However, racially and ethnically marginalized…

Introduction: Developing graphicacy skills is important for students with visual impairments if they are to succeed in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) content. Teachers of students with visual impairments report that they lack resources to use in teaching students graphicacy skills. Methods: Forty-one students with visual…

In 2016, McREL and the University of Southern California (USC) were awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund (Award Number U411C150011) to develop a translation of the identity-based motivation (IBM) in vivo program "Pathways to Success" to a digital platform to deliver IBM to middle and…

Introduction: Many underserved adolescents, defined as those with inequitable access to educational resources, face limited access to interventions that develop their college and career know-how. In our study, we implemented and evaluated a pilot college and career readiness curriculum intervention called Paths to the Future for All (P2F4A). P2F4A…

Online course taking is widespread in K-12 education and even more so as schools have turned to virtual learning during the global health crisis. Educators across the country are actively seeking evidence-based guidance, only to discover that there is limited rigorous research related to online learning. The need to understand how to prepare…