“Some College, No Degree” Report Reveals 3.5 Million Americans with Some College Have High Potential to Return and Finish College The United States saw nearly one million former students, in just five years, return to postsecondary education and earn their first undergraduate credential, according to a new report, “Some College, No Degree: A 2019 Snapshot for the Nation and 50 States,” released t
Complete report With the current shift in U.S. education policies putting a priority on social-emotional learning (SEL), the importance of teachers and schools having SEL resources -- proven to create positive student outcomes -- is growing rapidly. As the new goals and guidelines are implemented in accordance with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), schools have, unfortunately, been flooded w
Early college high schools provide students with both high school and college experiences, with the goal of ensuring that students graduate with a high school diploma and two years of transferable college credit or an associate degree. These small schools, which are sometimes located on college campuses, are designed to provide all students with an academically rigorous course of study. Some earl
Stay the Course is intended to help students overcome individual barriers to completing their community college program by offering comprehensive case management services through a social service agency. Each student in the program is paired with a social worker who offers mentoring, coaching, and referrals to other supports both within and outside the college. These services are more intensive t
Eighty-seven percent of teachers and 77% of parents agree that teaching approaches that inspire creativity in the learning process have a bigger payoff for students. Yet, students spend most of their time on traditional lessons that do little to encourage creativity, even though the growing availability of technology promises new ways of learning. Gallup conducted qualitative and quantitative res
New Teacher Center has partnered with Metis Associates, Inc. to explore what returns on investment in professional learning yields. This report uses the data and results from the i3 Validation study conducted by SRI International as a foundation, Key findings : EDUCATORS INCREASE LEARNING AND STAY LONGER Students of NTC-supported teachers in grades 4 through 8 demonstrated up to 5 months of addit
Despite some gains over the past 20 years, significant numbers of students are not meeting grade-level expectations as defined by performance on academic assessments. Meanwhile, few schools are able to support the sort of accelerated academic learning needed to catch students up to grade-level expectations. Evidence indicates this is not for lack of educator commitment or dedication. Instead, man
Fourth-graders' mathematics scores increase; eighth-graders' mathematics and reading scores decrease The average reading score for American fourth- and eighth-grade students decreased between 2017 and 2019, according to The Nation's Report Card, released today by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Changes in mathematics scores were mixed over the two-year period, with an increas
A new report finds an approach to help principals improve their leadership practices did not improve students’ achievement, perhaps because principals’ instructional practices did not change as intended. The Institute of Education Sciences released a report today (October 30) entitled . This report from the National Center for Education Evaluation (NCEE) assesses one approach to supporting princ
High school seniors who receive texted reminders--or "nudges"--from their school counselors are 17 percent more likely to complete the college financial aid application process and 8 percent more likely to enroll in college directly after graduating than their peers who are not nudged, according to a new study published today in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis , a peer-reviewed journal
Writing instruction in early education should be about more than letter formation and penmanship, argue Michigan State University researchers who found preschool teachers don't often encourage writing for communication purposes. "Few teachers in this study think about writing as communication," said Hope Gerde, associate professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies. "Howeve
This large-scale study explores how kids age 8 to 18 in the U.S. use media across an array of activities and devices—including short-form, mobile-friendly platforms like YouTube—to see where they spend their time and what they enjoy most. Combined with the data from the 2015 report, the 2019 census gives us a clearer view of how young people's media use has evolved over time. The results speak to
This paper examines curricular acceleration in mathematics during elementary school using administrative data from a large, diverse school district that recently implemented a targeted, test-based acceleration policy. The authors first characterize access to advanced math and then estimate effects of acceleration in math on measures of short-run academic achievement as well as non-test-score meas
A new report, Beyond the Mirage: How Pragmatic Stewardship Could Transform Learning Outcomes in International Education Systems , prescribes a shift in the leadership role of education ministers – from providers and guarantors of education to pragmatic stewards of education systems. Frank Adamson, of California State University, Sacramento, reviewed the report and found that its use of questionab
More Can be Done to Feed Hungry Children After School Media Contact: Emily Pickren epickren@frac.org 202-640-1118 More than 1.3 million children benefited from afterschool suppers at school- and community-based programs on an average weekday in October 2018. That was a 10.4 percent increase from the previous year, according to the annual Afterschool Suppers: A Snapshot of Participation report, re
This article examines interview responses from prominent education researchers who were asked to consider the role of major educational policies in the underrepresentation of Black teachers in public schools. Participants considered policies related to accountability and market reforms including testing, school choice and charter schools, and alternative teacher education. Although participants a
Complete report This study uses data from the 11 waves of the U.S. Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development 1991-2005, following children from ages 6 months through 15 years. Observers rated videos of them, obtaining measures of looks at each age. Given their family income, parents’ education, race/ethnicity and gender, being better-looking raised subsequent changes in measurements of obje
This study finds positive spillover effects from an older to a younger child in less affluent families and negative spillover effects from a younger to an older child in more affluent families. These results are consistent with direct spillovers dominating in economically disadvantaged families and with parental reinforcement in more affluent families.
Complete report Reforms undertaken by California in the past decade to improve academic performance and prepare students to attend four-year universities are paying off: More students are graduating from high school than ever before, and more of them have completed college preparatory classes. In addition, growing numbers of community college students are earning the credits needed to transfer an
The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which children’s executive function predicted their reading comprehension performance. Participants were approximately 18,000 kindergartners in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010–2011. The results suggest that individual differences in reading comprehension were influenced by variations in executive function. C
This study examines the effect of the expansion of charter schools on socioeconomic segregation in American public education. Using a district-level panel data set from 1998 to 2015, the authors describe and model changes in within-district segregation of low-income students, proxied by free-lunch eligibility (FLE). The authors show that the segregation of FLE students from non-FLE students incre
is a new report based on Gallup's study of how creativity in learning fosters problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, especially when supported by transformative technology use. Report findings include: Teacher, parent and student perspectives on what U.S. schools need for students to succeed The impact and outcomes of creativity in learning The supports and barriers to making creativity a
More than 12 million children younger than age five are in some form of child care in the United States. provides a review of how child care is an issue for all of us and shares our policy recommendations for supporting families and child care providers. Also featured are: An overview of the child care ecosystem and how each member is affected by unaffordable child care How Child Care Resource a
The presents the essential skills and competencies children should acquire before they enter kindergarten and the related skills and competencies early childhood educators (early educators) must cultivate in order to provide high-quality early learning experiences that will set all children on the path to success in school and in life. It provides a baseline of knowledge to help decisions-makers
A new analysis by the National Council on Teacher Quality demonstrates that more states are recognizing the importance of leadership roles for teachers, signaling that state policy is reflecting teachers’ voices. Thirty-five states now have formal teacher leadership policies, with a net of eight additional states adopting formal teacher leadership policies in the past two years. This statewide re
A presidential candidate drops a new education plan. A new book details the practices of one of the nation’s highest performing — and polarizing — charter school networks. And then all of edu-Twitter is afire with hot takes, long threads, and far too many mentions. These quick responses can leave little room for nuance and prevent us from asking the tough, necessary questions required to push pub
Full report Detroit has the highest rate of chronic absenteeism of any major city in the U.S., with more than half of students missing 18 or more days (10% of the school year). Still, about one-fifth of the city’s students between 2010-11
