Education Research Report

THIS WEEK 
Education Research Report

Characteristics of Private Schools in the U.S. (2019–20)

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 3d

A new First Look report, Characteristics of Private Schools in the United States: Results from the 2019–20 Private School Universe Survey , examines the characteristics of the more than 30,400 private schools in the United States during the 2019–20 school year. Results include the following: There were 30,492 private schools in the United States in fall 2019, enrolling 4,652,904 students, and emp

Students’ certainty about belonging and their performance in a STEM course reinforce each other – for better or worse

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

Peer-Reviewed Publication Find the full study here . As a first-year college student in an introductory chemistry class sits down for their midterm, which might be their first stepping stone toward a career in academia, research or medicine, a thought may swirl through their head alongside valence numbers, molar masses and oxidation states—an anxiety that forms itself into a supposition: “Maybe p

Supports Associated with Teacher Retention

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

The Michigan Department of Education wants to improve the retention of effective teachers. This study from REL Midwest informs that effort by identifying teacher supports currently in place in traditional school districts and charter schools (called public school academies in Michigan) that are associated with teacher retention. Key findings include the following: Michigan teachers who responded

Inequality in Early Care Experienced by U.S. Children

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 5d

Using every major nationally-representative dataset on parental and non-parental care provided to children up to age 6, this study quantifies differences in American children’s care experiences by socioeconomic status (SES), proxied primarily with maternal education. Increasingly, higher-SES children spend less time with their parents and more time in the care of others. Non-parental care for hig

The Pandemic’s Effect on Demand for Public Schools, Homeschooling, and Private Schools

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 5d

The Covid-19 pandemic drastically disrupted the functioning of U.S. public schools, potentially changing the relative appeal of alternatives such as homeschooling and private schools. Using longitudinal student-level administrative data from Michigan and nationally representative data from the Census Household Pulse Survey, we show how the pandemic affected families’ choices of school sector. Thi

Community Colleges and Upward Mobility

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 5d

Two-year community colleges enroll nearly half of all first-time undergraduates in the United States, but to ambiguous effect: low persistence rates and the potential for diverting students from 4-year institutions cast ambiguity over 2-year colleges' contributions to upward mobility. This paper develops a new instrumental variables approach to identifying causal effects along multiple treatment

Comparing Relative Value-Added in Higher Education

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 5d

Students who attend different colleges in the U.S. end up with vastly different economic outcomes. This report studies the role of relative value-added across colleges within student choice sets in producing these outcome disparities. Linking high school, college, and earnings registries spanning the state of Texas, the authors identify relative college value-added by comparing the outcomes of st

New Report on a Professional Development Program for Implementing Inquiry-Based Science Curricula

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 8d

The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) recently reviewed the research on an intervention designed to improve student outcomes in science. Leadership and Assistance for Science Education Reform (LASER) is a program that aims to build the capacity of schools and districts to implement an inquiry-based approach to science instruction to improve student achievement. The WWC review of LASER focused on stu

Mentoring Practices and Retention across New Teachers

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 8d

High teacher turnover is detrimental for student achievement, particularly in schools with high proportions of students from low-income households and students of color. A large urban school district wanted to understand how its first-year teacher mentoring program could better support its goals of increasing teacher retention rates and maintaining a diverse workforce. This study by REL Northeast

Student Financing of Postsecondary Education, With National and State Estimates

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 8d

In 2017–18, 70 percent of all undergraduates received some type of financial aid (excluding private loans), and the average amount of aid received was $13,000. Among states with samples that support reporting, undergraduates in Hawaii had the lowest rate of financial aid receipt (52 percent), and undergraduates in North Carolina (87 percent) and Louisiana (86 percent) had the highest rates of fin

Marching band kids at risk from heat illness

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 9d

It’s not just student-athletes who need guidelines for heat protection during practice T his time of year, you hear a lot about heat-related illnesses in athletes. Thousands of student-athletes are sidelined by heat illnesses each year, and some don’t recover. But while guidelines exist to help coaches and trainers keep their students safe, there’s another group on the field that’s still at risk:

Using Enhanced Coaching to Improve PreK–2 Reading Achievement

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 9d

Chicago Public Schools is working to improve early literacy outcomes through a multiyear professional development initiative for preK–2 teachers. This P–2 Balanced Literacy Initiative aims to improve literacy instruction by training teachers to balance systematic foundational skills instruction with reading and writing instruction involving rich, complex texts. The district designated 26 of the 1

One in five tweens has been exposed to cyberbullying as a witness, a target, or an aggressor.

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 10d

The goal of this study was to provide key prevalence rates for experiences with cyberbullying among tweens (children between the ages of 9 and 12 years old). as well as exploring the extent to which tweens engaged in helping behaviors when they observed cyberbullying. American tweens ( n = 1034; mean age = 10.52, SD = 1.12) completed an online survey in which they reported on their experience wit

Arts Credits Earned in High School and Postsecondary Enrollment

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 10d

More students who earned greater high school arts credit earning enrolled in postsecondary education than students who earned fewer high school arts credits. This Data Point, Arts credits earned in high school and postsecondary enrollment: Differences by background characteristi cs , uses data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09), a national study of more than 23,000 ninth-gr

New Data on Enrollment, Finance, Employees, and Academic Libraries

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 10d

The percent of revenues that postsecondary institutions received from tuition and fees in 2020-21 varied greatly depending on the type of institution. According to new data released today by the National Center for Education Statistics, public 4-year institutions and administrative offices received about 20 percent of their revenues from tuition and fees in Fiscal Year (FY) 2020, compared with ju

Attendance Supports to Reduce Chronic Absenteeism

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 10d

In 2018, Rhode Island’s Providence Public School District (PPSD) implemented a student attendance policy that requires schools to track and address chronic absenteeism. Schools are encouraged to implement attendance supports such as attendance teams, leveraged partnerships, parent engagement specialists, nudge letters, phone calls, text messaging, and mentorship programs. A new report from REL No

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