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High-quality early learning experiences (i.e., developmentally appropriate, play-based instruction with clear learning goals) have positive long-term effects on student outcomes. As California rolls out Universal Transitional Kindergarten (UTK), district leaders focused on meeting state requirements for hiring qualified staff and finding appropriate facilities, and thus have been unable to focus on quality. The state can take the following actions to incentivize and support districts to broaden their focus for UTK: set a vision, establish goals, and measure progress in terms of enrollment, key implementation features, and student outcomes for preschool through third grade; align resources and support to advance high-quality implementation of UTK at scale; and publicly communicate key aspects of implementation and outcomes, enabling communities to monitor whether their districts are serving them well.

A major purpose of this ongoing project was to develop a shared understanding and language among divisions of the Minnesota Department of Education regarding the Multi Tiered System of Support Framework (MTSS) (e.g., School Climate; Teaching and Learning; Special Education; Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) to more efficiently and consistently support local educational agencies (LEAs) and provide districts with tools, resources, and technical assistance to support implementation. The project developed a unifying framework for guiding continuous improvement, connecting silos, and enhancing collaboration. This report describes the project outcomes.

While international alliances among research universities are relatively well established, the challenges for the small liberal arts college to execute a meaningful global collaboration can be much more difficult, due both to the much smaller size of the institution, its more limited resources, and its smaller and more intimate culture centered on undergraduate teaching and learning. A new alliance of liberal arts colleges known as the Pacific Alliance of Liberal Arts Colleges (PALAC) was established in 2021 with the purpose to better articulate the global components of liberal arts education, and to collaborate on key projects that will build collective capacity for student-centered liberal arts education that engages with the world's most pressing problems. PALAC contains nine of the best liberal arts institutions from across the Pacific Region, including institutions in China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Canada, and the United States. This essay describes the origins, motivations, and context of the creation of PALAC, its member institutions, and some of the initial projects planned by the new organization, and goals for global impact for PALAC.

The Working Group on Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and Learning Differences was launched in 2021 as an initiative of the Global Cities Education Network (GCEN). Fourteen school districts each worked to implement a unique action plan designed to strengthen SEL supports in their district, including for students with learning differences. Districts drew on expertise and resources shared in the working group and adapted the strategies to meet their needs. The learning centered on deep dives into two international school systems: a virtual site visit to Surrey Schools (British Columbia, Canada) and an in-person convening in Melbourne (Victoria, Australia). This report features four case studies and shares lessons learned and strategies implemented by the districts.

Partners to Lead (PtL) is a school leadership professional development (PD) project funded by a 5-year Education Innovation and Research grant and implemented by the DuPage, Illinois, Regional Office of Education (ROE) in 37 public elementary, middle, and high schools in four Illinois ROEs. The American Institutes for Research® (AIR®), the independent evaluator of PtL, has completed an implementation and impact study of the program. This final report summarizes the PtL program and AIR's evaluation methods; the extent to which PtL was implemented as designed; and findings on PtL's impact on student achievement, changes to principal effectiveness as measured by the Illinois 5Essentials Survey, and principal retention. All 37 schools recruited to participate in PtL remained in the program across all 3 years of the intervention, and principals generally expressed satisfaction with the components of PtL. However, analyses indicate that PtL did not have a statistically significant positive impact on principal leadership effectiveness, student achievement, or principal retention. From March 2020 through the end of the intervention, some PtL principals may have become somewhat disengaged from the full PtL PD and coaching due to competing professional and personal priorities resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, which may have attenuated the impact of PtL. Nonetheless, students in intervention schools scored 0.104 standard deviation higher in math in spring of the final year of the intervention, and the p value for the estimated positive impact on student math achievement was 0.06.

In 2021, California committed to providing universal prekindergarten (UPK) for all 4-year-olds and income-eligible 3-year-olds by 2025-26. UPK includes several early learning programs, including transitional kindergarten (TK), the California State Preschool Program (CSPP), Head Start, and expanded learning opportunities to provide full-day early learning and care. TK is the only UPK program that is free and universally available as part of California's public education system. Offered by local education agencies (LEAs), TK currently serves all 4-year-olds who turn 5 between September 2 and December 2 and will expand to all 4-year-olds by 2025-26. The legislature also made new investments in CSPP, a program for income-eligible 3- and 4-year-old children. Funding for CSPP is provided by the state through grants to both LEAs and community-based organizations. This report provides a snapshot of 1,108 LEAs' initial plans for UPK expansion through the analysis of a survey administered by the California Department of Education in August 2022. Key findings provide insights into LEA plans for service delivery models, facilities and transportation, instruction and assessment, workforce development, school leader development, and technical assistance needs. Notably: (1) Universal prekindergarten delivery models; (2) Facilities and transportation; (3) Instruction and assessment; (4) Workforce development; (5) Supporting school leaders; (6) Technical assistance needs; and (7) Large district approaches to UPK. These findings may help policymakers and practitioners identify areas for additional investments and supports during UPK implementation, although the authors note several data limitations and caution that initial UPK plans may have shifted over the course of the 2022-23 school year. As California moves forward with the expansion of universal prekindergarten, more research and data collection will be needed.

This paper provides results from the randomized control trial project, Promoting Development and Home Reading of Supplementary Texts for Young Readers in Cambodia. One control and three treatment groups were assessed on how literacy and reading habits changed when households were provided a variety of high-quality and low-cost early reading materials along with varying degrees of encouragement toward building better reading habits. The findings show that providing books in isolation was not enough. Rather, books in conjunction with a network of reading supports was found to be an effective means to boost reading outcomes, including reading proficiency measures, frequency of reading, and attitudes toward reading. The results highlight the need for at-home reading materials in poor households as an integral step to improve early reading. [This paper is a product of the Education Global Practice.]

This appendix volume supplements "Evaluating the Federal Innovative Assessment Demonstration Authority: Early Implementation and Progress of State Efforts to Develop New Statewide Academic Assessments. Evaluation Report. NCEE 2023-004" analyzing the early progress of the first five assessment systems participating in the Innovative Assessment Demonstration Authority (IADA) created by the 2015 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. These systems include: (1) the New Hampshire Performance Assessment of Competency Education (NH PACE); (2) the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program 2025 Humanities (LEAP 2025 Humanities); (3) the North Carolina Personalized Assessment Tool (NC PAT); (4) the Georgia MAP Assessment Partnership (GMAP) through-year assessment and (5) the Georgia Navvy assessment system. The volume documents the features of the IADA program and the five IADA systems, the study team's research activities, and includes more detailed findings than were summarized in the report. [For the full report, see ED627872. For the Study Highlights, see ED627880.]

Education officials have long hoped that the statewide academic assessments most students take each year could be used not only for accountability but also to guide instruction. Congress established the Innovative Assessment Demonstration Authority (IADA) program in 2015 to help address this goal, offering up to seven states temporary flexibility from federal testing requirements so that they may more easily make progress toward replacing their current assessments with more innovative ones. The key incentive to participate in IADA is that students trying out the innovative assessment are not required to also take the state's current assessment. However, states approved for IADA must still show that their innovative assessments meet most requirements for federal accountability, and they are expected to implement the new assessments statewide within 5 years. This report describes the progress of the first five assessment systems approved under IADA in order to help policymakers consider expanding the program to more states. The report is primarily based on an analysis of states' IADA applications and performance reports to the U.S. Department of Education through the 2020-2021 school year and is part of a broader evaluation of IADA required by Congress. [For the Appendix, see ED627873. For the Study Highlights, see ED627880.]

Community colleges in the United States, which serve a disproportionate number of students from low-income backgrounds, can provide a valuable pathway toward well-paying careers. However, graduation rates at community colleges are very low--among first-time, full-time, degree-seeking students who enter public two-year schools, only 29 percent graduate within three years. Seeking to address this challenge, three community colleges in Ohio implemented a new comprehensive program model that was based closely on the City University of New York's (CUNY's) proven Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP). In 2015, the three Ohio colleges began implementing their programs and experienced similar successes as CUNY; the first phase of MDRC's study found large impacts on graduation rates and transfer to four-year institutions after three years. This brief extends the follow-up period for the Ohio programs to six years and provides earnings and employment impacts for the first time. After six years, the program continued to have an impact on graduation: 44 percent of students in the program group earned a degree, compared with 29 percent in the control group. Notably, these improvements in academic achievement have led to increased earnings, on average, for the students in the program group. In Year 6, students in the program group earned an additional $1,948 over the control group average of $17,626, an increase of 11 percent. These findings represent a new and important contribution to the growing body of evidence on comprehensive approaches (especially those modeled after CUNY ASAP) to improve the educational--and now economic--outcomes of students from low-income backgrounds. Future briefs will extend the follow-up period for academic outcomes to eight years and labor market outcomes to ten years. [For the supplement to this report, see ED627556.]

This is the 44th Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 2022. Section 664(d) of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), as reauthorized in 2004, requires that the Department of Education report annually on the progress made toward the provision of a free appropriate public education to all children with disabilities and the provision of early intervention services to infants and toddlers with disabilities. The 44th Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 2022 describes our nation's progress in: (1) providing a free appropriate public education (FAPE) for children with disabilities under IDEA, Part B, and early intervention services to infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families under IDEA, Part C; (2) ensuring that the rights of these children with disabilities and their parents are protected; (3) assisting States and localities in providing IDEA services to all children with disabilities; and (4) assessing the effectiveness of efforts to provide IDEA services to children with disabilities. The report focuses on children with disabilities being served under IDEA, Part B and Part C, nationally and at the State level. [For the "43rd Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 2021," see ED616723.]

School leadership is a critical factor in school improvement. The Delaware Department of Education (DDOE) and Region 4 Comprehensive Center (R4CC) have strengthened school leadership through implementation of the Delaware Leadership Network and the Delaware Principal Supervisor Leadership Program. These two major efforts, collaboratively designed and delivered, have helped shift mindsets from principals as managers to principals as instructional leaders. DDOE, with R4CC support, clarified a statewide strategy for strengthening school leadership and is building off these two initial efforts. Read about this collaborative effort and its outcomes in "Strengthening School Leadership in Delaware: A Profile of Collaboration and Impact."

States and districts use career pathways in a variety of ways, in a variety of settings, and under vastly different circumstances to give young people access to meaningful careers and stable lives. In this report, the authors conducted case studies of career pathways initiatives in Texas, Ohio, and Colorado to better understand the triumphs and challenges inherent in creating and operating career pathways programs amid a rapidly changing policy context. Through research and interviews with education stakeholders, the authors gathered meaningful insight into how legislators, policymakers, and program operators build high-quality programs and overcome barriers. The report examines the implementation of career pathways programs in these states to surface themes about the factors that support and hinder implementation, and to identify recommendations for state policymakers interested in supporting these programs. The recommendations include policy changes and practical administrative retooling that will have the greatest impact on improving pathways programs in these states and across the country.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is the primary application that determines access to federal, state, and institutional financial aid. When students fail to complete their FAFSA application, they are less likely to enroll or complete a credential, leaving tens of millions of federal resources for students on the table. Boosting FAFSA completion rates in Michigan is integral in reducing out-of-pocket costs for all Michiganders looking to improve their job eligibility and lifetime earnings. As one of the core priorities of TICAS Michigan and community partners across the state, it is crucial that any implementation of a state-wide mandate of FAFSA completion as a high school graduation requirement removes potential barriers and unintended consequences for outgoing high school graduates. TICAS Michigan's analysis compiles key feedback from community partners across the state to provide insights and student-centered recommendations to help guide policy discussions on solutions to improving Michigan's FAFSA completion rates.

In Chicago, despite an increase in high school graduates and college enrollment, only one in four community college students graduate within three years. COVID-19 exacerbated longstanding barriers to college success faced by students from low-income backgrounds, as well as for Black, Latino, and Indigenous students. Without proactive interventions and intentionally designed wraparound supports or comprehensive approaches to student success (CASS) support services, equity gaps in college completion and postsecondary outcomes will persist. Strong cross-sector partnerships, adequate funding, and policy enhancements are necessary to expand equitable access to high-quality comprehensive supports that get more students to degree completion. The City Colleges of Chicago (City Colleges) and nonprofit partner, One Million Degrees (OMD), provide one compelling partnership model for overcoming these barriers. Instead of seeing low completion rates as evidence that college is not for everyone, City Colleges, OMD, and their partners are considering the factors causing students to stop out. They are also scaling up support to ensure students complete college no matter their race, ethnicity, or economic background.

This compendium presents comprehensive information from the surveys for the full report "Linking Adult Education to Workforce Development in 2018-19: Early Implementation of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act at the Local Level. Evaluation Report. NCEE 2023-001r" (ED626771), and serves as a supplement, which provides in-depth findings on local implementation of a set of key practices under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). While the study synthesizes the data into sets of key findings, this volume provides information about the design, methods, and results of the national surveys of local adult education providers and state directors of adult education, which served as the main data sources for the implementation study. It also includes details on the existing data sources used to supplement the survey data. Chapter 1 provides information on the study methodology, including the samples and data sources used. Chapter 2 presents tables of results for each item in the surveys administered as part of the study. Chapter 3 provides the survey instruments used to collect the study data. [For the appendices to the full report, see ED626772.]

These appendices supplement the full report "Linking Adult Education to Workforce Development in 2018-19: Early Implementation of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act at the Local Level. Evaluation Report. NCEE 2023-001r" (ED626771). They provide additional information about the analyses conducted for the report and present select results from a national survey of local adult education providers. This includes information about the key constructs and estimation approaches used in the report (appendix A), statistics that support key findings in the report (appendix B), and comparisons of statistics reflecting adult education in 2001-02 and 2018-19 (appendix C). Information on how the survey sample and questionnaire were developed is available in the study's compendium report (ED626773). Supplemental tables for the survey are also available in that report.

For more than 70 years, the federal government has supported efforts to improve adult literacy and other basic skills. Many adults need help with basic skills like reading, writing, mathematics, and English proficiency to succeed in the American workforce. Congress has long provided resources to help individuals address these educational challenges, most recently through Title II of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) of 2014. But WIOA includes new requirements and incentives to strengthen the link between adult education and the overall workforce development system, to move adults into and along a career pathway. This report from a national evaluation of Title II examines the extent to which local adult education providers' instructional approaches and coordination with other agencies reflect this link and highlights the challenges providers experience in collecting related performance data. The report describes providers' reported experiences in program year 2018-19, the first year when the more than 1,600 providers receiving federal Title II funds were expected to operate under WIOA's rules and before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted provider operations. [For the appendices to this report, see ED626772. For the supplemental compendium, see ED626773.]

Social, emotional, and academic development (SEAD) is a holistic approach to supporting students' development and learning that is integral to ensuring positive outcomes in school and beyond. Schools must ensure students experience healthy development and rigorous learning. Unfortunately, students of color, students from low-income backgrounds, and other underserved students often do not have positive learning experiences. There are six key policy issues that state leaders can implement to create equitable and safe learning environments that promote positive SEAD for all students. This brief highlights how Texas is supporting students' SEAD and areas for growth across six policy issues, as well as questions to ask district leaders about local implementation.

Social, emotional, and academic development (SEAD) is a holistic approach to supporting students' development and learning that is integral to ensuring positive outcomes in school and beyond. Schools must ensure students experience healthy development and rigorous learning. Unfortunately, students of color, students from low-income backgrounds, and other underserved students often do not have positive learning experiences. There are six key policy issues that state leaders can implement to create equitable and safe learning environments that promote positive SEAD for all students. This brief highlights how Louisiana is supporting students' SEAD and areas for growth across six policy issues, as well as questions to ask district leaders about local implementation.

In order to realize all the benefits of parental-choice programs, advocates, policymakers, and participating schools have to pay more attention to implementation challenges, both when designing parental-choice policies and after new programs are enacted. This report discusses both categories of implementation challenges. The first category--challenges that result from policy design--includes features of many programs that make them difficult to implement, such as limits on the tax benefits available in scholarship tax-credit programs, low scholarship amounts, and eligibility restrictions. The second category--challenges that occur after programs are enacted--result from advocates' and participating schools' failure to take steps that would increase the likelihood of programmatic success, such as prioritizing academic improvement among program participants, better informing parents about the choices available to them, and encouraging the development of more and better schools and school networks. This report focuses on "private-school-choice" programs--that is, programs that enable students to use public resources for private-school tuition. To the extent that education savings account (ESA) funds are used to enable participants to attend private schools, as they will be in many, if not most, cases, the report addresses implementation issues affecting ESAs. While the policy landscape is shifting rapidly, and more states undoubtedly will enact universal ESAs in the months and years to come--the vast majority of parental-choice programs are, and will continue to be, limited in scope and eligibility, necessitating continued attention to the issues addressed in this report critical to their success.

Transferring to a four-year institution is an important pathway to student success. Many students who enroll in community college intend to transfer to a four-year institution and subsequently earn a bachelor's degree. However, few students ultimately do, with low-income students transferring at lower rates than their peers. The Texas Transfer Grant Pilot Program was created by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) to improve the transfer rates of students from two-year to four-year institutions in Texas. The pilot program offered $5,000 grants to community college students who performed well academically, came from low-income backgrounds, and transferred to a public four-year institution. MDRC's evaluation of the program, conducted in partnership with the THECB, used Texas statewide administrative data to identify and randomly assign about 90,000 eligible students. Students were assigned to either a program group (whose members were notified they were eligible to receive the grant for the fall 2022 semester) or a control group (whose members did not receive a Texas Transfer Grant offer but who could seek business-as-usual financial aid resources). Students assigned to the program group were informed of the opportunity to receive a grant via email and hard-copy letters. This brief answers the following two primary questions: (1) Does offering the Texas Transfer Grant to community college students affect their enrollment rates at four-year higher education institutions in Texas? and (2) What do community college students think--and how do they feel--about the Texas Transfer Grant offer, particularly with respect to their decision to transfer to a four-year institution? Although additional research is needed to fully understand the impact of the grant offer, early findings indicate that the pilot program increased the proportion of students who enrolled in Texas public four-year institutions. [For the supplement, "Differential Impacts on Fall 2022 Enrollment at Any Four-Year Institution. A Supplement to Texas Takes on Transfer Grants," see ED627376.]

Starting with the high school graduating Class of 2009, Success Boston has provided transition coaching to Boston Public Schools (BPS) high school graduates, many of whom are from groups traditionally underrepresented in college. In the first few years of Success Boston Coaching (SBC), the program served approximately 300 students per year. In 2015, under a "scale-up" effort supported in part by a Social Innovation Fund grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service, SBC expanded from serving several hundred Boston young adults in each high school graduating class to about 1,000 students per cohort. Beginning with the 2015 cohort, Success Boston also accorded more significant and intentional focus on the coaching of students at two-year colleges as well as on supporting students who are young men of color. The study examines how SBC was implemented, and what effects, if any, SBC has had on students' postsecondary success and completion. This longitudinal study follows five cohorts of students who initially enrolled in college each fall, from 2013 through 2017, immediately after graduating from high school. It looks at whether students who received SBC were more successful in the short-term and long-term in college than a group of similar peers who did not receive SBC. This report examines the effects of SBC on postsecondary completion for the five cohorts combined: the pre-scale-up cohorts (2013 and 2014) and the post-scale-up cohorts (2015, 2016, and 2017). In addition, to complement the 2021 report's focus on the pre-scale-up cohorts' completion, and because it is a common practice to examine how a program's effects change after the program is scaled up, this report also examines SBC's effects on the three post-scale-up cohorts' completion. Finally, as an exploratory analysis, the report also examines how SBC affects students' completion of different types of credentials, such as bachelor's degrees and associate degrees.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, K-12 schools are under immense pressure to meet the diverse needs of students. But policies and practices have not evolved quickly enough to meet those needs -- and as a result, the system continues to fail far too many young people. In "Levers of Change: How State Policies Support District Innovation," Bellwether delves into the ways states can support and catalyze innovation in public school districts -- adopting new laws, amending or repealing existing laws, changing policy or regulation, providing funding, or creating new programs. The report identifies seven states that have taken steps to enable innovation in public school districts -- Colorado, Kentucky, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Utah, and Washington -- and explores the lessons they can offer to leaders looking to spark innovation in their schools.

This brief explains how four important system design initiatives frequently promoted by state and local education agencies for school improvement can be implemented through an intentional systematic approach for a powerful, positive impact on student outcomes. As technical assistance providers with expertise in four specific frameworks for educational system design, and with great appreciation for one another, the contributors suggest how a coordinated Stage-based Implementation process with embedded, systems level critical Equity Inquiries at every stage can enable schools to establish Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles and guidelines within a Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) for a designed experience in instructional decision making.

11 community colleges in New Jersey and two Historically Black Community Colleges (one in Alabama and one in Mississippi) joined the OnPath project, which had the goal to help community college students stay enrolled during the pandemic. OnPath facilitated a powerful combination of people and knowledge by bringing together college staff members with operational knowledge about what needs to change, evidence from rigorous MDRC research about what helps students persist in college, and facilitators from MDRC's Center for Applied Behavioral Science. Through a series of workshops, one-on-one coaching sessions, and evidence-based templates of messaging strategies, researchers collaborated with staff members to: (1) develop student outreach campaigns that simplified registration information, connected students to available financial aid, and encouraged continuous enrollment based on prior rigorous evidence about what works to encourage enrollment; and (2) design new student-centered strategies to improve student persistence during the pandemic. The messaging strategies were informed by best practices and research evidence from MDRC evaluations. These integrated approaches enabled colleges to implement new messaging campaigns to better address students' needs and begin to implement new policies to reduce barriers to student success.

School leaders across the state of California seek tools to reduce the use of exclusionary discipline and improve school climates. Research suggests that restorative practices (RPs) have the potential to achieve these ends, particularly when staff throughout the school implement, and students throughout the school experience, these practices. Research also indicates that schools often struggle to achieve widespread adoption of RPs. In many cases, schools will see selective adoption of RPs--some teachers use these practices while others do not (resulting in only some students experiencing these practices). And districts will see some schools implementing these practices while others struggle to do so. How can schools overcome these implementation challenges? The first step is to identify sticking points in implementation. To do this, school and district leaders need simple, reliable means of measuring the extent to which teachers are using and students are experiencing RPs. At present, though, many leaders lack measures of RP utilization and exposure. This report provides detailed guidance regarding why, when, and how to measure the use of RPs in schools. In the first section, the authors briefly describe what RPs are and summarize research regarding the potential of these practices to decrease the use of discipline, reduce racial disparities in discipline and academic achievement, and improve school climates. In the second section, they discuss why measuring RP implementation is essential to employing RPs in a manner that is likely to achieve the intended impacts. In the third section, the authors provide detailed guidance on how to measure the extent to which teachers are using and students are being exposed to these potent practices.

In educational spaces, it is no longer aspirational but imperative that the community--with its richness and diversity--joins educators as key instructional partners to liberate the creativity, uniqueness, and potential of all students. As educators, we can miss the value of this collaboration. This brief defines critical perspectives, why engagement is necessary, how to select and engage critical perspectives, and evaluate the process.

Despite the growing demand and availability of non-degree workforce training, outcomes for these programs are mixed. For some, non-degree programs are a faster, more affordable pathway to a good job, and, more importantly, a career that offers economic security--they represent the future of education. But for others, non-degree programs are a hyped-up distraction from degree attainment that leads to unemployment, underemployment, or employment in poverty-wage jobs with limited advancement opportunities--particularly for Black and Brown learners. The New Models for Career Preparation Project aims to help unlock the full potential of non-degree workforce training, especially at public community colleges where these programs are commonly found. This brief is the third in a three-part series that focuses on creating non-degree workforce programs. It describes data collection and data-driven continuous improvement strategies colleges should use regularly.