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This study examined the impact of Classworks® Individualized Learning math instruction on second-grade students performing below the 25th percentile in math. The research, conducted during the 2021-2022 school year, involved 1,367 students from 45 schools across seven districts. A quasi-experimental design compared 941 students who had any use of Classworks (treatment group) with 426 students who did not (comparison group). Students in both the treatment and comparison groups completed the Classworks Math Universal Screener assessments at the beginning and end of the school year. The study employed linear modeling with adjustments for clustering, baseline achievement, and district fixed effects. Results showed that Classworks users scored an average of 5.17 points higher on the spring math assessment compared to non-users, with an effect size of 0.13. Treatment group students engaged with the program for an average of 11 minutes per week over 30 instructional weeks. These findings suggest that Classworks Individualized Learning math instruction has a positive impact on the math performance for struggling second-grade students, even with modest time investment. Educators may consider implementing such personalized, technology-based interventions to support students performing below grade level in mathematics. Future research could explore the program's long-term effects and its impact on different student subgroups. The study includes tables presenting baseline equivalence statistics and model-based results, along with references supporting the methodology and context of the research.

An ongoing debate in K-12 education policy has been between the "reform" agenda, including charter schools and school vouchers, and advocates of traditional public schools, led by educator unions. A similar split has emerged in higher education, particularly community colleges. Using California as an example, this paper: 1) summarizes the evolution of the current political divide between advocates of the "completion and success" agenda and faculty-led opponents, including the major reforms involved, 2) discusses the claims that leading organizations on each side have made, including their policy priorities, and 3) argues that the two sides share do share some areas of mutual agreement. The paper concludes by noting future policy considerations that could complicate reform efforts.

We develop a multi-agent model of the education production function where investments of students, parents, and teachers are linked to the presence of minorities in the classroom. We then test the key implications of this model using rich survey data and a mandate to randomly assign students to classrooms. Consistent with our model, we show that exposure to minority peers decreases student effort, parental investments, and teacher engagement and it results in lower student test scores. Observables correlated with minority status explain less than a third of the reduced-form test score effect while over a third can be descriptively attributed to endogenous responses of the agents.

In an effort to reduce state spending on special education in public schools, New Jersey moved to census-based funding as part of the new school funding formula, the School Funding Reform Act (SFRA), adopted in 2008. The census approach funds all districts using the statewide average classification rate and a statewide average "excess cost." This report found that: (1) Classification rates for special education vary greatly among school districts, resulting in the inequitable distribution of resources to fund districts' actual special education enrollment; (2) In 2022-23, districts with classification rates higher than the statewide average received $378 million less than if they were funded on their actual special education enrollment; and (3) Districts with higher-than-average classification rates must divert funding from general education programs or raise additional local revenue to fill the gap for unfunded special education students. In this report, the authors show that census-based funding does not meet the needs of New Jersey school districts and the students, in both special and general education, they serve. The analyses presented in this report demonstrate the need for New Jersey to convene school finance and special education experts to explore and recommend alternative funding models for special education that would better meet the needs of the state's school districts.

Research for Action (RFA) in partnership with the University of Texas at Austin is engaged in a five-year mixed-methods study of the reforms associated with California AB 705. Over the course of the study, our team will assess the implementation, impact, and cost effectiveness of reforms associated with the law. This report first offers a descriptive quantitative analysis of short-term outcome (enrollment and completion) trends in math and English at the state level. This descriptive analysis examines the relationship between AB 705 and course enrollment and completion, which will serve as the basis for the quasi-experimental study in subsequent project years. The second part of the report presents findings from institutional site visits aimed at understanding how institutions have implemented the reforms, who is involved in implementation, and how implementation is experienced by students.

Clinical practice opportunities are critical elements of teacher preparation. However, the landscape is extensive, encompassing an ever-growing variety of preparation models, from centuries-old traditional student teaching to newly minted registered apprenticeships. The purpose of this paper is to create a clinical practice lexicon for the profession that includes: (1) a definition for the two key types of clinical practice--(a) practice opportunities prior to full-time teaching and (b) full-time student teaching; and (2) an outline of the six common models of clinical practice, including defining characteristics and the efficacy of these models in preparing teachers for the classroom.

This literature review, aligned to National Council on Teacher Quality's (NCTQ) Clinical Practice Framework, explores various components of clinical practice and how they affect a range of outcomes, including aspiring teachers' feelings of preparedness, their entry into teaching, their retention in the classroom, and perhaps most importantly, their effectiveness once they are running a classroom of their own. This review primarily relies on published, peer-reviewed research and working papers, but includes some work by prominent organizations and task forces in the field to supplement areas where research is scarce and to provide more insight into the views of the field.

Creating a strong clinical practice experience for every teacher at scale requires that three core actors--prep programs, school districts, and states--work together. This framework sets out the six focus areas of clinical practice backed by research and supported by the field as the most important to build a quality clinical practice experience. It further identifies the actions that these core actors can take in each area. Based on survey responses of hundreds of practitioners from teacher prep programs and school districts, the authors learned that while their programs have much to be proud of, they also recognize that they are missing opportunities to deliver an exceptional clinical practice experience. This framework can help the core actors identify the aspects of their clinical practice programs that are already aligned with the evidence and illuminate opportunities to improve.

Multiple measures assessment (MMA) is an alternative placement system that involves the consideration of alternative measures of students' performance--such as high school grades or GPA--in addition to or in place of standardized test scores to better place students. While the evidence for MMA is strong, placement reform has yet to spread to many colleges and states. Moreover, despite growing support for MMA, many colleges may not be implementing the most promising MMA systems, and some may shift back to standardized testing in the post-pandemic environment. CAPR has sought to assist colleges and states nationwide with the adoption and implementation of MMA practices that place more students--and allow more students to be successful--in college-level courses. As part of these efforts, CAPR worked with colleges in Arkansas and Texas to adopt and expand MMA. The findings in this report are derived from interviews with personnel from 12 two- and four-year public colleges in those states that went through considerable effort to improve their placement systems and to make them sustainable on a large scale. The study focused on three questions: What was the design of the MMA system at each college? How were colleges adopting MMA practices and what were key facilitators and hindrances? And what was the average cost of implementation? The authors found that adoption of MMA at each study college required collaboration among institutional leaders, administrators, faculty members, and advisors. The report highlights the roles of key actors in the adoption of MMA and the important role that state context and policies played in implementation. It also describes challenges that colleges had to overcome during implementation, such as obtaining staff buy-in, managing student data, and ensuring sufficient staffing.

Graduates of special education teacher education programs can teach in a range of special education settings, raising the potential that their training can occur in very different settings than where they find their first jobs. We follow 263 completers of Moderate Disabilities programs in Massachusetts from their field placements to their early-career teaching positions and study the characteristics of their field placements and the degree to which these are aligned with their early-career teaching positions. We also assess the degree to which alignment is associated with early-career teacher turnover. We found that many of these teachers student-taught in an inclusive setting but were hired into a self-contained special education setting and vice versa, and teachers who experienced this misalignment were more likely to leave the workforce early in their careers. Teachers who student taught with a supervising practitioner without a special education license were also more likely to leave early. Findings suggest that teachers training to educate students with learning disabilities should student teach in a setting that is aligned with where they are likely to be hired, and with a supervising practitioner who is trained in special education.

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), requires state education agencies to establish and implement standardized, statewide entrance and exit procedures for English learners (ELs). WIDA provides the English language proficiency placement and annual assessments administered in Indiana, which inform programmatic decisions such as initial identification of ELs and placement into an EL program. The "2023-2024 WIDA Assessment Guidance" provides information on the following 15 topics: (1) English Language Proficiency Requirements; (2) Participation Requirements; (3) WIDA Assessments in Grades K-12; (4) WIDA ACCESS Annual Assessments Testing Window; (5) Indiana EL Entrance and Exit Criteria; (6) Scheduling and Timing Guidance; (7) Translation of Directions in Native Language; (8) Test Results and Reporting; (9) User Roles and Responsibilities; (10) Training Requirements; (11) Testing Modes and Technology Guidance; (12) Common Testing Issues and Irregularities; (13) WIDA Accessibility Features and Accommodations; (14) WIDA Alternate ACCESS; and (15) Support and Resources.

This report exam­ines how demographics and outcomes changed when schools that had enrolled a dis­pro­por­tion­ate share of the sys­tem's white stu­dents entered the city's cen­tral­ized enroll­ment sys­tem in New Orleans. It finds that the schools enter­ing that sys­tem (OneApp/?NCAP) led to increased access to those schools for Black and oth­er non­white stu­dents. While schools have been reluc­tant to give up con­trol over enroll­ment, these schools did not see declines in white enroll­ment or aca­d­e­m­ic per­for­mance after join­ing the enroll­ment system.

Unified enrollment (UE) systems were designed to improve efficiency, equity, and transparency in school choice processes, but research has focused on efficiency gains. This study examines whether moving from decentralized enrollment processes to UE mitigates or exacerbates racial segregation that often occurs in choice systems. Specifically, we examine a subset of charter schools in New Orleans that had enrolled disproportionately high numbers of white students prior to entering UE. We find that UE entry was associated with increased enrollment of nonwhite students in these schools without offsetting declines in white enrollment, facilitated by schools also increasing total enrollment after entering UE. We find no meaningful impacts of UE on school accountability measures, student or teacher mobility, or student discipline.

Many cities with school choice programs employ algorithms to make school placements. These algorithms use student priorities to determine which applicants get seats in oversubscribed schools. This study explores whether the New Orleans placement algorithm tends to favor students of certain races or socioeconomic classes. Specifically, we examine cases where families of Black and White or poor and non-poor children request the same elementary school as their top choice. We find that when Black and White applicants submit the same first-choice request for kindergarten, Black applicants are 9 percentage points less likely to receive it. Meanwhile, students in poverty are 6 percentage points less likely to receive a first-choice placement than other applicants for the same kindergarten program. However, these biases are not inevitable. In non-entry grades, where placement policies favor students whose schools are closing, Black and low-income applicants are more likely to obtain first-choice placements than their peers. We examine these priorities and simulate placements under alternate specifications of a deferred-acceptance algorithm to assess the potential of algorithm reform as a policymaking tool.

Many U.S. cities with school choice programs have adopted unified enrollment systems to manage their application and placement processes centrally. Typically, these systems use placement algorithms to assign students to schools. These algorithms make placements based on families' rank-ordered requests, seat availability in schools, and various priorities and lottery numbers that determine students' standing at each school. This study examines the placement algorithm--and broader school request, placement, and enrollment patterns--in New Orleans, which has a citywide system of charter schools. The authors explore whether the priority categories in the New Orleans placement algorithm tend to favor students of certain races or socioeconomic classes. Specifically, the authors examine cases where families of Black and white children, or lower-income and higher-income families, submit the same first-choice requests for kindergarten (a key entry grade for elementary school). In addition to examining whether certain groups of students are more likely than others to get school placements when they vie for the same seats, the authors run simulations to assess how placement patterns might differ with different policies.

This report examines the success of students with lower levels of high school performance who began in transfer-level math as a result of Assembly Bill 705 (Irwin 2017). AB 705 is historic legislation that transformed placement and eventually ended developmental education in California's community colleges. Since community colleges are open access institutions, it is particularly important to monitor the impact of such reforms on students who are perceived to be underprepared--particularly in math, which has historically been a persistent barrier to academic progress for many students. In this report, the authors focus on students in the lowest placement band of the placement rules (i.e., default placement rules), that were developed by the Multiple Measures Assessment Project (MMAP) to support colleges in operationalizing AB 705. The authors compare the predicted versus actual success rates of students in the lowest placement band who were placed into, and began in, transfer-level math courses post-AB 705. If the predictions overestimated the success of these students, California community colleges may have grounds to revisit the efficacy of developmental education as a means for meeting AB 705's mandates.

At community colleges and open-enrollment universities, most first-year students take placement exams in English and mathematics to determine whether they are ready for college-level courses. But large-scale studies have indicated that these test scores misplace substantial numbers of students--in other words, for many students, the test score does not accurately reflect their ability to succeed in college-level courses. This fact means that many students are taking these courses when they do not need them, using up valuable time and money. To improve placement accuracy, hundreds of colleges across the country have begun implementing a strategy called multiple measures assessment (MMA), a placement approach that uses alternative indicators including high school grade point average instead of or in addition to a single test score to improve placement accuracy. Both corequisite remediation and MMA have been shown to get more students into college-level courses quickly and to help more students pass those courses. This brief summarizes findings from two surveys that show both corequisite and MMA practices are on the rise nationally, making it even more important to understand how best to implement these two practices together. This brief also introduces a study that will provide rigorous evidence related to that question.

For far too long in California, remedial courses in California Community Colleges meant costly barriers to student success. Fortunately, recent legislation -- Assembly Bill 705 signed into law in 2017 -- requires these colleges to eliminate remedial courses and instead use research-backed strategies like corequisite support to help students complete transfer-level courses. Ed Trust-West's latest "bright spot" looks at Ventura College (VC) and its implementation of Assembly Bill 705 (AB 705), outlining the successful strategies the college is leveraging to place students into coursework that gives them the best chance of completing transferable, college-level math within a year of their first attempt. The report describes VC's strategies for increasing access to transfer-level math courses and supporting students to complete those courses.

In fall 2016, CAPR began a randomized controlled trial of multiple measures assessment (MMA) in community colleges in the State University of New York (SUNY) to learn whether MMA yields placement determinations that lead to better student outcomes than a system based on test scores alone. In 2020, a report was released on students' outcomes after three terms. CAPR then launched a follow-up study to estimate outcomes for a longer time period. In this follow-up study, student outcomes, including college-level math and English enrollment and completion and college-level credit attainment, were tracked for at least nine terms from the time of testing, through spring 2021. The findings were disaggregated by race/ethnicity, Pell recipient status, and gender subgroups; a cost analysis of MMA was also conducted. This brief focuses on "bump-zone" findings--those for the subset of students whose placements changed (or would have changed) under MMA. The study finds that--four and a half years after random assignment--students who were "bumped up" into college-level math and English courses through MMA were much more likely to have enrolled in and completed a college-level course (with a grade of C or higher) than similar business-as-usual group students. The benefits of MMA were likely driven primarily by increased access to college-level courses rather than by any improved accuracy from using MMA. Regardless of subject area, program group students who were bumped up through MMA had better outcomes than similar students in the business-as-usual group, and program group students who were bumped down through MMA had worse outcomes than similar business-as-usual group students. It is important to recognize that MMA can be designed in a way that promotes more access and that prevents students from receiving a lower placement. [For the accompanying working paper, see ED632523.]

Multiple measures assessment (MMA) has gained considerable momentum over the past decade as an alternative to traditional test-based procedures for placing incoming students into developmental or college-level coursework in math and English at broad-access colleges. Compared to standardized tests, which measure student performance at a single point in time, MMA (which often emphasizes high school GPA as a measure) provides a more holistic picture of students' academic preparation. Despite positive impacts on student outcomes that have been found by recent research on MMA, questions remain about whether the positive effects of MMA are sustained over time. This study--a follow-up to prior research using the same sample of students--employs a randomized controlled trial to investigate whether algorithmic MMA placement used at seven State University of New York (SUNY) community colleges led to better student outcomes, for up to four and a half years after randomization, than a system based on test scores alone. Nearly 13,000 incoming students who arrived at the seven colleges in fall 2016, spring 2017, and fall 2017 took placement tests and were randomly assigned to be placed using either the status quo method (business-as-usual group) or the alternative, algorithmic MMA method (program group). Using this sample, we estimate the overall treatment effects on placement into, enrollment in, and completion of college-level math and English as well as effects on other outcomes. We conduct similar analyses on race/ethnicity, Pell recipient status, and gender subgroups. We also descriptively examine the proportion of program group students who were bumped up (i.e., their placement changed from a developmental course placement to a college-level course placement) and bumped down (i.e., their placement changed from a college-level course placement to a developmental course placement) by the MMA algorithm, and we perform a cost-effectiveness analysis. We find that the MMA method used at the colleges improved access to and success in college-level courses and that lower cut scores in English rather than math are associated with larger and longer lasting impacts on completion of college-level coursework. While MMA improved outcomes among student subgroups, it had little to no impact on gaps in outcomes between subgroups. We also find that bumped-up students had substantially better outcomes in both math and English, while bumped-down students had substantially worse outcomes. Our results suggest that increased access to college-level courses is the driving factor in the positive outcomes experienced by program group students and that placement into standalone developmental courses can have detrimental effects on student outcomes. In the discussion of the study's results, we make recommendations for adopting MMA at colleges. Implemented together with other initiatives to support students, MMA can be a first step on the path to success for incoming students. [For the accompanying research brief, see ED632528.]

This pilot study examines digital SAT® score relationships with first-year college performance. Results show that digital SAT scores predict college performance as well as paper and pencil SAT scores, and that digital SAT scores meaningfully improve our understanding of a student's readiness for college above high school grade point average (HSGPA) alone. In this study, there was a 22% improvement in the prediction of college performance when the SAT and HSGPA were used together, instead of using the HSGPA alone. For STEM majors, the added SAT value was 38%. Similar results were found when the outcome examined was course credits earned in the first year, a metric for understanding student progress toward degree completion. Findings from this study show that the SAT remains a powerful tool for understanding students' readiness for college, for course placement and academic major field decisions, scholarship and honors program decisions, and identifying students who may need academic support.

The appendices accompany the full report "Using Bayesian Meta-Analysis to Explore the Components of Early Literacy Interventions. WWC 2023-008," (ED630495), which pilots a new taxonomy developed by early literacy experts and intervention developers as part of a larger effort to develop standard nomenclature for the components of literacy interventions. The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) uses Bayesian meta-analysis--a statistical method to systematically summarize evidence across multiple studies--to estimate the associations between intervention components and intervention impacts. Twenty-nine studies of 25 early literacy interventions that were previously reviewed by the WWC and met the WWC's rigorous research standards were included in the analysis. The following apprendices are presented: (1) Components of Early Literacy Interventions; (2) Data from the What Works Clearinghouse's Database of Reviewed Studies; (3) The Bayesian Meta-Analytic Model; (4) Additional Results; and (5) Component Coding Protocol.

Enrollment in California public schools has been declining and is projected to fall even more steeply during the next decade. Because funding for school districts is largely based on average daily attendance rates, a decline in enrollment results in a loss of funding. To address budget shortfalls and align services with student counts, many districts have consolidated or closed schools, or they are contemplating doing so. Leaders in declining-enrollment districts will need to consider the benefits and costs when seeking to balance their budgets with new enrollment realities. This report makes three recommendations for how local decision makers, including district officials and school board members, should approach school closures: (1) establish and execute an inclusive, transparent process; (2) implement a strategy to provide displaced students and the broader student community with accessible, high-quality educational opportunities; and (3) develop a long-term plan to address factors--such as housing affordability, gentrification, and economic divestment--contributing to the disproportionate closure of schools serving low-income students and students of color. This report aims to provide evidence and suggestions to help state and local education leaders as they confront declining enrollment and urges them to work with other city and county agencies, including housing and economic development authorities, to increase opportunities for low-income families and communities of color so that fewer enrollment-related school closures are necessary.

Newcomers represent a large and understudied subgroup of students in California. The Oakland Unified School District has been disaggregating data on newcomer status for the last 7 years, providing a basis for analyzing graduation outcomes for newcomer compared to non-newcomer students. The data highlight the variance in outcomes based on program placement and design. Drawing from analysis of Oakland Unified's data and practices, the authors make programmatic recommendations for districts with newcomer students, focusing on special considerations for different subgroups, enrollment patterns, school models, the intersection of special education and newcomer status, and effective models of English language development. The authors also make recommendations for the state to consider, focusing on data-collection practices, the need for articulated technical assistance, and funding considerations.

This case study identifies promising practices for newcomer education implemented in San Juan Unified School District (SJUSD), one of 12 local educational agencies (LEAs) funded under the California Newcomer Education and Well-Being (CalNEW) project between 2018 and 2021. This report was developed through a partnership between the Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) Newcomer Research-Practice-Policy Partnership and the Center for Equity for English Learners (CEEL) at Loyola Marymount University (LMU). SJUSD is the fifth largest immigrant-enrolling district in the state, with 2,982 newcomer students who speak a wide variety of languages, including Spanish, Russian, Pashto, Arabic, Farsi, Ukrainian, and Turkish. The case study was conducted during a 2022 summer program for approximately 500 recently arrived immigrant students. Using interviews with 32 school and community leaders and educators, a review of 65 program documents, and observations of 15 classrooms using a tool focused on effective instructional practices for newcomer education, the authors identified four overarching themes that illustrate promising practices: (1) "How big can you make your village?"--building on community cultural wealth; (2) "Match dollars to needs"--leveraging multiple and differentiated resources; (3) Developing educator capabilities to teach and support newcomer students; and (4) Designing newcomer program and placement practices.

In response to the significant and still growing number of college students experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity in California, the State Legislature appropriated $9 million in the 2019-2020 State Budget for ongoing funding to provide housing services to students. Per section 9795 of the statute, colleges, in partnership with local housing service agencies, must provide housing navigation and placement services, academic support, and case management services to homeless students or those at risk of becoming homeless. As an additional requirement of the legislation, funds were allocated to colleges that demonstrated the greatest need. In February 2020, the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office ("Chancellor's Office") evaluated the need and capacity data submitted by interested colleges, including campus- and county-based data such as financial aid uptake rates, low-income housing availability, and poverty rates, and distributed funds to 14 California community colleges as part of the California Community Colleges Homeless and Housing Insecurity Pilot (CCC HHIP) Program. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has caused some delay in the implementation of the CCC HHIP Program, participating colleges have made significant strides in operationalizing their programs locally. Upon receipt of funding, participating colleges immediately began developing the necessary infrastructure to implement the program, including hiring staff, developing outreach and retention strategies, and engaging key internal partners such as campus financial aid and facilities staff. This report provides an outline of the progress that the 14 colleges have made in supporting homeless and housing-insecure students. Despite facing several unexpected COVID-19 related challenges in the first year of the program, the 14 colleges developed the required infrastructure and provided support services to over 500 homeless or housing insecure students. This report describes the challenges, steps and successes that occurred along the way.

To better support districts and preschool program providers, the Ohio Department of Education's Office of Early Learning and School Readiness is providing answers to the following frequently asked questions pertaining to Ohio Administrative Code 3301-51-11. This document is divided into sections aligning with each section of the rule. This document will continue to be updated based on additional questions and concerns from the field. Red text indicates revisions since previous version. [For the 2021 report, see ED619735.]

The RP Group's Multiple Measures Assessment Project (MMAP) produced this technical report as part of a series on how California's community colleges can ensure more English learners (ELs) successfully complete "gateway" English coursework -- courses that satisfy the English writing requirements for completion of an associate's degree as well as for transfer to a four-year college or university -- in a timely way. The report summarizes findings on how well information about international students' initial curricular pathway (English or ESL), level of placement in the pathway, and ESL placement test score(s) can predict their throughput in gateway English. It specifically focuses on the value of different commonly used ESL placement tests to this process, including the Combined English Language Skills Assessment (CESLA) and multiple types of ACCUPLACER tests. It begins with key findings from this research followed by a description of the research methodology. Then, it offers a detailed analysis of the predictive validity of different ESL placement tests for students' throughput. It concludes with high-level recommendations based on these findings. The report is intended to support the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office (CCCCO) and other educators and policymakers involved in development education reform in their decision-making about ways to continue supporting the success and completion of English learners in the system.