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K - 12 Education |
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School-Based Reforms in Secondary Schools |
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National High School Center Publishes Briefs for Practitioners by MDRC Experts
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The National High School Center has just released a set of briefs, authored by MDRC consultants Michael Bangser and Thomas J. Smith, that examine what is known about educational interventions that help students prepare for postsecondary education and employment.
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Career Academies
Long-Term Impacts on Labor Market Outcomes, Educational Attainment, and Transitions to Adulthood
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2008. James J. Kemple with Cynthia J. Willner.
Eight-year findings on Career Academies — a popular high school reform that combines academics with career development opportunities — show that the programs produced sustained employment and earnings gains, particularly among young men. Career Academy participants were also more likely to be living independently with children and a spouse or a partner.
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The Enhanced Reading Opportunities Study
Early Impact and Implementation Findings
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U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance
2008. James J. Kemple, William Corrin, Elizabeth Nelson, Terry Salinger, Suzannah Herrmann, and Kathryn Drummond
This report presents early findings from a demonstration and random assignment evaluation of two supplemental literacy programs that aim to improve the reading comprehension skills and school performance of struggling ninth-grade readers. On average, the programs produced a positive, statistically significant impact on reading comprehension among students.
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Preparing High School Students for Successful Transitions to Postsecondary Education and Employment
Policy Brief
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National High School Center.
2008. Michael Bangser.
This issue brief, published by the National High School Center, highlights lessons from selected policies and programs designed to improve students’ preparation for life after high school.
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Striking the Balance
Career Academies Combine Academic Rigor and Workplace Relevance
Policy Brief
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National High School Center.
2008. Thomas J. Smith.
This “snapshot,” published by the National High School Center, takes a close look at implementation of the Career Academy model in one high school in Oakland, California.
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Evaluating the Impact of Interventions That Promote Successful Transitions from High School
Policy Brief
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National High School Center.
2008. Michael Bangser.
This research brief, published by the National High School Center, examines the challenges and opportunities presented in evaluating whether an intervention achieves defined goals of increasing students’ educational attainment, employment, and earnings after high school.
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State- and District-Level Support for Successful Transitions into High School
Policy Brief
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National High School Center.
2007. Corinne Herlihy.
This policy brief, published by the National High School Center, focuses on five key challenges that states, districts, and schools should address to support a successful transition into high school.
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Toward Ensuring a Successful Transition into High School
Policy Brief
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National High School Center.
2007. Corinne Herlihy.
This issue brief, published by the National High School Center, suggests that transitions into high school can be eased when both structural and specialized curricula reforms are in place.
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Managing the Transition to High School in a Comprehensive Urban High School
Policy Brief
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National High School Center.
2007. Thomas J. Smith.
This “snapshot,” published by the National High School Center, explains how Thomas A. Edison High School in Philadelphia implemented a Ninth-Grade Success Academy.
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Emerging Evidence on Improving High School Student Achievement and Graduation Rates
The Effects of Four Popular Improvement Programs
Policy Brief
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National High School Center.
2006. Corinne M. Herlihy and Janet Quint.
This research brief, published by the National High School Center, draws on findings from four studies by MDRC that shed light on both the nature of the problems found in low-performing high schools and on the effectiveness of promising interventions that attempt to address those problems.
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MDRC's Evaluation of Project GRAD
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Project Graduation Really Achieves Dreams (GRAD) is an ambitious education reform initiative that targets high schools and the elementary and middle schools that feed into them. Findings from MDRC’s evaluation of Project GRAD in several urban school districts can be found in two reports — one focused on elementary schools and the other on high schools.
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Meeting Five Critical Challenges of High School Reform
Lessons from Research on Three Reform Models
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2006. Janet Quint.
Recent MDRC evaluations of three high school reform models — Career Academies, First Things First, and Talent Development — offer hope that comprehensive programs can improve low-performing high schools. This research synthesis for policymakers and practitioners offers practical lessons for creating personalized learning environments, helping struggling freshmen, improving instruction, preparing students for the world beyond high school, and stimulating change in overstressed high schools.
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Closing the Aspirations-Attainment Gap
Implications for High School Reform
A Commentary from Chicago
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2006. Melissa Roderick.
In this paper, prepared for MDRC’s 2005 high school reform conference, Melissa Roderick, Co-Director of the Consortium on Chicago School Research, contends that the primary goal of high school reform should be to close the gap between the high aspirations of minority and low-income public high school students — most of whom want to go to college — and the low numbers who graduate with the skills they need.
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Charting a Path to Graduation
The Effect of Project GRAD on Elementary School
Student Outcomes in Four Urban Districts
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2006. Jason C. Snipes, Glee Ivory Holton, and Fred Doolittle.
This report describes the effects of Project GRAD, an ambitious education reform that targets high schools and the elementary and middle schools that feed into them, on student test scores in elementary schools in Houston, Texas; Atlanta, Georgia; Columbus, Ohio; and Newark, New Jersey.
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Striving for Student Success
The Effect of Project GRAD on High School Student Outcomes in Three Urban School Districts
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2006. Jason C. Snipes, Glee Ivory Holton, Fred Doolittle, and Laura Sztejnberg.
This report describes the effects of Project GRAD, an ambitious education reform that targets high schools and the elementary and middle schools that feed into them, on a variety of student outcomes in high schools in Houston, Texas; Atlanta, Georgia; and Columbus, Ohio.
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Student Context, Student Attitudes and Behavior, and Academic Achievement
An Exploratory Analysis
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2006. Theresa M. Akey
This analysis of data collected in MDRC’s evaluation of the First Things First reform initiative confirms that high school students’ engagement in school and perceptions of their own academic competence influence their mathematics achievement. The study also suggests that perceived academic competence may be more influential than engagement in boosting achievement in both mathematics and reading.
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Using Covariates to Improve Precision
Empirical Guidance for Studies That Randomize Schools to Measure the Impacts of Educational Interventions
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2005. Howard S. Bloom, Lashawn Richburg-Hayes, and Alison Rebeck Black.
This paper examines how controlling statistically for baseline covariates (especially pretests) improves the precision of studies that randomize schools to measure the impacts of educational interventions on student achievement.
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The Challenge of Scaling Up Educational Reform
Findings and Lessons from First Things First
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2005. Janet Quint, Howard S. Bloom, Alison Rebeck Black, and LaFleur Stephens with Theresa M. Akey.
First Things First, a comprehensive school reform initiative, increased student achievement in Kansas City, Kansas, the first school district to adopt the reform model. It is not yet clear if First Things First is working in four other school districts in which it has been replicated.
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Making Progress Toward Graduation
Evidence from the Talent Development High School Model
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2005. James J. Kemple, Corinne M. Herlihy, and Thomas J. Smith.
Talent Development, a high school reform initiative, produced substantial positive effects on attendance, academic course credits earned, tenth-grade promotion, and algebra pass rates for students in very low-performing schools in Philadelphia.
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The Talent Development Middle School Model
Context, Components, and Initial Impacts on Students’ Performance and Attendance
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2004. Corinne M. Herlihy and James J. Kemple.
During the first three years of implementation in six urban schools, The Talent Development Middle School model—an ongoing, whole-school reform initiative—had a positive impact on math achievement for eighth-graders but appeared to produce no systematic improvement in outcomes for seventh-graders.
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High School Reform Conference Series
Using Rigorous Evidence to Improve Policy and Practice
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2004. MDRC.
How can evidence-based research help improve low-performing high schools? This report summarizes the first in a series of conferences designed to bring together researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to address that question.
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Conducting Classroom Observations in First Things First Schools
Working Paper
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2004. Angela Estacion, Teresa McMahon, Janet Quint, with Bernice Melamud and LaFleur Stephens.
Relying on 427 classroom observations conducted over a three-year period, this study traces changes in teachers’ instructional practices in the First Things First schools.
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The Talent Development High School Model
Context, Components, and Initial Impacts on Ninth-Grade Students’ Engagement and Performance
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2004. James J. Kemple and Corinne M. Herlihy.
An examination of the implementation and early impacts of Talent Development, a whole-school reform initiative, found that the model produced substantial gains in ninth-grade students’ course completion and promotion rates.
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Career Academies
Impacts on Labor Market Outcomes and Educational Attainment
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2004. James J. Kemple with Judith Scott-Clayton.
Career Academies produced substantial and sustained improvements in earnings of young men after high school, without limiting opportunities to attend college.
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Scaling Up First Things First
Findings from the First Implementation Year
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2003. Janet C. Quint, D. Crystal Byndloss.
Based on survey data and findings from interviews and observations, this report describes the First Things First reform initiative and its first year of implementation at seven secondary schools, with a focus on three key components: small learning communities, a family advocacy system, and instructional improvement strategies.
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First Things First
Creating the Conditions and Capacity for Community-Wide Reform in an Urban School District
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Gambone & Associates.
2002. Michelle Alberti Gambone, Ph.D., Adena M. Klem, Ph.D., William P. Moore, Ph.D., Jean Ann Summers, Ph.D.
Take a look inside the Kansas City, Kansas (KCK)
public schools and you will find challenges facing
any urban district: insufficient funding, large
numbers of at-risk students, declining enrollment
and teacher shortages. You will also see teachers
working in teams and staying with their students
for more than one year, lower ratios of students to
teachers in key classes and extra time built into the
day for professional development.
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Scaling Up First Things First
Site Selection and the Planning Year
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2002. Janet C. Quint.
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Course Taking, Test Preparation, and Career Academy Programs
Findings from a Field Study
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2002. Thomas J. Smith.
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Getting Connected
A Resource Directory for Career Academies
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2002. MDRC, Career Academy Support Network.
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Career Academies
Impacts on Students’ Initial Transitions to Post-Secondary Education and Employment
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2001. James J. Kemple.
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Building the Foundation for Improved Student Performance
The Pre-Curricular Phase of Project GRAD Newark
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2000. Sandra Ham, Fred C. Doolittle, Glee Ivory Holton with Ana Maria Ventura, Rochanda Jackson.
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Career Academies
Impacts on Students' Engagement and Performance in High School
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2000. James J. Kemple, Jason C. Snipes.
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Career Academies
Building Career Awareness and Work-Based Learning Activities Through Employer Partnerships
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1999. James J. Kemple, Susan M. Poglinco, Jason C. Snipes.
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Project Transition
Testing an Intervention to Help High School Freshmen Succeed
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1999. Janet C. Quint, Cynthia Miller, Jennifer J. Pastor, Rachel E. Cytron.
Project Transition combines strategies that are becoming more common in K-12 settings across the nation: student-teacher clusters, extra time for teachers to work together, and a teacher "coach" meant to support instructional change
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Career Academies
Communities of Support for Students and Teachers—Emerging Findings from a 10-Site Evaluation
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1997. James J. Kemple.
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Home-Grown Progress
The Evolution of Innovative School-to-Work Programs
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1997. Rachel A. Pedraza, Edward Pauly, Hilary Kopp.
These school-to-work initiatives bring together education professionals, community leaders, and employers committed to improving public education by creating opportunities for students to learn about careers through classroom instruction and to participate in work-based learning.
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Career Academies
Early Implementation Lessons from a 10-Site Evaluation
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1996. James J. Kemple and JoAnn Leah Rock.
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Home-Grown Lessons
Innovative Programs Linking School and Work
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Jossey-Bass Inc.
1994. Edward Pauly, Hilary Kopp, Joshua Haimson.
The report describes the efforts of pioneering U.S. school districts and employers that have built programs to help students make the transition from school to work.
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