Time to Lead: An Illustrative Look at How Elementary School Principals Spend Their Workweek

New evidence suggests that elementary school principals spend more than one-third of their workweek providing direct and indirect instructional support to teachers.

The Effects of a Principal Professional Development Program Focused on Instructional Leadership (Study Highlights)

Helping principals improve their leadership practices is a common use of federal funds and one way to improve instruction and student achievement.

The Effects of a Principal Professional Development Program Focused on Instructional Leadership

The Institute of Education Sciences conducted a random assignment study of an intensive professional development program for elementary school principals.

School Improvement Grants: Implementation and Effectiveness (In Focus Brief)

This brief summarizes findings from a new report from Mathematica’s multiyear evaluation of School Improvement Grants (SIG) for the Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences. It describes the practices schools used and examines the impact of SIG on student achievement.

School Improvement Grants: Implementation and Effectiveness (Executive Summary)

This executive summary describes key findings from a report from Mathematica’s multiyear evaluation of School Improvement Grants (SIG) for the Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences. It describes the practices schools used and examines the impact of SIG on student achievement.

School Improvement Grants: Implementation and Effectiveness (Final Report)

This report summarizes findings from Mathematica’s multiyear evaluation of School Improvement Grants (SIG) for the Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences. It describes the practices schools used and examines the impact of SIG on student achievement.

Race to the Top: Implementation and Relationship to Student Outcomes

This report summarizes findings from Mathematica’s multiyear evaluation of Race to the Top (RTT) for the Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences.

Race to the Top: Implementation and Relationship to Student Outcomes (In Focus)

This brief summarizes findings from a new report from Mathematica’s multiyear evaluation of Race to the Top (RTT) for the Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences.

Race to the Top: Implementation and Relationship to Student Outcomes (Executive Summary)

This executive summary describes key findings from a report from Mathematica’s multiyear evaluation of Race to the Top (RTT) for the Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences.

The Impact of Playworks on Students’ Physical Activity by Race/Ethnicity: Findings from a Randomized Controlled Trial (Journal Article)

The Playworks program places coaches in low-income urban schools to engage students in physical activity during recess. The purpose of this study was to estimate the impact of Playworks on students’ physical activity separately for Hispanic, non-Hispanic black, and non-Hispanic white students.

Examining States' Use of Policies and Practices Promoted by Race to the Top (In Focus Brief)

This brief summarizes findings from a new report from Mathematica’s multi-year evaluation of Race to the Top (RTT) for the Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences. It describes the policies and practices states reported using in spring 2012.

In Focus: Examining Schools' Use of Practices Promoted by School Improvement Grants (In Focus Brief)

This brief summarizes findings from a new report from Mathematica’s multi-year evaluation of School Improvement Grants (SIG) for the Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences. It describes the practices schools reported using in spring 2012.

Usage of Practices Promoted by School Improvement Grants

This report summarizes findings from Mathematica’s multi-year evaluation of School Improvement Grants (SIG) for the Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences. It describes the practices schools reported using in spring 2012.

Usage of Policies and Practices Promoted by Race to the Top

This report summarizes findings from Mathematica’s multi-year evaluation of Race to the Top (RTT) for the Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences. It describes the policies and practices states reported using in spring 2012.

Executive Summary: Usage of Policies and Practices Promoted by Race to the Top and School Improvement Grants

This executive summary describes key findings from a two-volume report from Mathematica’s multi-year evaluation of Race to the Top (RTT) and School Improvement Grants (SIG) programs for the Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences.

Examining States' Capacity to Support Turnaround in Low-Performing Schools (In Focus Brief)

This fact sheet from a large-scale, multi-year evaluation of the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) School Improvement Grants and Race to the Top programs, documents states’ capacity to support school turnaround as of spring 2012 and spring 2013.

State Capacity to Support School Turnaround

This issue brief from Mathematica’s multi-year evaluation of Race to the Top and School Improvement Grants for the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, documents states’ capacity to support school turnaround as of spring 2012 and spring 2013.

The Impact of Playworks on Boys' and Girls' Physical Activity During Recess

Playworks had a significant impact on some measures of girls’ physical activity at recess, but no significant impact on measures of boys’ physical activity.

Are Low-Performing Schools Adopting Practices Promoted by School Improvement Grants?

This issue brief from Mathematica’s multi-year evaluation of SIG for the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, sheds light on which individual SIG practices (and what combinations of practices) low-performing schools adopted.

Are Low-Performing Schools Adopting Practices Promoted by School Improvement Grants? (In Focus Brief)

This issue brief from Mathematica’s multi-year evaluation of SIG for the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, sheds light on which individual SIG practices (and what combinations of practices) low-performing schools adopted.

State Requirements for Teacher Evaluation Policies Promoted by Race to the Top

This brief describes the extent to which states required teacher evaluation policies aligned with the RTT initiative as of spring 2012.

Impact of Playworks on Play, Physical Activity, and Recess: Findings from a Randomized Controlled Trial

Operational Authority, Support, and Monitoring of School Turnaround (Issue Brief)

This brief focuses on the implementation of SIG by examining three interrelated levers for school improvement: (1) school operational authority, (2) state and district support for turnaround, and (3) state monitoring of turnaround efforts.

Effectiveness of Four Supplemental Reading Comprehension Interventions

This article presents evidence from a large-scale randomized controlled trial of the effects of four supplemental reading comprehension curricula (Project CRISS, ReadAbout, Read for Real, and Reading for Knowledge).

Findings from a Randomized Experiment of Playworks: Selected Results from Cohort 1

The Playworks program, an initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, places full-time coaches in low-income schools to provide opportunities for organized play during recess and throughout the school day.

The Effectiveness of Mandatory-Random Student Drug Testing (Executive Summary)

Despite a decline in adolescent substance use over the past 10 years, the prevalence of illicit substance use among youth remains high and a cause of concern.

The Effectiveness of Mandatory-Random Student Drug Testing

This report presents findings from an evaluation of the mandatory-random student drug testing (MRSDT) programs in 36 high schools from seven districts that received grants from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools in 2006.

Effectiveness of Selected Supplemental Reading Comprehension Interventions: Findings from Two Student Cohorts

This study evaluated the effectiveness of four supplemental reading comprehension programs in helping disadvantaged fifth graders improve reading comprehension.