The purpose of this article is to document an innovative and effective quasi-experimental, mixed methods approach developed for evaluating the effectiveness of magnet schools throughout the United States. Magnet schools continue to be one of the most common school choice mechanisms in the United States, and as a research team the authors have been evaluating the effectiveness of magnet schools in improving student achievement since 2010. In this paper, the authors share the evaluation research design that they have used through this work, with the intent of sharing best practices in effective magnet school evaluation with other scholars and practitioners engaged in work in similar school settings. Specifically, the authors here explain the benefits of various elements of their evaluation design: their selection of comparison schools, of comparison students within those schools, and their means of measuring magnet program implementation to evaluate the degree to which implementation affected student outcomes.

Our quasi-experimental design study compared the effects of remote versus hybrid learning during the COVID-19 pandemic 2020–21 school year and after on individual student math achievement in three magnet middle schools. We used 2018–19 prepandemic student data to establish baseline equivalence. This study contributes analytic evidence that disadvantaged students who learned remotely suffered statistically significant learning losses in math during the pandemic 2020–21 school year. However, by the end of the 2021–22 school year, after one subsequent school year of in person learning, we found that they had caught up with their peers in math achievement.

This article focuses on extended education supported by parents and the community at school and its impacts on schoolteachers’ perceptions towards their work in Japan. A national survey using random sampling on elementary schoolteachers was conducted by the author; the results were used to analyze the relationships between the following variables: the existence of SSRHs, parentand community-supported extended education, and teachers’ perceptions toward their work and that of the local network. While several studies in the field have focused on extended education’s effects on children, the current study is valuable because it discusses how extended education can affect other educational stakeholders. This study’s findings therefore identify a new area of investigation that can be used to evaluate extended education’s efficacy.

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The literacy design collaborative (LDC) was created to support teachers in implementing college and career readiness standards. Teachers work collaboratively with coaches to further develop their expertise and design standards-driven, literacy-rich writing assignments within their existing curriculum across content areas. The current paper reports on early student academic outcome results from a multi-year mixed methods study of the implementation and effect of LDC using a quasi-experimental design, as implemented in one large urban school district. We found LDC had statistically significant effects on Cohort 2 middle school students’ English language arts (ELA) performance, an effect size of (d = 0.15) for students receiving LDC instruction in the three core content areas LDC focuses on: ELA, science, and social studies/history.

Every since the enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act (2001) in the United States, achievement gains resulting from afterschool participation have been of particular interest. However, findings have been inconsistent. The challenge for researchers is partly due to the wide variation of program goals, difficulty in obtaining valid control groups, difficulty in obtaining clean records of data, the high transience rates of the students, and in particular, the failure to ifferentiate among the dosage students receive and the inherent potential of selection bias in the afterschool population. This study draw on a large dataset and allows for the analysis of effects over the course of several years. Using LA's BEST afterschool program as an example, this study employed advanced methodology to reduce selection bias in examining the relations between afterschool program participation and academic achievement.Keywords: afterschool program, participation, academic achievement, selection bias, LA's BEST-----Bibliography: Huang, Denise/Leon, Seth/La Torre, Deborah: Using Entropy Balancing to Reduce the Effects of Selection Bias in Afterschool Studies: An Example in Studying the Relationship between Intensity of Afterschool Program Participation and Academic Achievement, IJREE, Vol. 5, Issue 1-2017, pp. 5-25. https://doi.org/10.3224/ijree.v5i1.01

Cognitive operations are supported by dynamically reconfiguring neural systems that integrate processing components widely distributed throughout the brain. The inter-neuronal connections that constitute these systems are powerfully shaped by environmental input. We evaluated the ability of computer-presented brain training games done in school to harness this neuroplastic potential and improve learning in an overall study sample of 583 second-grade children. Doing a 5-minute brain-training game immediately before math or reading curricular content games increased performance on the curricular content games. Doing three 20-minute brain training sessions per week for four months increased gains on school-administered math and reading achievement tests compared to control classes tested at the same times without intervening brain training. These results provide evidence of cognitive priming with immediate effects on learning, and longer-term brain training with far-transfer or generalized effects on academic achievement.

The article examines the results of two quasi-experimental studies of the implementation and impact of the Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC), an intervention designed to support secondary teachers ' transition to Common Core State Standards in English language arts. The first study examines LDC implementation by eighth-grade social studies and science teachers in districts across Kentucky; the second study is set in sixth-grade advanced reading classes in a large urban district in Florida. Based on teacher surveys, logs, and analysis of classroom artifacts, the LDC was implemented with reasonable fidelity across both studies. Based on available assessment scores, results show statistically significant positive effects in Kentucky for reading but no corollary effect in Florida. There were no significant differences in writing scores in either site. The conclusion shares hypotheses that may explain the differences in results and reflects on implications for evidence-based practice.

The findings and opinions expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of Research for Action Inc. or the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Kentucky has been a leader in the movement to more rigorous college and career ready standards to support their students' success in the 21st century. The first state to adopt new college and career ready standards (CCRS), termed the Kentucky Core Academic Standards, Kentucky and many of its districts have moved proactively and strategically to meet the challenge of more rigorous expectations and to facilitate educators and students' transition to the new demands. All students are to be on a trajectory to graduate high school, and should be prepared for college and career success. Basic skills have given way to goals for deeper learning, where students are expected to apply, reason with, communicate, and use their knowledge to solve complex problems. This brief summarizes early evidence on the success of two tools Kentucky districts have used to support their teachers' transition to these more demanding goals: Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) and Math Design Collaborative (MDC). With support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, LDC and MDC tools have been designed and implemented to embody the key shifts in teaching and learning that the new standards demand. By implementing the tools, teachers then engage in new pedagogy and address relevant learning goals of the Kentucky Core Academic Standards. In the sections that follow, we provide a brief background on the two tools and our evaluation methodology. We then follow with findings for each intervention and conclude with implications of our findings across the two studies. We stress that our methods were rigorous and our findings positive, but still our study provides only an " early read " on LDC and MDC effectiveness. Our quasi-experimental design cannot separate the effects of LDC and MDC from other changes that may have been going on in the study districts and schools. Further, our study is based on a limited sample of schools and teachers in select subjects and grade levels who participated in the piloting of the tools. These included eighth grade social studies/history and science teachers and ninth grade Algebra 1 teachers who initiated their tool use during the 2010-11 or 2011-12 school years. Study results are based on data from the 2012-2013 school year. Full technical reports …

Researchers are increasingly interested in the issue of school accountability. Despite this, program standards for afterschool programs are not as fully developed as in other fields. This study bridges that gap and presents the results from a study to identify benchmarks and indicators for high quality afterschool programs. This research employed a multimethod approach including a synthesis of literature on afterschool programs, observations and survey data collection at 15 high quality afterschool program sites. Results of the study suggest that most of the issues emphasized in the afterschool literature can be considered core components of a quality afterschool program. This finding was consistent across the three broad categories of program organization, program environment, and instructional features. This study also revealed that some issues emphasized in the afterschool literature should be considered extra components that can increase quality, but are not necessary. As a result, this study argues for a checklist strategy in assessing programs to meet quality-based standards.-----Bibliography: Huang, Denise/La Torre Matrundola, Deborah/Leon, Seth: Identification of Key Indicators for Quality in Afterschool Programs, IJREE, Vol. 2, Issue 1-2014, pp. 20-44. https://doi.org/10.3224/ijree.v2i1.19532