Structural Interventions

The U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Technology funded this study of international policy and programmes supporting information and communications technologies (ICTs) in education across 21 countries at primary and secondary levels. The final report includes an overview of international programmes and priorities as well as individual reports for each of the 21 countries. Findings suggest focusing on data collections at international level in order to compare the type and impact of ICT policies and programmes in education as well as improving the understanding of ICT in education best practices.

This report from KIPP provides a snap short of critical indicators from KIPP schools from across the United States.

This paper examines the factors affecting the successful implementation of a laptop program, classroom uses of laptops and the support required for schools from current research almost exclusively from the United States.

The U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Technology published this brief that summarizes research on the role of online communities of practice and social networks in supporting the professional performance of educators.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology, in partnership with the American Institutes for Research (AIR), developed a research-based synthesis defining a set of policies and practices implemented by successful Future Ready district leaders. The resulting rubric provides a basis for personalized professional learning to expand the capacity of district superintendents to effectively transition to digital learning.

The American Academy of Pediatrics just released a policy statement regarding the negative impact that chronic student absenteeism has on children’s health. They cite numerous ways the two are linked. 

What is the relationship between instructional time and student achievement—that is, does increasing instructional time increase achievement?

A brief history of high-stakes testing is followed by an analysis of eighteen states with severe consequences attached to their testing programs.

A new report from the Center for American Progress suggests American students would be better served by allowing teachers more time to collaborate with colleagues, planning lessons, and reviewing the effects of instruction.

This study is a meta-analysis of the research on the impact of comprehensive school reform (CSR) on student achievement. The research summarizes the specific effects of 29 widely implemented models.

This study developed a zero-to-five index of the strength of accountability in 50 states based on the use of high-stakes testing to sanction and reward schools, and analyzed whether that index is related to student gains on the NAEP mathematics test in 1996–2000.

This review assesses the effectiveness of school-based curricula, finance, management, and teacher’s decision-making. This report has implications for the impact of charter schools, as the primary intervention in this model is local control. The report finds limited evidence of the effectiveness of these reforms, especially from low-income countries.

This monograph summarizes a sample of programs and procedures demonstrated to work. Each program included in the monograph has been validated through solid scientific research.

This study examines the impact of attending Promise Academy charter schools of the Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ) on educational outcomes.

A growing number of evidence-based psychotherapies hold the promise of substantial benefits for children, families, and society.  For the benefits of evidence-based programs to be realized on a scale sufficient to be useful to individuals and society, evidence-based psychotherapies need to be put into practice outside of controlled clinical trials. 

This National Center for Education Statistics report provides national data on the availability and use of educational technology among teachers in public elementary and secondary schools during the winter and spring of 2009. The data are the results of a national teacher-level survey that is one of a set that includes district, school, and teacher surveys on educational technology.

This overview focuses on proactive strategies to support appropriate behavior in school settings.

For decades, schools have taught children the strategies of struggling readers, using a theory about reading that cognitive scientists have repeatedly debunked. And many teachers and parents don't know there's anything wrong with it.

This influential book is the result of 15 years research that includes over 800 meta-analyses on the influences on achievement in school-aged students. This is a great resource for any stakeholder interested in conducting a serious search of evidence behind common models and practices used in schools.

This book takes over fifteen years of rigorous research into education practices and provides teachers in training and in-service teachers with concise summaries of the most effective interventions and offers practical guidance to successful implementation in classrooms.

A study was designed to investigate if a combination of positive behavior supports-based interventions such as behavior-specific praise and reduced teacher reprimands might improve on-task behavior. 

This paper examines competencies of effective turnaround leaders.

This study is an examination of the effectiveness of the Mystery Motivator—an interdependent group contingency, variable-ratio, classwide intervention—as a tool for reducing disruptive classroom behavior in eight diverse general-education elementary school classrooms across seven different schools. 

This study examined the impact of two class‐wide positive behavior support programs. The Mystery Motivator and Get 'Em On Task interventions were implemented in an alternating treatments design with fifth grade participants to decrease off‐task behaviors.

Scientists have discredited claims that listening to classical music enhances intelligence, yet this so-called "Mozart Effect" has actually exploded in popularity over the years.

An old disagreement over how to teach children to read -- whole-language versus phonics -- has re-emerged in California, in a new form. Previously confined largely to education, the dispute is now a full-fledged political issue there, and is likely to become one in other states.

This study examined the policies and practices of a representative sample of high schools to identify how they structure their credit recovery programs. 

This study investigates the potential role of one aspect of the classroom's physical environment, personalization displays, on children's self-esteem.

We should stop being so embarrassed by uncertainty and embrace it as a strength rather than a weakness of scientific reasoning

This position paper contends that the whole language approach to reading instruction has been disproved by research and evaluation but still pervades textbooks for teachers, instructional materials for classroom use, some states' language-arts standards and other policy documents, teacher licensing requirements and preparation programs, and the professional context in which teachers work. 

Over the past twenty years many reading interventions have been proposed. One of these, “Book Flooding”, proposes that providing an enriched environment in which books are present and readily available can improve reading. Much of the research on this topic has focused on exposing children in the early grades to storybooks. Given the greater importance on reading complex text in meeting new reading standards, this study examines the impact of book flooding of books that stress academic words and technical terms. This quasi-experimental study examines the influence of a book distribution program targeted at enhancing children’s exposure to information books. The research examined whether a flood of information books in early childhood settings could affect growth in language, content-related vocabulary, and concepts of comprehending information text. The study concludes there were no significant effects on student outcomes and that book distribution programs on their own need to be reevaluated if they are to improved student reading performance.

The Good Behavior Game: A classroom-behavior intervention effective across cultures

Based on results from PISA 2012, this Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report examines how students’ access to and use of information and communication technology (ICT) devices has evolved in recent years, and explores how education systems and schools are integrating ICT into students’ learning experiences.

Naomi Oreskes offers a bold and compelling defense of science, revealing why the social character of scientific
knowledge is its greatest strength—and the greatest reason we can trust it.

A survey of 2,462 Advanced Placement (AP) and National Writing Project (NWP) teachers finds that digital technologies have helped them in teaching their middle school and high school students in many ways. At the same time, the internet, mobile phones, and social media have brought new challenges to teachers.

This research paper reports on testing the hypothesis that music and spatial task performance are causally related. Two complementary studies are presented that replicate and explore previous findings.

The focus of the book is on essential concepts in educational statistics, understanding when to use various statistical tests, and how to interpret results. This book introduces educational students and practitioners to the use of statistics in education and basic concepts in statistics are explained in clear language. 

This page describes the conflict of interest and what should we do about it.

This review will briefly address the nature of conflicts of interest in research, including the importance of both financial and non-financial conflicts, and the potential effectiveness and limits of various strategies for managing such conflicts.

This book looks at research and theoretical models used to define educational effectiveness with the intent on providing educators with evidence-based options for implementing school improvement initiatives that make a difference in student performance.

This reviews looks at the issue, do longer school days and longer school years improve student achievement?

This paper aims to shed light on leadership: the characteristics and competencies of effective turnaround leaders.

This study investigates the successes of the charter and district sectors in eliminating bad schools via dramatic turnarounds in performance and/or shutdowns.

This review describes the game and its numerous variations and adaptations, as well as empirical findings specific to the variety of target behaviors and participants to which it has been applied. I

This paper describes the problem of publication bias with reference to its history in a number of fields, with special reference to the area of educational research.

This book tells the story of Geoffrey Canada's, a social service agency manager, and the Harlem Children's Zone charter schools that he created.

Four reports look at a national project that aims to help principals devote more time to instructional matters by having them delegate administrative tasks to "school administration managers”.

The U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Technology created this guide to assist software developers, startups and entrepreneurs in gaining specialized knowledge and is designed to help apply technology in smart ways to solve persistent problems in education.

The U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Technology published this brief that is intended to help policymakers and administrators understand how analytics and data mining have been—and can be—applied for educational improvement while rigorously protecting student privacy.

This report is the 2016 National Education Technology Plan. It is the latest policy document on educational technology from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Technology. It sets a national vision and plan for learning enabled by technology through building on the work of leading education researchers; district, school, and higher education leaders; classroom teachers; developers; entrepreneurs; and nonprofit organizations.

Category: 172, 173, 174, 175, 180, 189, 192, 194, 196

The Future Ready Schools: Building Technology Infrastructure for Learning guide provides practical, actionable information intended to help district leaders (superintendents, principals, and teacher leaders) navigate the many decisions required to deliver cutting-edge connectivity to students. It presents a variety of options for district leaders to consider when making technology infrastructure decisions, recognizing that circumstances and context vary greatly from district to district.

The U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services collaborated in the development of the Early Learning and Educational Technology Policy Brief to promote developmentally appropriate use of technology in homes and early learning settings.

The U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Technology published this report that details the results of exploratory research on how to design and manage online communities of practice for educators.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the largest nationally representative and continuing assessment of what America's students know and can do in various subject areas.

This website contains information regarding the Committee process, including the regulations, laws, policies, and guidelines that govern disclosures and conflict of interest.

Keeping RTI on Track is a resource to assist educators overcome the biggest problems associated with false starts or implementation failure. Each chapter in this book calls attention to a common error, describing how to avoid the pitfalls that lead to false starts, how to determine when you're in one, and how to get back on the right track.

This research looked at test score gaps for a range of populations: between boys and girls; between black, white, and Hispanic children; between the children and the mother’s education; between children in poor and nonpoor families; and the gaps between high-poverty and low-poverty schools. They wanted to know whether gaps grow faster during summer or the school year. They were unable to answer this question as the results were inconclusive. Although, von Hippel and Hamrock did find the total gap in performance from kindergarten to eighth grade, is substantially smaller than the gap that exists at the time children enter school. The conclusion is that gaps happen mostly in the first five years of life. study suggests students who are behind peers at the time they enter kindergarten should receive early remedial instruction as the most efficacious way to improve overall performance.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is one of the least written about and least understood of our major global institutions. This new book builds a well-rounded understanding of this crucial, though often neglected, institution.

This study compares the effect size and return on investment for rapid assessment, between, increased spending, voucher programs, charter schools, and increased accountability.