Research brief
Reconciling long-term education policy goals with short-term school accountability models
2019
Description
Learn more about the effect of seasonality on estimates of school effectiveness and how ignoring summer loss can impact which schools are identified as low performers.
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Severe weather events are no longer isolated anomalies. They are becoming a regular part of the school year in communities across the country. This brief highlights how severe weather events can cause deep and lasting disruptions to student learning and well-being, often in ways that far exceed the immediate days schools are closed. It also makes clear that while some communities are disproportionately at risk, no school is immune.
Effective summer programs: Practical guidance for district leaders
This report dives into the research on summer programs, their implementation and design, as well as the efficacy of those programs for literacy, math, and social-emotional learning (SEL) outcomes. It also provides recommendations for district leaders to use as a framework for planning and implementing effective summer programming.
Topics: COVID-19 & schools, Growth, Guidance, Seasonal learning patterns & summer loss
Summer learning loss: What we know and what we’re learning
In this blog, Megan Kuhfeld shares background on what we know about summer learning loss, and the significant gaps that remain in our understanding that drive her work to take a fresh – and deeper – look at the phenomenon.
Typical learning for whom? Guidelines for selecting benchmarks to calculate months of learning
To describe the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students, researchers have translated test scores into months of learning to claim how many months/years students are behind in school. Despite its perceived accessibility, there are major downsides to this translation. To inform future uses by researchers and media, we discuss in this brief how to calculate this metric as well as its trade-offs.
Topics: COVID-19 & schools, Equity, Growth, Growth modeling, Seasonal learning patterns & summer loss
Four-day school weeks have proliferated across the United States, but little is known about their implementation or their effects on students. This study uses district-level data from Oklahoma to provide estimates of the causal effect of the 4-day school week on high school students’ ACT scores, attendance, and disciplinary incidents during school.
The forgotten 20 percent: Achievement and growth in rural schools across the nation
New research using data from over 2,300 rural schools across the US provides unique insight into math and reading achievement of students in rural schools so educators and policymakers can better understand and support the potential needs of rural schools.
Achievement and growth for English Learners
This study reports achievement and growth from kindergarten to 4th grade for three groups of English Learners. The findings suggest summer support is required to help ELs maintain and develop academic skills.
Topics: Equity, English Language Learners, Seasonal learning patterns & summer loss
