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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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 OklahomaĀ to provide estimates of the causal effect of the 4-day school week on high school studentsā ACT scores, attendance, and disciplinary incidents during school.
By: Emily Morton


In this blog, Elizabeth Barker shares the motivation and key insights from her study with Angela Johnson exploring academic achievement and growth for students in special education during summers and school years.
By: Elizabeth Barker


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.
By: Angela Johnson, Megan Kuhfeld, James Soland


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.
By: Angela Johnson
Topics: Equity, English Language Learners, Seasonal learning patterns & summer loss


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.
By: Angela Johnson
Topics: Equity, English Language Learners, Seasonal learning patterns & summer loss


Supporting students with disabilities throughout the year
Students with disabilities lose even more ground than peers during summer and other interruptions in their learningābut they donāt need to. Data point to a need for services that extend beyond the school year.
By: Elizabeth Barker, Angela Johnson


The purpose of this technical appendix is to share more detailed results and to describe more fully the sample and methods used in the research included in the brief, Learning during COVID-19: An update on student achievement and growth at the start of the 2021-22 school year. We investigated two research questions:
- How does student achievement in fall 2021 compare to pre-pandemic levels (namely fall 2019)?
- How did academic gains between fall 2019 and fall 2021 compare to normative growth expectations?
By: Megan Kuhfeld, Karyn Lewis
Topics: COVID-19 & schools, Equity, Growth modeling