RAND researchers investigate factors that might be associated with positive student outcomes for schools that improved during the six years of the Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching initiative.

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Recently, there has been a move towards K-8 schools as opposed to separate elementary and middle schools, especially among urban districts. In this paper, we examine the effect of enrollment in separate elementary and middle schools relative to enrollment in a K-8 school using longitudinal data from an anonymous district in the United States. The choice to enroll in a K-8 or separate elementary and middle schools is potentially endogenous. While previous research has taken steps to address the possible endogeneity when estimating the effects for separate middle schools, previous research has not addressed the possible endogeneity when examining the effect at the elementary level. Without generating an unbiased estimate during the elementary grades, we cannot fully understand the impact of policies that have shifted the grade arrangement of separate elementary and middle schools to K-8 schools. In this paper, we employ a research design that leverages the fact that the anonymous district closed several schools and rezoned their students to other schools with new boundaries. We compare students on the side of the new boundaries who are assigned to a separate middle or elementary school to students on the other side of the new boundaries who are assigned to a K-8 school. When taking into the consideration the effect at the elementary level, our results are much less supportive of a K-8 policy than previous research.

In this report prepared for the New York City Chancellor's Office, we estimate short-term impacts of the New York City Renewal Schools Program based on the first two full years of program implementation. We utilize a novel method of multiple rating regression discontinuity design (MRRDD) that leverages the selection criteria used to select schools as Renewal or non-Renewal Schools. This method provides rigorous causal treatment effect estimates of the Renewal Schools Program, but only for the schools that barely qualified for the program. Our analysis suggests that the Renewal Schools program is helping to improve student attendance and reduce chronic absenteeism, while also increasing the amount of credits earned among high school students. These effects grew over the years of implementation. On the other hand, we find dropout rates worsened very slightly among Renewal Schools, but there was no systematic trend over the years in this effect. We find no statistically significant effects of the program on student achievement measures, nor do we find any statistically significant effects on any of the measures in the New York City Quality Review rubric. We also found evidence suggesting that among high school students the program impact was strongest at schools with greater levels of student economic needs.

High-quality measures of instructional practice are essential for research and evaluation of innovative instructional policies and programs, as well as for providing feedback to teachers and administrators. In this study, the authors examined whether using anchoring vignettes in web-based surveys improved the validity of teachers' self-assessments of their mathematics instruction. To investigate validity, they compared correlations between teachers' self-ratings and other measures of teaching including teachers' value-added scores, student surveys, and observation ratings of instruction before and after calibration to examine whether calibration improves the correlation between teachers' self-ratings and other teaching measures. Data came from 61 mathematics teachers in grades 4-9 participating in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Measures of Effective Teaching Extension project. The sample was roughly evenly distributed between elementary (grades 4-5) and middle school (grades 6-8) teachers, with only three percent teaching 9th grade. The authors used both non-parametric and parametric methods to calibrate teachers' self-ratings. Preliminary findings suggest that anchoring vignettes represent a promising innovation for measuring teachers' instruction through survey self-reports. Specifically, the authors found: (1) Teachers' survey responses that are calibrated through the use of anchoring vignettes have increased variation compared to teachers' raw survey responses, particularly for the cognitive challenge dimension; (2) Teachers' calibrated survey responses regarding mathematical vocabulary and cognitively challenging tasks are more strongly correlated with the composite measure of teacher performance compared to raw survey responses; and (3) If teachers gave their self-rating after rating the vignettes, rather than before, the entire collection of calibrated self-ratings are significantly correlated with the composite performance measure (p

This brief summarizes the final report of a six-year evaluation of the Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching initiative, documenting the policies and practices each site enacted and their effects on student outcomes.

The Tobacco Settlement Proceeds Act, a referendum passed by Arkansans in the November 2000 election, invests Arkansas' share of the tobacco Master Settlement Agreement funds in seven health-related programs. RAND was contracted to perform a comprehensive evaluation of the progress of the seven programs in fulfilling their missions, as well as the effects of the programs on smoking and other health-related outcomes. This report discusses the Arkansas Tobacco Settlement Commission's activities and its responses to recommendations by RAND in the earlier evaluation reports and documents continued activity and progress by the seven funded programs for 2011. This report is the fifth and final biennial report from RAND. It evaluates the progress of each of the funded programs, including assessing progress in achieving programmatic goals and tracking the programs' activities and indicators. It also updates trends in outcome measures developed to monitor the effects of the funded programs on smoking and other health-related outcomes. Finally, it provides both program-specific and statewide recommendations for future program activities and funding, including ongoing strategic planning, developing evaluation measures, collaboration with other programs, and sustaining funding and growth.