The reauthorization of the U.S. Elementary and Secondary Education Act, referred to as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), emphasizes evidence-based interventions while giving states and districts new flexibility on the use of federal funds, including funds that could be used to support social and emotional learning (SEL). The authors review recent evidence on U.S.-based SEL interventions for K-12 students to better inform the use of SEL interventions under ESSA. This report discusses the opportunities for supporting SEL under ESSA, the standards of evidence under ESSA, and SEL interventions that meet the standards of evidence and might be eligible for federal funds through ESSA. Federal, state, and district education policymakers can use this report to identify relevant, evidence-based SEL interventions that meet their local needs. A companion volume (available on the website) catalogues these interventions in more detail and outlines the research that has examined them.

In this report, RAND researchers describe the Partnerships for Social and Emotional Learning Initiative, as well as findings and early lessons from the first two years of implementation in the six participating communities.

In this summary, RAND researchers describe the Partnerships for Social and Emotional Learning Initiative-which is an effort to explore whether and how children benefit when schools and out-of-school time programs partner to improve and align social and emotional learning-as well as what it takes to do this work. The researchers report findings and early lessons from the first two years of implementation in the six participating communities.

This research on National Guard Youth ChalleNGe and Job ChalleNGe integrates analyses of staff and participant perspectives with information from participant files and national and state datasets to provide insights for ChalleNGe leadership.

The National Guard Youth ChalleNGe program is a residential, quasi-military program that serves young people ages 16 to 18 who struggle to complete their high school credential. This annual report covers program data and analysis of cadets who enrolled at one of the 39 Youth ChalleNGe sites in 2023. Recommendations are offered for program and site leadership to continue to enhance the program and its success.

The National Guard Youth ChalleNGe program is a residential, quasi-military program for youth ages 16 to 18 who are experiencing difficulty in traditional high school. This report covers the 2022-2023 program year and is the eighth in a series of annual reports that RAND researchers have issued over three research projects. Each report documents the progress of ChalleNGe participants during a specific program year.

RAND researchers explore how intermediaries use school networks and continuous improvement processes to address disparities in high school graduation and college enrollment rates among Black and Latino students and students experiencing poverty.

The National Guard Youth ChalleNGe program serves young people ages 16 to 18 experiencing difficulty in traditional high school. This report covers the program years 2021-2022 and is the seventh in a series on this quasi-military residential program.

espite the U.S. Army Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps’ (AJROTC’s) longevity, the scope of its reach, and the size of its budget, little is known about the associations between AJROTC participation and outcomes of importance to the country and military. To understand these effects, the authors reviewed U.S. Department of Defense, Army, and U.S. Army Cadet Command policies and regulations and created a logic model to identify desired outcomes. They conducted interviews with Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) and school stakeholders to determine important program characteristics, such as student experience, how the value of the program is communicated and perceived, and how program modernization efforts (including science, technology, engineering, and mathematics [STEM]-focused efforts) align with the curriculum. Using individual-level data on programs in Texas and Hawaii, the authors analyzed participant outcomes both in high school and beyond, with a focus on STEM-related outcomes. The authors found that AJROTC serves more–economically disadvantaged schools and students, which makes simple benchmarks less informative. Once accounting for these differences, the authors found that cadets who participate in all four years of AJROTC are more likely to graduate, have higher rates of attendance, and have lower rates of suspension compared with matched peers. However, after graduating from high school, they are less likely to immediately enroll in college and more likely to plan to join the military. Former JROTC (any service) cadets who enlist in the Army are more likely to complete their first terms and more likely to pursue STEM occupational specialties.

The National Guard Youth Challenge (ChalleNGe) program serves young people who are experiencing difficulty in traditional high school through a quasi-military, 5.5-month residential program. The RAND Corporation's ongoing analyses of the ChalleNGe program are designed to meet multiple objectives. The first is to gather and analyze existing data from each ChalleNGe site to support the program's yearly report to Congress. To that end, the authors of this report document the progress of program participants (or "cadets") in 2019 and 2020. Participation in the ChalleNGe program remains strong; nearly 13,000 young people entered the ChalleNGe program during 2019, and over 9,500 of those graduated. Among graduates, the vast majority left the program with a recognized credential or with credits toward high school graduation. ChalleNGe is a well-established program with sites in the majority of states, but given the relatively short duration of the residential portion, the program provides limited career and technical training. In recent years, Job ChalleNGe programs have been established at six sites. Job ChalleNGe builds on the ChalleNGe model by providing additional training to ChalleNGe graduates. Job ChalleNGe provides this training through a 5.5-month residential program that focuses on developing career and technical skills. The authors of this report provide initial implementation findings in this document and include a summary of planned future analyses to support ChalleNGe and Job ChalleNGe. Additionally, the authors examine some of the effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on both programs.