This study used two trials to test whether sending emails and offering different financial incentives to Oregon ECE workforce members increased career lattice sign-up and increased education and training levels or workplace retention.
Results from the June 2021 American School District Panel (ASDP) survey suggest that while public schools are expanding their nonacademic offerings in response to the pandemic, much of their academic offerings for the 2021–2022 school year will remain the same. In this report, the authors summarize key ASDP findings based on the responses of 292 district leaders, after weighting their responses to make them nationally representative.
This report provides the survey questions and weighted responses from a July 2021 survey of parents concerning school hesitancy and preferences for COVID-19 safety practices in schools in the United States. The results are intended to inform school districts' and health officials' planning for operating schools in fall 2021.
The authors of this report surveyed 292 school district leaders between June 1, 2021, and July 2, 2021, to ask about staff turnover, staff hiring, and districts' financial outlooks at the end of the 2020–2021 school year. Although districts have not experienced much-feared budget and staffing crises during the pandemic, they might yet.
The American School District Panel (ASDP) is the newest addition to the RAND Corporation's American Educator Panels. This report provides technical information about the June 2021 ASDP survey of district leaders. The authors describe the respondent districts' characteristics and their method for creating survey weights to produce nationally representative estimates.
A total of 292 district leaders from school districts and charter management organizations took the third American School District Panel survey in June 2021. This online tool allows users to select individual survey questions and compare district leaders' responses. Color-coded bar charts display survey results for all respondents and by district type, locale, student racial and ethnicity composition, and district poverty level.
This brief discusses findings from several RAND reports on principals' roles with respect to instructional materials. Recommendations describe how stakeholders can prepare and support principals to lead in selecting and using instructional materials.
The authors examine what school leaders regard as the key dimensions of quality instructional materials and describe the role school leaders play in guiding the selection and use of instructional materials. School leaders involve teachers in the selection of instructional materials, create buy-in for district-recommended or -required curriculum, and provide guidance that balances teacher autonomy and the fidelity of curriculum implementation.
Researchers used news and blog data to understand efforts by foreign countries to spread malign information regarding COVID-19 in the Indo-Pacific region. The authors used RAND's proprietary lexical analysis platform, RAND-Lex, to explore whether news and blog data could provide some initial insights on the reach of, content of, and tactical strategies used in foreign malign information about COVID-19 in the Indo-Pacific.
The authors use American Teacher Panel data to explore the state of teacher well-being in the United States. They describe the job-related stressors that teachers faced during the COVID-19 pandemic and how those stressors are associated with teachers' reported well-being. They also examine the working conditions of teachers who were considering leaving their jobs because of the pandemic.
RAND researchers surveyed more than 2,000 parents of children ages 5–18 in May 2021 about their willingness to send their children to school in person in fall 2021. The research team also asked parents about their support for various health and safety practices at school, including getting their children tested for coronavirus disease 2019, and whether they would get their children vaccinated if a vaccine were available.
This Data Note provides a picture of students' learning experiences in kindergarten through grade 12 schools that have adopted a variety of operational models (e.g., fully in-person, hybrid, fully remote) during the 2020–2021 school year. Our findings provide evidence that students are on sharply different learning pathways depending on whether their schools have been mostly remote or mostly in-person for the majority of this school year.
The authors provide technical information about the sample and survey instrument, along with resultant descriptive data, for the COVID-19 surveys administered to principals and teachers via RAND's American Educator Panels in spring 2021. Specific survey topics included schools' operational status (i.e., fully remote, fully in-person, hybrid), instructional and student outcomes, school safety measures, and plans for next school year.
In this report, researchers summarize results from the second survey of district leaders by the RAND Corporation's American School District Panel. The survey covered 2020–2021 school year instruction and scheduling, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) testing and vaccines, enrollments, budget, and staffing. The results are intended to inform policy and education practices related to educators' and students' needs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A total of 434 district leaders from school districts and charter management organizations (CMOs) took the second survey of the American School District Panel between January 21 and March 5, 2021. This tool presents weighted survey results that are nationally representative of school districts in the United States.
In this Data Note, researchers examine teachers' use of digital and comprehensive curriculum materials during the 2019–2020 school year prior to COVID-19 pandemic disruptions, teachers' perceptions about the extent to which their digital materials connected to their main curricula, and how teachers' use of digital materials prior to the pandemic was connected to teaching and learning during school closures in spring 2020.
In this Data Note, researchers use the 2020 American Instructional Resources Survey to examine how teachers' science instruction is supported and whether these supports differ from those that teachers reported for English language arts and math instruction. They found differences in teachers' reports of instructional supports that suggest that access to formal materials, feedback, and professional development is lacking for science instruction.
In this Data Note, researchers present findings on teaching students with disabilities (SWD) during a pandemic by drawing on surveys administered via the RAND American Teacher Panel to a nationally representative sample of teachers. This Data Note provides insights into teachers' experiences educating SWD during the pandemic, exploring differences by instructional arrangement and school characteristics.
In this report, researchers use data from a randomized control trial at five community colleges in Texas to examine contrasts in student experiences between college students who were assigned either to corequisite remediation or to standalone developmental education courses in eight areas, such as early opportunities to make progress with college coursework, rigor of coursework and expectations, and opportunities for peer learning.
This study examined participation in Oklahoma's state-funded preK program for five cohorts of first-time public school kindergarten students and compared the percentages of students by geographic locale and student characteristics.
To help schools safely return to in-person instruction, this report describes approaches that early adopters of COVID-19 testing in U.S. K–12 schools were using as of December 2020, highlighting key facilitators that made testing feasible, acceptable, and effective. It also provides recommendations to school leaders, district officials, and policymakers on how to support the implementation of COVID-19 testing in schools.
Students with disabilities often face barriers that hinder their capacity to access general education curricula and show their learning. Modifications to curricula and lesson plans can help reduce these barriers. In this Data Note, researchers explore teachers' reports of how much and in what ways they modify their lessons to support students with disabilities.
In the years before the COVID-19 pandemic, about 8 percent of public school teachers left the profession annually. Very high rates of teacher burnout and low levels of morale during the 2020–2021 school year portend elevated teacher attrition by the end of it. The authors of this report show how important stress has been—more so than pay—in public school teachers' reasons for quitting, and that COVID-19 has exacerbated the high levels of stress.
In spring 2020, as schools began remote learning or closed in response to the pandemic, end-of-year assessment programs ground to a halt. Schools began the 2020–2021 year without assessment data, which usually help with course placement. The authors of this report compare and contrast three strategies that use older test data to estimate missing scores, examining the consistency of these strategies and whether they ensure equity among students.
Findings discuss issues affecting teacher wellbeing during the pandemic, including higher workloads and increased teacher burnout.
