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 Pub Number  Title  Date
REL 2024006 Strengthening the Pennsylvania School Climate Survey to Inform School Decisionmaking
This study analyzed Pennsylvania School Climate Survey data from students and staff in the 2021/22 school year to assess the validity and reliability of the elementary school student version of the survey; approaches to scoring the survey in individual schools at all grade levels; and perceptions of school climate across student, staff, and school groups. The survey encourages data-informed efforts in participating Pennsylvania schools to foster supportive learning environments that promote social and emotional wellness for students and staff. The study validated the elementary school student survey but found that one domain—safe and respectful school climate—did not meet the reliability threshold and thus suggests that revisions are needed. At all grade levels noninstructional staff had the most positive perceptions of school climate, followed by classroom teachers then students. The study found that different approaches to combining the school climate scores of students, teachers, and noninstructional staff within schools yielded slightly different distributions of school climate summary index scores. It also found that different performance category thresholds resulted in similar distributions of schools across categories. Scores calculated using simple averages were strongly and positively correlated with scores calculated using a more complex approach (Rasch models), suggesting that both approaches deliver similar information. School climate scores varied across student groups (defined by race/ethnicity, gender, and grade level) within schools and across school groups. Larger schools and schools with higher percentages of Black students tended to have lower school climate scores than other schools. The findings can inform the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s decisionmaking on revisions to the elementary school student survey, approaches to scoring and reporting survey results, and efforts to increase participation in future survey administrations.
8/29/2024
REL 2024005 Examining Implementation and Outcomes of the Project On‑Track High-Dosage Literacy Tutoring Program
School districts in northeastern Tennessee have had persistently low proficiency rates in grade 3 English language arts, which were exacerbated by disruptions in schooling due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In response, the Niswonger Foundation, a technical assistance provider that supports these districts, developed Project On-Track, a high-dosage, small-group literacy tutoring program for students in grade 1–3. Its online adaptive program, Amplify Reading, groups students by skill level and generates mini-lessons aligned to the science of reading that are delivered by tutors. Although the content of the tutoring sessions is highly structured, Project On-Track offers schools flexibility in how they implement the program, including when they provide tutoring, who provides tutoring, in which grade levels they offer tutoring, and how they identify students within a grade level for tutoring. This flexibility can make it easier for schools to adopt the program, particularly rural schools, which may face greater challenges in hiring tutors or delivering tutoring outside of school hours. However, variation in implementation may also affect program effectiveness. To inform future implementation of the program, this study describes the characteristics of students who participated in a full year of Project On-Track and how schools implemented the program, with a focus on three implementation features: when and how frequently tutoring is offered and who provides it. By reporting on the association between variations in implementation and student literacy scores, the study offers important insights to inform future program implementation.

The study found no differences in student literacy scores based on timing or frequency of tutoring. Most schools (66 percent) offered tutoring during school and more than twice a week (64 percent). Rural schools were more likely to offer tutoring during school (92 percent) than were nonrural schools (47 percent). Most tutors were current teachers (55 percent) or retired teachers (12 percent). This study does not provide evidence of differences in student literacy scores based on tutor qualifications. More than half the students who participated in a full year of Project On-Track tutoring started the year with literacy assessment scores identifying them as most at risk for reading difficulties, and 42 percent of them improved to a lower risk category after one year of tutoring. Although this study uses descriptive methods and cannot assess effectiveness, the findings suggest that schools and districts using a highly structured tutoring program like Project On-Track might be able to exercise flexibility in when and how often tutoring is offered and by whom without compromising program quality and benefits to students.
8/26/2024
NFES 2024079 Forum Guide to Data Literacy
The Forum Guide to Data Literacy is designed to help education agencies understand and build data literacy skills among various stakeholder groups such as administrators, teachers, students, parents and other caregivers, school board members, legislators, and community groups. This resource defines and discusses the importance of data literacy and presents best practices that agencies are using to help different audiences understand and use data to inform decisions that affect students’ educational experiences.
7/12/2024
NCEE 2024004 Appropriate Identification of Children with Disabilities for IDEA Services: A Report from Recent National Estimates
Appropriately identifying children with disabilities--in ways that are timely, comprehensive, and accurate--is critical for ensuring that learners receive the supports they need to meet early milestones and succeed in school. In turn, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) charges states and school districts with: (1) finding all children, birth through age 21, suspected of having a disability; (2) evaluating them to determine if they are eligible for IDEA services; and (3) measuring and addressing racial or ethnic disparities in who is identified. Since IDEA's reauthorization in 2004, there is greater access to data and more sophisticated approaches to screen for and detect certain disabilities, an increasingly diverse child population, and new regulations on how to measure disparities in identification. This report examines how state and district practices during the 2019-2020 school year aligned with IDEA’s goals of appropriate identification.
6/11/2024
NCES 2024034 Projections of Education Statistics to 2030
Projections of Education Statistics to 2030 is the 49th in a series of publications initiated in 1964. This publication provides national-level data on enrollment, teachers, high school graduates, and expenditures at the elementary and secondary level, and enrollment and degrees at the postsecondary level for roughly the past decade and projections to the year 2030. For the 50 states and the District of Columbia, the tables, figures, and text contain data on projections of public elementary and secondary enrollment and public high school graduates to the year 2030. The methodology section describes models and assumptions used to develop national- and state-level projections.
2/28/2024
NCES 2024151 2022-23 Common Core of Data (CCD) Universe Files, Version 1a
These files are the product of the CCD data collection for the 2022–23 school year. Data are reported at state, district, and school levels and include staff full-time equivalent by professional category, as well as student membership disaggregated by grade, race/ethnicity, and sex. Also included are school-level counts of students eligible for free and reduced-price lunch. Along with the data files, four web tables summarizing select CCD data elements including the number and status of schools and local education agencies, as well as several CCD indicators by state, are also available.
1/31/2024
NCES 2024482 2019–20 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:20) Data File Documentation
This publication describes the methods and procedures used for the 2019–20 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:20). It also provides information that will be helpful to analysts in accessing and understanding the restricted-use files containing the NPSAS:20 data. NPSAS:20 includes cross-sectional, nationally representative samples of undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in postsecondary education in the United States. NPSAS:20 also includes state-representative samples of undergraduate students in some states, as well as in public 2 year and in public 4 year institution sectors within some states. The study covers topics pertaining to student enrollment, with a focus on how individuals and families finance postsecondary education.
11/15/2023
NCES 2024483 2019–20 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:20) Restricted-Use Data File
The 2019–20 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:20) restricted use data file contains data on nationally representative samples of undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in postsecondary institutions in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. NPSAS:20 also includes data on state-representative samples of undergraduate students in some states, as well as in public 2-year and in public 4-year institution sectors within some states. NPSAS covers topics pertaining to student enrollment, with a focus on how individuals and families finance postsecondary education. Data are publicly available for analysis in DataLab: https://nces.ed.gov/datalab/index.aspx.
11/15/2023
NCEE 2023007 IDEA State and Local Implementation Study 2019: Compendium of Survey Results
Federal policy has long played a key role in how the more than seven million children with disabilities are educated, but the context for the policies has been shifting. This compendium describes the methods, response rates, and weights used for surveys of state, district, and school agency personnel about implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in the 2019-2020 school year. It also includes detailed tables, based on the surveys, that provide a national picture of policies and practices, 15 years after the law was last updated and 10 years after a similar study was conducted.
9/11/2023
REL 2023003 Changes in school climate during COVID-19 in a sample of Pennsylvania schools
To assess how school climate changed during the pandemic, the Pennsylvania Department of Education's (PDE's) Office for Safe Schools partnered with REL Mid-Atlantic to conduct a study using data from PDE's school climate survey. This survey, which is available on a voluntary basis to any school in the state, provides a way to track school climate and identify schools that need additional support to improve school climate. The REL study analyzed changes in scores from a pre-pandemic year (2018/19) to the 2020/21 and 2021/22 school years. In a sample of Pennsylvania public schools that took the survey in all three years, students and teachers reported more positive perceptions of school climate in the 2020/21 school year, during hybrid and remote learning, compared to 2018/19 (before the pandemic) and 2021/22 (when schools had returned to fully in-person operation). This was an unexpected positive bump in the year in which schools experienced the most pandemic-related disruption. In contrast, school climate scores were steady across the years before COVID-19. The study also found no evidence of a significant decline in school climate scores between 2018/19 and 2021/22, suggesting the pandemic did not have a lasting negative effect on school climate in this sample of schools. One important caveat of this study is that the sample of schools was small and not representative of the rest of the state of Pennsylvania. In the future, increasing the number of schools completing the school climate survey over multiple years will allow PDE to conduct more informative analyses of the relationship between school climate and other factors, such as interventions to improve school climate.
8/10/2023
REL 2023002 Supporting the California Department of Education in Examining Data to Inform the Setting of Thresholds on the California Alternate English Language Proficiency Assessments for California
Staff from the California Department of Education (CDE) will present findings to the State Board of Education (SBE) from a project CDE conducted with analytic technical assistance from the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) West. The SBE meeting will take place on May 18 and 19, 2023 at the California State Board of Education, 1430 N Street, Room 1101, Sacramento, California. This item is currently placed as the third item the SBE will take up, making it likely to be presented around midday on May 18.

At the meeting, CDE plans to present the findings and implications from analyses it conducted of student achievement on the state’s alternate English language proficiency and English language arts assessments. REL West staff will attend the presentation in order to briefly describe REL West’s technical assistance role and support the CDE in addressing any questions posed by Board members about technical aspects of the data analysis that cannot be answered by CDE staff. The technical memo and slide deck will be made available on the REL website soon after the presentation to the Board.
5/18/2023
NCEE 2023004 Evaluating the Federal Innovative Assessment Demonstration Authority: Early Implementation and Progress of State Efforts to Develop New Statewide Academic Assessments
Education officials have long hoped that the statewide academic assessments most students take each year could be used not only for accountability, but also to guide instruction. Congress established the Innovative Assessment Demonstration Authority (IADA) program in 2015 to help address this goal, offering states temporary flexibility from certain federal testing requirements so that they may more easily make progress toward replacing their current assessments with more innovative ones. However, states approved for IADA must still show that their innovative assessments meet most requirements for federal accountability, and they are expected to implement the new assessments statewide within 5 years. This report describes the progress of the first five IADA systems through the 2020–21 school year. The report is primarily based on an analysis of states' IADA applications and performance reports to the U.S. Department of Education and is part of a broader evaluation of IADA required by Congress.
4/27/2023
NCES 2023009 Digest of Education Statistics, 2021
The 57th in a series of publications initiated in 1962, the Digest's purpose is to provide a compilation of statistical information covering the broad field of education from prekindergarten through graduate school. The Digest contains data on a variety of topics, including the number of schools and colleges, teachers, enrollments, and graduates, in addition to educational attainment, finances, and federal funds for education, libraries, and international comparisons.
3/8/2023
NFES 2023026 Forum Guide to State Education Agency Support for Local Education Agencies in Civil Rights Data Reporting
The Forum Guide to State Education Agency Support for Local Education Agencies in Civil Rights Data Reporting presents a variety of effective methods through which state education agencies (SEAs) can support their local education agencies (LEAs) in reporting civil rights data to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. In addition, the guide provides several detailed case studies from states that currently support their LEA reporting.
2/7/2023
REL 2023148 Interpreting Findings from an Early Learning Inventory Pilot Study
This project was part of a larger REL Southwest coaching series to support the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) in using an early learning inventory (ELI) to assess children’s knowledge and skills at kindergarten entry and to improve state-funded early learning programs. The goals of the project were to assist OSDE in (1) preparing to implement an ELI pilot study, (2) preparing for sampling and recruitment for the ELI pilot study, (3) developing data collection measures to collect information during the pilot study about how the ELI is implemented and teacher outcomes, and (4) analyzing and interpreting data from the ELI pilot study. The coaching was delivered over the course of five sessions from fall 2020 to fall 2022. OSDE staff were the primary participants.

The final two sessions of this coaching project included a review of the pilot study findings and methodology. This project equipped OSDE staff with information to make evidence-based decisions about the ELI and to conduct a more rigorous future study with the ELI.
1/23/2023
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