Illuminations and Insights

We analyzed data from K-12 public schools funded by NewSchools Venture Fund to examine longitudinal changes in students’ social-emotional learning (SEL) and school culture/climate (CC) survey measures, along with academic growth. In this blog, we summarize findings of our exploration of whether SEL and CC served as a protective factor against academic learning lag during COVID-19.

How do we help foster teacher innovation? In this blog, we highlight how an exciting new software application paired with a model for teacher action research enables teachers to identify evidence-based instructional strategies, test them out in their classroom, and use data to determine if they really make a difference in student achievement.

We have been using interim assessments across the state of South Carolina to monitor learning lag and recovery. Here, we present results from analyses using data from Fall 2021 and suggest data-driven approaches for targeting accelerated learning strategies to the students most in need.

When examining patterns of test opt-out and its impact on student achievement and growth in South Carolina, EA found that test participation in 2021 was higher than expected, but still lower than historical rates. We found some evidence of the negative impact of test non-participation on aggregated achievement.

We analyzed how New York City teachers from the Relay Graduate School of Education influenced students’ attendance. We found that Relay teachers had positive, statistically significant impacts on students’ attendance, especially for students from historically marginalized backgrounds.

With the 2020-21 school year in the rearview mirror, now is the opportunity to take a breath and turn our attention to how we want to approach the upcoming school year to maximize recovery.