Elementary and Secondary Education
We conduct work focusing on salient issues concerning elementary and secondary schools in the U.S. today, including student achievement, school reform and effectiveness, career and technical education, and student transitions to higher education and the labor force. Recent studies have examined science, math, and reading achievement in school-age children in both the U.S. and internationally. We also carry out studies that focus on high school dropouts and other at-risk youth and on school-based programs for preventing violence and drug use.
Focus Areas
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Elementary and secondary school surveys
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Evaluation of educational programs
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International education surveys
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Career and technical education
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School health programs
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Violence, drug prevention, and school safety
Capabilities
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Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies; study design; sampling
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Design and implementation of random assignment and quasi-experimental evaluations
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Instrument design, testing, and delivery using multiple modes of data collection
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Data collection and data management; in-school data collection
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Analysis and reporting
Projects
- Analytic Evaluation and Policy Support (2006 to date). This task order contract is funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Policy and Program Support Services. The purpose of this project is to perform short- and long-term analyses to provide information for policy decision making and program improvement, especially in areas of high national priority. These areas include career and technical education, student financial aid programs, precollege preparatory programs for disadvantaged youth such as TRIO and GEAR UP, teaching and assessment issues, and vocational rehabilitation. The work has included secondary analysis of a range of databases and report writing based on these analyses, case studies, issue briefs, expert papers, logistical support for meetings of expert researchers and practitioners, and program improvement recommendations.
- Impact Evaluation of a School-Based Violence Prevention Program (2004 to date). This study is funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute for Education Sciences. Its purpose is to evaluate the impact of a comprehensive violence prevention program in middle schools using a randomized control trial design with 40 schools. The evaluation will assess outcome changes in intervention schools compared to control schools, the extent to which changes in outcomes are linked to implementation of the intervention, and whether the effects of the program vary by various profiles of student risk
- Study of the Efficacy of North Carolina’s Learn and Earn Early College High School Model (2006 to date). This study is funded by the Institute for Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education and is being conducted in partnership with SERVE at University of North Carolina at Greensboro. It is a 4-year experimental study of a complex high school model that is being widely implemented throughout the United States. Through the use of random assignment of students to Early College High Schools, the study is examining the impact of this program on student success in high school.
- High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS, 0209234) (July 2007 to date).
- Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) (recently completed). PISA is a system of international assessments that focus on 15-year-olds' capabilities in reading literacy, mathematics literacy, and science literacy. PISA also includes measures to evaluate the extent to which students have acquired strategies for learning that will allow them to become life long learners.
- U.S. Participation in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2006 (PIRLS) (recently completed). PIRLS is an international study of the reading achievement of 4th-grade children and the experiences they have learning to read.
- International Education Projects
Contact us for more information
- John A. Riccobono
- Patricia J. Green