This report presents findings from a targeted document review and expert interviews conducted as part of the Student Segmentation Initiative, which was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Postsecondary Success strategy. The review addresses three questions relevant to the...

In an environment of finite public and private resources, decision makers want to understand interactions between public and private-sector philanthropic efforts and learn how to promote effective collaborations. This study examined how these efforts can complement each other to improve...

Through the Partnerships in Character Education Program, the federal government distributes about $25 million annually to state and local education agencies for character education programs. This report documents the constructs measured in studies of 36 randomly selected programs. It also...

This report describes the value-added models (VAMs) created for the Pittsburgh Public Schools and the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers. Pittsburgh's VAMs use not only state assessments but also course-specific assessments, student attendance, and course completion rates, aiming to produce...

By offering $20,000 per teacher, seven school districts piloting a transfer-incentive strategy, known as the Talent Transfer Initiative (TTI), filled 90 percent of their targeted vacancies in hard-to-staff schools with some of the districts' highest-performing teachers. A new study highlights...

This working paper examines behavioral responses to an incentive program that offers high-performing teachers in 10 school districts across the country $20,000 to transfer into the district's hardest-to-staff schools. Specifically, the paper looks at high-performing teachers' willingness to...

The federal Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students (PLUS) program provides loans to parents of dependent undergraduate students to help pay for education expenses. To bring the standards in line with those used by banks, the U.S. Department of Education tightened the credit standards for PLUS...