Elementary and Secondary Education

Kindergartners’ math skills predict later academic outcomes. However, we know little about kindergarten mathematics instruction. Using data from 182 classroom observations in a large urban district, we explore time spent on mathematics and math...

We leveraged log data from an educational app and two-way text message records from over 3,500 students during the summers of 2019 and 2020 and in-depth interviews in Spanish and English to identify patterns of family engagement with educational...

This study explores how three widely used US kindergarten mathematics textbooks, each written to align with the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM), vary in terms of content coverage, instructional grouping, and use of...

Using data from 82 classroom observations conducted in a large urban school district, we explore how kindergartners spend their time in general and across schools serving children from lower and higher income households. Consistent with prior...

Youth Policy Lab at the University of Michigan requested data access and completed the analysis included in this report. The data are structured and maintained by the MERI-Michigan Education Data Center (MEDC). MEDC data is modified for analysis...

This article reports findings from a one-year evaluation of a kindergarten math enrichment program. A randomized design was used to assess the impact of High 5s on children’s math skills, attitudes towards math, language ability, and executive...

Grow Detroit’s Young Talent (GDYT), Detroit’s citywide summer youth employment program, serves as an introduction to the workplace for thousands of youth across Detroit every year.  By providing youth the opportunity to cultivate professional skills...

A substantial number of randomized trials of educational interventions that have been conducted over the past two decades have produced null results, with either no impact or an unreliable estimate of impact on student achievement or other outcomes...

In recent years, policymakers have paid increasing attention to the many ways in which factors beyond school influence a child’s educational outcomes. Indeed, recent research finds that the “poverty” achievement gap—that is, the difference in...

We describe the findings from a randomized evaluation of a one-year kindergarten math enrichment program, the High 5s program. The program was designed to provide small-group math enrichment in a fun, club-like format to children who had received...

Even as the U.S. economy has climbed out of the Great Recession, the labor force participation of low-skill workers has lagged. In many high-poverty urban areas, more than half of low-educated men have exited the labor market.1 In Detroit, 22...