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In the 2024-2025 school year, Annenberg launched the Professional Learning (PL) Network in RI, a community of practice with six Rhode Island school districts focused on curriculum-based professional learning (CBPL).

This report, produced in partnership with the Rhode Island School Superintendents Association (RISSA) and the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE), examines the current state of teacher professional learning (PL) in Rhode Island. It identifies challenges districts face and provides guidance for district and state leaders to strengthen PL.

The study examines summer Algebra 1 readiness camps in five Rhode Island districts, launched to help prepare rising 9th graders for the state’s new high school math requirements.

A brief identifying six data-driven opportunities to strengthen teacher recruitment and retention in Providence, with retention of novice teachers and a thin applicant pool as the central challenges.

A brief testing the teacher shortage narrative against Providence data — finding vacancies stubbornly high and retention down, but no mass exodus, with hiring the bigger bottleneck.

A brief on teacher vacancies in Providence, where roughly 100 positions have historically gone unfilled by the first day — and what the district's push to hire earlier changed.

A brief testing the "exodus of teachers" narrative against Providence data, finding retention dipped modestly and that non-classroom transfers and leaves drove staffing gaps as much as attrition.

A brief on Providence's teacher recruitment, finding earlier hiring cut vacancies and brought in more teachers of color, while English learner, math, and science positions remain hardest to fill.

Massachusetts is widely lauded as a national model for K-12 education, given its consistently high levels of academic achievement and educational attainments. In our 2020 report, Lifting All Boats?, we detailed the substantial progress the state’s educational system has made since the Education Reform Act of 1993, as well as the ways in which focusing on average improvements concealed substantial inequalities throughout the system, with a particular focus on disparities by family income.

A brief tracing how Rhode Island districts spent federal recovery funds on curriculum, professional development, and technology — with spending in those areas rising 66% on average, and some districts more than tripling it.

The first brief in Annenberg's ESSER series, finding Rhode Island districts largely used federal recovery dollars to pay existing staff rather than expand hiring, leaving staffing levels flat.

A brief on how Rhode Island districts planned to spend the first $205 million in federal recovery funds, and what those choices signal for the state's school system.

This discussion will explore key trends shaping America’s changing education landscape, examining emerging challenges, opportunities, and shifts influencing schools, students, and education policy.

Thomas Dee will discuss research on chronic absenteeism, exploring the factors shaping student attendance, engagement, and educational outcomes, as well as evidence-based approaches to addressing this challenge.

Chinyere Odim will discuss research on Black elite parents and cultural transmission, exploring how families navigate education, identity, and the preservation of cultural values across generations.

Greer Mellon will discuss research on school district superintendents’ beliefs about achievement inequality, exploring how leaders’ perspectives may shape approaches to resource allocation and educational equity.

Richard Welsh will discuss research on inequities in school discipline, exploring the causes of disciplinary disparities and approaches for creating more equitable policies and practices in K–12 education.

Elly Field will discuss research on school choice and demographic change, exploring how access to school choice options shapes patterns of enrollment, school composition, and neighborhood dynamics.

Dr. Jose Eos Trinidad will discuss his research on education policy, organizations, and institutional change, exploring how partnerships between schools and community organizations shape school improvement and public policy implementation.

Jesse Bruhn will discuss research on teacher and school value-added, exploring how researchers measure the contributions of educators and schools to student outcomes and educational experiences.