Master’s student Isabella Arreola was named the 2021 Ruth J. Simmons Urban Education Policy Scholar, which includes a full-tuition award and recognizes the UEP graduate student who most epitomizes the former Brown University president’s commitment to educational equity and social justice. The Annenberg Institute’s Board of Overseers established the Ruth J. Simmons Urban Education Policy Scholarship as a permanent annual award in 2012. 

Jonathan Collins, assistant professor of international and public affairs and education, noted the plan’s emphasis on closing the digital divide — which refers to the disparity in student access to technology between school districts — and updating Rhode Island’s historically poorly maintained school buildings. 

“What you see here is investments in capital projects that can be one-time purchases that can have long-term impacts,” Collins said.

Nate Schwartz, associate professor of practice at the Annenberg Institute, said that the plan’s recommendations regarding education policy feel “mostly right at the high level.” Schwartz praised how the plan lays out short-term actions based on recovering from the pandemic, such as an increased focus on mental health services and prioritization of student engagement.

Teacher strikes have a profound and often unrecognized role in national politics, a new working paper suggests: They put education front and center in Congressional campaigns and advertisements.

Holding a strike more than doubles the likelihood that a Congressional candidate will air an education ad in the area where the labor action occurred, write the authors of the paper, which has not yet been peer reviewed.

When it comes to addressing learning loss, research shows that tutoring and individualized support hold promise for several reasons. First, they offer students an opportunity to connect with a caring adult in school.

"A student who likely hasn't been feeling engaged by many aspects of school is developing a relationship with someone who knows them, who sees them and who checks on them regularly," explained Nate Schwartz, a professor of practice at the Annenberg Institute at Brown University. "The second thing that's happening is the student is working in an area where they have previously felt failure, often year after year after year, and is now being given the tools to succeed."

For our nation’s more than 3 million teachers, the COVID-19 pandemic has added a host of new challenges and stresses that have led to increased burnout and demoralization.

That’s why Results for America and the Annenberg Institute at Brown University are releasing a new brief highlighting evidence-based strategies to help promote teacher well-being.

We have a once-in-a-generation moment of unprecedented need, support, and opportunity. COVID-19 has disrupted schools across the country, negatively impacting student learning, especially for students of color and students experiencing poverty. 

“The type of tutoring with evidence is intensive tutoring with a consistent tutor who comes with an understanding of the students needs — based on data from direct assessments or from the school or teacher — and with curricular materials for addressing these needs,” Susanna Loeb, the director of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University, said in an email.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (August 31, 2021)—Today the Research Partnership for Professional Learning (RPPL) launches a learning agenda and call to action to transform professional learning (PL) research and practice. The collaborative of researchers and PL organizations will generate new knowledge on how teacher learning improves classroom experiences and academic growth, especially for students from historically marginalized groups. 

“We know that professional learning can work to improve teachers’ practice and student outcomes, but there’s more we need to learn to fully realize its potential to advance teaching and educational equity,” says Sarah Johnson, Vice Chair of RPPL and CEO of Teaching Lab. 

Projecting the Potential Impact of COVID-19 School Closures on Academic Achievement
Kuhfeld, Megan; et al. Working Paper No. 20-226 from Brown University’s Annenberg Institute for School Reform, May 2020.

This working paper predicted U.S. public school students would likely start the 2020-21 school year having learned 37% to 50% of what they ordinarily would have learned in math had schools remained open. “In some grades, students may come back close to a full year behind in math,” write the authors, from the University of Virginia, Brown University and the nonprofit education research organization NWEA

A recent study conducted by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University, in collaboration with Acelero Learning, found that Head Start infants, toddlers and preschoolers in Acelero programs made significant gains during the 2020-2021 school year despite the pandemic. These findings are especially compelling given reports of the disastrous effects of the pandemic on childhood education nationally.  

With school returning to something closer to normal after over a year of disruption, most principals are looking for ways to get students back on track. Recent research suggests surprising benefits to student outcomes from a relatively straightforward policy: keeping teachers in their current grade and subject assignment to the extent possible.