On June 30th, the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University and Results for America announced the new EdResearch for Recovery Project, which provides rapid-turnaround evidence briefs from top researchers to help answer the most pressing education-related questions from policymakers, educators, parents and other advocates as they respond and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Join the Annenberg Institute and Results for America on Friday, July 10th from 12:30-1:15 pm ET for a virtual kickoff event to learn more about EdResearch for Recovery and explore one of the project’s first briefs, “Guidance and Support for Students Moving Into Postsecondary.” Participants will hear from the brief’s co-authors and have the opportunity to dig into the evidence on what strategies are likely to help graduating high school students as they transition from high school to college and career, given the financial and health uncertainties that students - particularly those marginalized and traditionally underserved - are facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Participants:
- Vivian Tseng, Senior Vice President, Program, W.T. Grant Foundation
- Patty Diaz-Andrade, New Delivery Models Lead, OneGoal
- Millard House, Director of Schools, Clarksville-Montgomery County Schools (Tennessee)
- Sade Bonilla, Assistant Professor, College of Education, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
- Sara Kerr, Vice President of Education Policy Implementation at Results for America.
- Nate Schwartz, Professor of Practice at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University

This event took place on July 10, 2020 as a virtual session.

Engaging Teachers: Measuring the Impact of Teachers on Student Attendance in Secondary School

Teachers’ impact on student long-run success is only partially explained by their contributions to students’ short-run academic performance. For this study, we explore a second dimension of teacher effectiveness by creating measures of teachers’ contributions to student class-attendance. We find systematic variation in teacher effectiveness at reducing unexcused class absences at the middle and high school level. These differences across teachers are as stable as those for student achievement, but teacher effectiveness on attendance only weakly correlates with their effects on achievement. We link these measures of teacher effectiveness to students’ long-run outcomes. A high value-added to attendance teacher has a stronger impact on students’ likelihood of finishing high school than does a high value-added to achievement teacher. Moreover, high value-added to attendance teachers can motivate students to pursue higher academic goals as measured by Advanced Placement course taking. These positive effects are particularly salient for low-achieving and low-attendance students.

Jing Liu, Annenberg Institute at Brown University, presented “Engaging Teachers: Measuring the Impact of Teachers on Student Attendance in Secondary School” at the Institute on February 11, 2019.

Carly Robinson, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Brown University, presented work in progress at the Annenberg Institute at Brown University on November 16, 2021. The talk was part of Annenberg’s Education Policy Workshop Series, an hour-long “works in progress” seminar centered on empirical research related to education and education policy. Speakers come from a variety of disciplinary traditions, and the series welcomes faculty, postdocs, graduate students, and research staff from across the university who are interested in empirical research in education.

We spend a lot of time arguing about how schools might be improved. But we rarely take a step back to ask what we as a society should be looking for from education — what exactly should those who make decisions be trying to achieve? "Educational Goods" advances a theory of how to combine values and evidence in decision-making about education. The book identifies three kinds of value that must be balanced against each other: a theory of the kind of educational outcomes schools should aim at; a theory of how educational opportunities should be distributed; and independent values that should be considered when they conflict with the first two kinds of value. The evidence that decision-makers should seek out and consider is that which bears on how these values will be realized through the choices they make, and the book articulates a distinctive method for thinking about the evidence in the light of the values. The method is illustrated through consideration of 3 central policy issues: school financing, school accountability systems, and school choice mechanisms.

Susanna Loeb, Director of the Annenberg Institute and Professor of Education and of International and Public Affairs, Brown University, presented “Educational Goods: Values, Evidence and Decision-Making” at the Annenberg Institute at Brown University on April 22, 2019.

The talk considered schooling versus training and the growing importance of learning skills in the workplace. Eric Taylor, Associate Professor, Harvard University, presented “Schooling versus training, and the growing importance of learning skills in the workplace” at the Annenberg Institute at Brown University on March 9, 2021. The talk was part of Annenberg’s Education Policy Workshop Series, an hour-long “works in progress” seminar centered on empirical research related to education and education policy. Speakers come from a variety of disciplinary traditions, and the series welcomes faculty, postdocs, graduate students, and research staff from across the university who are interested in empirical research in education.

The talk examined public investments and class gaps in parents' educational expenditures. Margot Jackson, Associate Professor of Sociology, Brown University, presented “Public Investments and Class Gaps in Parents' Educational Expenditures” at the Annenberg Institute at Brown University on April 2, 2019. The talk was part of Annenberg’s Education Policy Workshop Series, an hour-long “works in progress” seminar centered on empirical research related to education and education policy. Speakers come from a variety of disciplinary traditions, and the series welcomes faculty, postdocs, graduate students, and research staff from across the university who are interested in empirical research in education.

The talk presented experimental evidence from Bangladesh on online professional development and financial incentives for teachers. Pierre de Galbert, Visiting Assistant Professor, Brown University, presented “Online Professional Development and Financial Incentives: Experimental Evidence from Bangladesh” at the Annenberg Institute at Brown University on January 11, 2022 in a virtual session. The talk was part of Annenberg’s Education Policy Workshop Series, an hour-long “works in progress” seminar centered on empirical research related to education and education policy. Speakers come from a variety of disciplinary traditions, and the series welcomes faculty, postdocs, graduate students, and research staff from across the university who are interested in empirical research in education.

✨YOU ARE INVITED✨

Join RFA & @AnnenbergInst for a Twitter Chat on Tuesday, Feb 9th at 2pm EST to discuss the promise of #evidencebased #HighDosageTutoring as a strategy for recovering lost learning.

Learn more about the #EdResearch4Recovery project➡️https://t.co/W6RcoWUH1o pic.twitter.com/ChMF8Pem9Q

— Results for America (@Results4America) February 4, 2021

The Annenberg Institute and Results for America hosted a Twitter chat on high-dosage tutoring as an evidence-based strategy for recovering lost learning, part of the EdResearch for Recovery project. This event took place on February 9, 2021 as a virtual session.

Come to this session to learn more about being an Undergrad Fellow at Annenberg.

Are you considering applying / preparing an application / interested in the Annenberg Undergraduate Fellows for Education and Social Policy summer program? If this describes you, you are very welcome to join program leadership and faculty and previous fellows for a virtual information session on Wednesday January 13, at 1pm EST. Attendees will hear a brief overview of the training opportunity and have ample opportunity to ask questions.

Not sure what the Annenberg Undergraduate Fellows program is? This fellowship consists of an 8-week summer program that engages a cohort of 8-10 students in a series of workshops, seminars and team-based research projects that focus on schools, students, and education policy. Over the course of the fellowship, students participate in rigorous empirical research, interact with a wide range of Brown faculty working in social and education policy domains, and train to participate substantively in future research opportunities.

Fellows receive a stipend of $4200 for the 8-week program.

Program Dates: May 17, 2021 - July 9, 2021.

The deadline to apply is Wednesday, January 20, 2021.

https://brown.zoom.us/j/95003107300
Meeting ID: 950 0310 7300

This event took place on January 13, 2021 as a virtual session.

Come to see us at 2019 APPAM Fall Conference:

Friday November 8, 2019

Special Events: Evidence-Based Education - Will the Past Be the Prologue?. Speakers: Russ Whitehurst, Brookings Institution, Susanna Loeb, Brown University and Rebecca Maynard, University of Pennsylvania

Panel: Promising Approaches to Developing and Supporting Effective School Principals. Discussants: Susanna Loeb, Brown University and Clay Hunter, Gwinnett County Public Schools

Panel paper: The Longitudinal Effects of School Improvement Grants. Min Sun, University of Washington, Alec Kennedy, University of Washington, and Susanna Loeb, Brown University

Panel: Innovations in Value-Added Models for Education. Discussants: Jesse Rothstein, University of California, Berkeley and Susanna Loeb, Brown University

Panel paper: Can Technology Transform Teacher-Parent Communication? Evidence from a Randomized Field Trial. Matthew A. Kraft and Alexander Bolves, Brown University

Panel paper: Early Evidence on the Impact of the Achieve Atlanta Scholarship Program on College Enrollment and Persistence. Carycruz Bueno, Brown University, Lindsay C. Page, University of Pittsburgh, and Jonathan Smith, Georgia State University

Saturday November 9, 2019

Panel paper: In Search of High-Quality Evaluation Feedback: An Administrator Training Field Experiment. Matthew A. Kraft and Alvin Christian, Brown University

Panel paper: Is Effective Teacher Evaluation Sustainable? Evidence from DCPS. Thomas Dee, Stanford University, Jessalynn James, Brown University, and James Wyckoff, University of Virginia

Roundtable: Blending Behavioral Science, Economics, and Practice: Government-Researcher Partnerships to Increase Access to Public Benefits. Speakers: Ashley Carleton, Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance, Susanna Loeb, Brown University, Julie Moreno, California Franchise Tax Board and Aparna Ramesh, California Policy Lab

Panel paper: The Role of Philanthropy in Public Education: The Case of the Broad Foundation. Thomas Dee, Stanford University, Susanna Loeb, Brown University, and Ying Shi, Syracuse University

Panel paper: It’s about Timing – When Does Supporting Parents Work Best?. Kalena Cortes, Texas A&M University, Hans Fricke, Stanford University, Susanna Loeb, Brown University, David S. Song, Stanford University, and Ben York, Parent Powered

Panel paper: Second Time's the Charm? How Repeat Student-Teacher Matches Contribute to Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills. Leigh Wedenoja, John Papay and Matthew A. Kraft, Brown University

This event took place on November 7, 2019.