Featured Publication

March 11, 2021

What Parents Need to Know About Tests

We partnered with one of the nation’s leading education research organizations, CALDER, to examine the test results and performance histories of more than three million students in Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Washington state, going back more than a decade. We wanted to know what these students’ test scores could tell us about their educational experiences—and most importantly, their real-life outcomes. Here's what we learned.

Student Success / Testing / Student Progress / Parent Engagement

All Publications

June 12, 2023

Lag Time: How Policy Compliance Failures Delay Special Education Support for Boston-Area Children

In our latest report, we document frequent compliance failures by school districts that delay children's access to special education services—sometimes for months.

Supporting Families / Student Success / School Performance

July 27, 2020

Using Test Results to Help Families Forecast Long-Term Student Outcomes

Each year, millions of American families receive their children's results from federally-mandated tests. What if we used the data to tell them something about where their kids are going, not just where they've been?

Student Success / Testing / Student Progress / Parent Engagement

December 11, 2019

The Honors Packet Experiment: Can Celebrating High-Achieving Students Encourage Future Success?

Every year, high-achieving students—especially students of color and those from low-income families—lose ground in school, in spite of their potential and talent. What if there was a simple way to disrupt this decline? We designed an experiment to test one possible strategy.

Student Success / Parent Engagement

September 10, 2019

The Upgrade Rule: How Schools and Districts Can Make School Closures Work Better for Families

School closures are painful—but they're sometimes unavoidable. What if there were a better way to approach to process?

Supporting Families / School Choice

December 12, 2018

Muddled: How Confusing Information from Schools Is Failing American Families

Why do so many parents think their children are doing fine in school, when so many of them aren’t? Maybe it's because the information they receive about student progress is a ridiculous mess.

Parent Engagement

April 16, 2018

Lost in the Crowd

Meet DeAnthony, Amalia, David, Kendra and Joy—five talented students from low-income communities who are getting lost in the crowd.

Student Success