Ongoing Projects

CPRE is the evaluation partner for CommonLit’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (EIR) project, CommonLit 360: Expanding Access to a Content-Rich Digital English Language Arts Program to Accelerate Learning Among Underserved Students. The five-year project, which will run from 2023-2028, will develop, refine, and evaluate CommonLit 360, a promising and scalable program designed to accelerate literacy development among underserved students and build teacher capacity to utilize research-backed routines in English Language Arts instruction for grades 6-10. CommonLit 360 includes: 1) an OER content-rich digital English Language Arts curriculum; 2) embedded digital formative assessments; 3) on-demand teacher professional development; 4) data for schools to drive continuous improvement, and; 5) 24/7 tech support. Through this project, CommonLit aims to further develop the platform technology and refine the program services to support fidelity of implementation. The implementation of CL360 will involve approximately 60,000 students per year and almost 80 schools across four school districts. The combined impact and implementation study will involve two distinct though interrelated research strands. The first strand will entail a cluster randomized controlled trial to estimate the causal impact of CL360 on student literacy development. A second qualitative strand will examine aspects of CL360 and its implementation in these schools, with a particular focus on variability in program efficacy across grades, schools, and districts.

Robin Hood Accelerating Student Success

Through its Accelerating Student Success (AS) initiative, the Robin Hood Foundation aims to promote learning among 50,000 K-12 students, with priority given to schools in eight high-poverty NYC community school districts during the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years. It seeks to do so through two high-leverage approaches—High-Quality Instructional Materials (HQIM) and High-Dosage Tutoring (HDT)—implemented across several grade-levels and subject areas. CPRE is evaluating the initiative’s processes and outcomes in partnership with the Center for Public Research and Leadership (CPRL) at the Columbia University Law School. The evaluation entails two distinct though interrelated research strands. The first will employ quasi-experimental quantitative methods to estimate the impact of the interventions on student outcomes, while a second qualitative strand will examine aspects of the interventions and their implementation to unpack and explain the quantitative impact findings.

National Science Foundation - Understanding Learning Trajectories in Math: Advancing Teacher Education (ULTIMATE)

CPRE is engaged in a five-year study to estimate the effects of Learning Trajectories, a mathematics intervention involving professional development, coaching, and an online platform, on early childhood teacher and student outcomes. We are conducting a mixed-methods evaluation, including a Randomized Control Trial (RCT) and diverse array of qualitative analytic approaches. The intervention, created by Douglas Clements and Julie Samara, the directors of the Marsico Institute for Early Learning at the University of Denver (DU), seeks to ground Pre-K and Kindergarten teachers in how students learn math and, therefore, can be applied to any math curriculum. The DU team will implement this intervention in partnership with the Boulder Valley School District. This research is funded by the National Science Foundation.

Teacher Residency at Teachers College

Teacher Residency at Teachers College is an 18-month graduate-level teaching residency program that aims to recruit academically talented individuals from diverse backgrounds and prepares them to teach children and youth attending high-needs, urban schools in New York City. CPRE is conducting an independent evaluation of the program to document and evaluate its effects on teacher retention and classroom practice. This work is funded by the U.S. Department of Education.