Online Resource

Dewey Library - PN1993.5.U6 T278 2019

Troupe, Thomas Kingsley, author

Fleet, Katherine, author

Smith, Amber, 1982- author

Johnson, Maureen, 1973- author

King, A. S. (Amy Sarig), 1970- author

Gonzales, Kathryn, author

Polak, Monique, author

Longo, Jennifer, author

Burks, James (James R.), author, illustrator

Brown, Pierce, 1988- author

Alexander, Kwame, author

Barnett, Mac, author

Daywalt, Drew, Author

Professional learning communities (PLCs) bring together teams of educators to share ideas, learn about instructional approaches, and reflect on practice. Educators increasingly have opportunities to connect with peers and experts outside of their schools and districts through online platforms. These online PLCs offer greater flexibility for educators to participate in discussions from any location and at any time. But, there are important questions about how to design online PLCs that provide teachers with flexibility, encourage their participation, and are integrated with face-to-face professional learning opportunities.

The employment rate among people with disabilities has consistently been low. People with disabilities face many barriers to securing competitive, integrated employment, such as lack of access to transportation, difficulty finding a job, and needs for workplace accommodations. Mathematica is evaluating the SourceAmerica Pathways to Careers program, a customized employment service model designed to help people with intellectual or developmental disabilities or autism obtain competitive integrated employment that matches their skills, interests, strengths, and abilities. This webinar featured a panel of experts who will discuss how Pathways promotes competitive integrated employment, give an employer’s perspective on partnering with Pathways and hiring its participants, present interim evaluation outcomes, and report on SourceAmerica’s plans to expand the customized employment service model.

The Child Care and Early Education Policy Research Consortium (CCEEPRC) provided a forum for researchers and policymakers to investigate emerging research findings, questions, and methods that relate to improved outcomes for children and families. Several Mathematica researchers presented on topics such as: child care quality measures, support for home-based care providers, and research on coordinated services for children and their families.

This webinar was for practitioners of human services programs, applied social science researchers, and anyone else interested in learning more about this analytic approach to managing program change.

Mathematica’s Center for Studying Disability Policy (CSDP) hosted a webinar to examine these issues from the employer perspective. Panelists discussed: (1) actions employers can take to better accommodate employees with disabilities; (2) feedback from employer interviews about the challenges associated with recruiting and retaining workers with disabilities; and (3) findings from the National Employment and Disability Survey, recently released by the Kessler Foundation.

Child welfare agencies regularly make crucial program decisions that can impact the health and well-being of children and families across the country. Agency leaders and line staff alike can benefit from current, high quality data and evidence to inform their decisions. However, systemic challenges at play in the realm of child welfare—including, for example, short deadlines, limited resources, and high staff turnover—can make it difficult for program leaders to draw on relevant research and encourage a culture of evidence. At the same time, research evidence can be difficult to access or interpret, or it may not fully address the needs of practitioners and other decision makers.

Amid renewed interest in the role of principals in supporting effective instruction, there is a growing need for practical guidance on how to prepare principals to serve as instructional leaders.

Recent federal policy changes require state vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies to expand service delivery to transition-age youth and young adults with disabilities. These expanded services intend to improve youth’s preparation for college and employment.

Professional development that combines online and in-person activities offers a number of potential advantages for teacher learning. Online activities can extend the learning that occurs in face-to-face sessions, and in-person sessions can establish a strong foundation for teachers’ online interactions.

Finding and interpreting relevant evidence can be a frustrating experience for many policymakers.

This conference highlighted the DRC’s latest research findings and their implications for the future of state and federal disability policies and programs.

Mathematica and OPRE hosted a webinar on September 17, from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. Presenters shared insights into strategies for developing trauma-informed systems of care and lessons from programs that address trauma among fathers.

Australia is the only country in the world that regularly collects comprehensive information about the holistic development of every child entering its schools. This information, gathered through the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC), guides national and state policy and informs program development. Over the past 12 years, AEDC data have shown progress in reaching the most vulnerable children. The AEDC, along with population-based measurement more broadly, is useful for the United States because it can inform current discussions of equity in access to early childhood services.

Research reveals that the earliest years of life are a critical period of human development. Early relationships and experiences have a strong influence on brain development and future health and well-being. Young children’s foundational relationships and experiences take place in the context of families and communities. Yet, low-income families—especially families of color and rural families—often do not have access to the basic necessities and resources for fostering the nurturing experiences and stimulating environments that young children need to thrive. Furthermore, policy and program silos can impede cross-functional solutions and service delivery, which are designed to holistically address the needs of children and families.

The current earnings rules for Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) specify that, after using available work incentives, DI beneficiaries are not owed a DI benefit check if they earn more than a certain threshold. The Benefit Offset National Demonstration (BOND) tested a design intended to encourage DI beneficiaries to work by replacing the so-called cash cliff with a ramp—a $1 reduction in benefits for every $2 of additional earnings. BOND simultaneously tested the new rules with two groups: a nationally representative sample of DI beneficiaries and a group of recruited and informed volunteers—those thought to be most likely to earn more than the earnings threshold. Results from the five-year evaluation of BOND are now available for both groups.

There is increased awareness and urgency within the research community to ensure that evaluation and assessment practices are sensitive to the cultures of people who are most impacted by those practices. Driven by changing demographics and the increasing complexity of problems that researchers and communities seek to address, new efforts are underway to develop research practices that better account for the unique perspectives and needs of the communities being studied. But there is hardly consensus on what culturally responsive research actually means or, more broadly, what implications such approaches could have on evidence-based policies and programs.

A key challenge for policymakers is creating a pipeline of principals who are prepared to serve as instructional leaders. Districts often use the assistant principal position as a training ground for new principals. Yet little is known about how to design and implement on-the-job training opportunities that prepare assistant principals to serve as principals.

The goal of the webinar is to expand local and state leaders’ knowledge of teacher survey instruments to enhance the evaluation of school leaders.

Recognizing that school leaders play a critical role in school performance, states and districts are rethinking how they prepare principals. But this retooling of preparation programs raises a number of important questions: What skills do new principals need? How can we identify aspiring principals with the potential to develop those competencies? And how can we use these insights to improve the training of leaders at all levels of the system, from teacher leaders to principal supervisors?

In the past two decades, many federal and state Medicaid initiatives have been designed to rebalance the long-term services and supports (LTSS) system by increasing access to home and community-based services (HCBS) in order to reduce the use of expensive institutional care.

International development programs are designed to make lasting and positive improvements in the health, education, and income of disadvantaged people around the world.

Mathematica brought together leaders from a variety of sectors to discuss the challenges of becoming data driven and offer action-oriented, accessible advice on how organizations can take their first steps, or their next steps, to progress together.

While many industries have increasingly turned to data science to make informed business decisions, social service organizations and government agencies have been slower to fully embrace the potential of current and emerging data science methods. The challenges are real.

This webinar explored research on culturally responsive pedagogy and what is known about its effectiveness.

This webinar explored how a school and district have approached the challenge of implementing culturally responsive practice. It elaborated on programs, policies, and practices that were implemented to support efforts to achieve equity and use culturally responsive pedagogy.

This webinar explored how best to prepare educators to implement culturally responsive pedagogy, including and exploration of how programs train future teachers and school administrators and what changes programs may need to consider to effectively prepare these educators.

Interested in learning how to build more evidence into philanthropic practice? Join Mathematica, The Wallace Foundation, and the Afterschool Alliance for a Grantmakers for Education webinar.

Chronic absenteeism is particularly high in the early grades, compared with elementary and middle school. For a young child to succeed and develop a strong foundation for learning, he or she must attend school regularly.

Join us for a webinar for a discussion about the role of evidence in a continuous improvement process and how a free, online platform—the Evidence to Insights Coach—can help educators generate the evidence they need when they need it.

The March 2020 issue of Health Affairs, “The Affordable Care Act Turns 10,” offers must-read analyses of the ACA.

Mathematica will launch a groundbreaking new quality measurement observation tool, now available to the early childhood community (including program administrators, professional development providers, researchers, and others) during a webinar.