• The Lens   
Heather J. Hough

In American education, the scars of the “accountability wars” still run deep. More than two decades after the federal No Child Left Behind Act established punitive, high-profile accountability requirements for America’s K–12 schools, states and districts remain wary of debates over testing, student performance, and school improvement. This understandable backlash has pushed many states toward the other extreme: local control without meaningful oversight, where responsibility has too often dissolved into complacency.

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Latest Research Publications

  • Research Reports    

Recovery for U.S. Students in 2021: What Schools and Districts Can Do to Make Up for Lost Learning Time

Bree Dusseault, Christine Pitts, Robin Lake

We propose six principles to ensure students experience a positive, healthy, and restorative schooling experience this year.

  • Research Reports    

All Together Now: Getting Students with Disabilities What They Need During the Pandemic

Katy Bateman, Sivan Tuchman

During the 2020–21 school year, we learned through a series of interviews that most teachers missed out on the power of collaborative interactions between general and special educators.

  • Research Reports    

How Has the Pandemic Affected Students’ Social-Emotional Well-Being? A Review of the Evidence to Date

Betheny Gross, Robin Lake

This report is part of a series that aims to provide a definitive account of the best available evidence on how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected America’s students.

  • Research Reports    

New England Profiles of Innovation | Nokomis Regional High School

Sarah McCann

This profile of Nokomis Regional High School in Newport, Maine details the school’s practices that have made it successful, how they have adapted in the fact of the pandemic, and how other school communities can begin conversations about creating flexible pathways for students to design components of their own high school experience.

  • Research Reports    

Approaching SEL as a Whole-School Effort, Not an Add-On: Lessons from Two Charter Networks

Lisa Chu, Michael DeArmond

This paper highlights the approach that two innovative charter networks took last year to address student well-being and social-emotional development.

  • Research Reports    

How Has the Pandemic Affected Students with Disabilities? A Review of the Evidence to Date

Lauren Morando Rhim, Sumeyra Ekin

This report is part of a series that aims to provide a definitive account of the best available evidence on how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected America’s students.

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