Proving Ground is an initiative committed to helping education agencies meet their practical needs, by making evidence cheaper, faster, and easier to use. Our goal is to make evidence-gathering and evidence-use an intuitive part of how education agencies conduct their daily work. Read more about Proving Ground

In recent years, the U.S. government has funded dozens of cluster-randomized trials that seek to evaluate the impact of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) curriculum materials and teacher professional development on student outcomes. This project synthesizes evidence from these studies, along with evidence from prior causal studies, in an effort to identify the characteristics of effective pre-K-12 programs.

The Partnering in Education Research (PIER) Fellowship, funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, is designed to train Harvard University doctoral students on how to conduct quantitative education research in partnership with school districts and state education agencies.

Read more about Partnering in Education Research (PIER) Fellowship

What is the impact of attending Teacher Launch among graduates of traditional, post-baccalaureate teacher preparation programs who apply to the program?

CEPR has partnered with Match Education’s Sposato Graduate School of Education on the Teacher Launch Project (TLP), which is an intense four-week summer training and 20-week coaching intervention for new teachers.
Read more about Teacher Launch Project

How are multiple measures used in teacher evaluation related to one another and student learning? 

In July 2009, NCTE commenced a six-year effort to join disparate strands of education research, and develop a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of how to measure teacher and teaching effectiveness. Read more about National Center for Teacher Effectiveness

Access to Opportunity (A2O) is a partnership with the College Board aimed at measuring and improving secondary students’ access to rigorous high school coursework and enrollment in well-matched colleges, with a focus on the most disadvantaged students. Read more about Access to Opportunity

Funded by the Federal Government through i3, this project is a rigorous evaluation of The Achievement Network’s (ANet) impact on school outcomes. Read more about Achievement Network i3 Program Evaluation

Did video technology improve the classroom observation process?

The Best Foot Forward Project investigated whether video technology can make the classroom observation process easier to implement, less costly, and more valid and reliable. In a randomized controlled trial, the study team put cameras in the hands of teachers and allowed them to select their best lessons for evaluation. Researchers aimed to learn whether digital video made the observation process more acceptable to teachers and administrators.

In 2013, the project was piloted in 100

A multi-year partnership between six Boston-area charter management organizations, CEPR and MIT researchers, and the National Center on Time and Learning’s Transforming Education program. Read more about Boston Charter Research Collaborative

What is the impact of rubric-based coaching on teacher instructional practice and student achievement outcomes? 

This research study included the development and implementation of the MQI Coaching Cycle, as well as a rigorous evaluation of the program’s effectiveness using a teacher-level random assignment design. Read more about Developing Common Core Classrooms Through Rubric-Based Coaching

The Digital Messaging to Improve College Enrollment & Success (DIMES) project is an evaluation of whether a series of low-cost digital messaging interventions can influence college applications and enrollment for students at risk of not going to college.

What are the short-term and long-term outcomes for students who participate in math “pre-remediation” as high-school seniors?

This is a study of senior-year math programs in Tennessee designed to “pre-remediate” students with low math achievement. This evaluation includes the SAILS (Seamless Alignment and Integrated Learning Support) Program, an innovative K-12 community college partnership that offers students a community college standards-aligned curriculum via a blended learning platform. Read more about Evaluation of Tennessee Pre-College Remedial Math Programs

What is the optimal level of facilitation in teachers’ discussions and the effect of contributing their own video?

This study is investigating the conditions of effective video-based math professional development and the use of an observational instrument as a common language for teachers to use to talk about their practice. Read more about Exploring Methods for Improving Teachers’ Mathematical Quality of Instruction

Now that the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) has resolved the struggle over the federal role in education, leaders in the remaining Common Core states can refocus attention on the standards, the assessments, and the supports teachers and students need to succeed on them. To inform those efforts, the Center for Education Policy Research (CEPR) at Harvard University surveyed a representative sample of teachers in five states (Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, and Nevada) as they prepared their students to take the new Common Core-aligned assessments in the spring of 2015.

What is the current state of mathematics education in the United States?

We suspect that mathematics teaching has changed tremendously in the last two decades, as new teaching methods, technologies and curriculum materials have appeared in classrooms. This study has been designed to understand the consequences of these changes for instruction. Read more about Middle School Mathematics Teachers and Teaching Survey