Proving Ground
Proving Ground
Proving Ground works with school districts to help them identify and test solutions to specific challenges, such as chronic absenteeism, that are obstacles to student achievement.
Proving Ground supports partner districts in continuous improvement through data analysis, strategic advice, hands-on assistance, and peer networking opportunities. Through these diverse supports and strategic interactions, Proving Ground helps districts to:
- identify potential solutions to relevant issues,
- quickly and reliably assess the impact of their chosen solutions,
- act on evidence to continuously improve implementation; and,
- learn to use new and better evidence to make decisions about how to invest resources and improve student achievement
By joining a growing network of districts committed to addressing similar challenges, partners amplify their actionable insights and peer support.
Resources
Proving Ground works with partners on a range of focus areas, and you can find our resources below:
Engaging Families From a Distance
Engaging Families From a Distance
View the best practices for using strategic automated messaging to communicate from a distance.
Student User Profile
A resource that can be used to get to know your students, particularly in the case of designing student interventions.
Your child missed learning the alphabet today: A randomized trial of sending teacherwritten postcards home to reduce absences
This randomized trial evaluates the effectiveness of sending teacherwritten postcards home to reduce absences.
Reduce Absences in Early Grades with Personalized Postcards
Proving Ground built a series of guides designed to share lessons learned through successful interventions piloted by its member districts to decrease chronic absenteeism. This is a step-by-step guide for districts who are interested in implementing a
Reduce Absences in Early Grades with Personalized Postcards: Technical Appendix
This technical appendix provides more detail about the methods and analytic approach outlined in the step-by-step guide.
Proving Ground partners see measurable results.
During the 2018-19 school year, two Proving Ground network partners piloted a postcard intervention designed to reduce absenteeism by addressing parents’ misconceptions about the value of education in early grades and their child’s total number of absences. The intervention reduced absences by nearly 8% across the districts. That’s an estimated 7,000 instructional days gained over the course of one school year! Learning from these two partners, another three partners piloted these postcards in 2019-20, with similarly promising results.
Proving Ground differs from our other researcher-practitioner partnerships in that many of them are focused on simply the efficacy of a particular program. Proving Ground answers that, but then says, ‘What are you going to do about it in an actionable way? And how can we leverage other partners across the country to really take your implementation to the next level?'
John Rice
District of Columbia Public Schools
In the News
5 lessons as urban school district reform continues
Kindergarten’s Overlooked Absenteeism Problem
An NFL Franchise Is Tackling Chronic Student Absenteeism. Here’s How
Stay in the Game! Member Districts Show Progress Keeping Students in School
When Attendance Gets Personal
Spring 2024: CEPR Newsletter
Meet the Proving Ground Team
Kriti Chopra
kritichopra@gse.harvard.edu
Amber Humm Patnode
amber_humm-patnode@gse.harvard.edu
Thomas J. Kane
Micaela Keating Sharp
Atsuko Muroga
Ashley Snowdon MacDonough
ashley_snowdon@gse.harvard.edu
Douglas Staiger
