Federal Resources

ERIC provides ready access to education literature to support the use of educational research and information to improve practice in learning, teaching, educational decision-making, and research.

Many schools and districts are turning to multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS)—a framework for implementing a cohesive set of evidence-based programs and practices—to promote students’ social, emotional, and mental health. This REL Northeast & Islands blog post highlights five fact sheet designed to support educators' use of MTSS. Topics cover: 

1. What are Multi-Tiered Systems of Supports?
2. Meeting Social, Emotional, and Mental Health Needs with MTSS 
3. Data is Key to Taking an MTSS Approach 
4. Don't Forget about Educator Well-being 
5. MTSS Efforts Thrive When Equity is at the Core

Two new resources from IES can help to improve support to students who are struggling in school:

• ”Practitioner Data Use in Schools: Workshop Toolkit” (PDF, 53 pages) is designed to help teachers and administrators use education data more systematically and accurately.
• ”A Practitioner’s Guide to Implementing Early Warning Systems” (PDF, 26 pages) describes and provides examples of early warning system implementation strategies in use across the country.

The Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics and the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics' report, “Indicators of School Crime and Safety, 2011,” examines crimes occurring in school and presents data on school safety.

This webpage from the What Works Clearinghouse contains information that can help youth-serving and school professionals prepare students to enroll in, and complete, their college education. Resources include tips for educating students and families about college affordability and financial aid, a checklist for helping students complete the steps in the college application process, research on the impact of secondary education interventions, and information that can help schools support students effectively and reduce dropout. 

The Condition of Education 2014 presents an overview of the current state of education in the United States. The report includes 42 indicators, grouped under four areas: population characteristics, participation in education, elementary and secondary education, and postsecondary education. The report includes four Spotlights that look in-depth at issues of current policy interest. Spotlight topics include trends in employment rates by educational attainment, kindergarten entry status, the status of rural education, and financing of postsecondary education. 

A new report from the Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, “The Inclusion of Students with Disabilities in School Accountability Systems,” provides information on school-level accountability for those schools accountable for the performance of the students with disabilities subgroup under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

This resource collects, screens, and identifies studies on the effectiveness of educational programs, products, practices, and policies for educators, policymakers, researchers, and the public.  This resource is designed to help schools, school districts, and educational program developers identify potential researchers (individuals and organizations) to conduct studies of effectiveness of educational interventions.

WWC released a widget that allows website visitors to easily connect with the free products and resources available from the WWC. Once the widget is on a website, it will automatically update as new products and features are released. 

This compendium provides brief descriptions of the more than 245 projects focused on social-behavioral competencies or outcomes developed or tested by researchers funded by NCER and NCSER between 2002 and 2013. 

This compendium reviews statistical information covering the field of education from prekindergarten through graduate school. It includes data on a variety of topics, including the number of schools and colleges, teachers, enrollments, and graduates, in addition to educational attainment, finances, and federal funds for education, libraries, and international comparisons.

This Congressionally-mandated report presents 43 indicators related to education, grouped under four areas: population characteristics, participation in education, elementary and secondary education, and postsecondary education. It also describes issues of current policy interest.

This press release announced the launch of a new tool that can make it easier and more cost-effective for states and school districts to evaluate the impact of their programs. RCT-YES™ is free software that supports sophisticated analysis and reporting of results from randomized controlled trials and other types of evaluation designs. 

These web tables (PDF, 56 pages) provide key statistics on military students enrolled as undergraduates, with a specific focus on military students enrolled after the enactment of the Post 9/11 GI Bill.

This report illustrates the outcomes of the 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which measured fourth, sixth, and 12th grade students’ knowledge of science. Scores have improved overall, and higher percentages of fourth and eighth grade students demonstrated mastery as compared with the 2009 assessment. 

This report summarizes changes between the 1998-99 and the 2012-13 academic years in the average age of public school structures, satisfaction ratings of the environmental quality of school facilities, the cost to get school buildings into good overall condition, and short-range plans to improve school facilities. 

This report provides estimates of the number and percentage of homeschooled students in the U.S. in 2012 and provides historical context with overall estimates of homeschooling in the U.S. since 1999. It also describes demographics of homeschoolers, reasons parents choose homeschooling, and parent reports on curriculum sources, online learning, and math and science subjects children have been taught since starting homeschooling. 

This report examines the use of private education loans by both undergraduate and graduate students in the 2003–04, 2007–08, and 2011–12 academic years. This report uses data from three administrations of the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study. 

This report provides a broad framework that clarifies research types and provides basic guidance about the purpose, justification, design features, and expected outcomes from various research types. It aims to establish cross-agency guidelines for improving the quality, coherence, and pace of knowledge development in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education.

This report provides a compilation of statistical information covering the broad field of U.S. education, from pre-kindergarten through graduate school. Topics outlined in the report, which is the 51st in the series, include the participation of students, teachers, and faculty in educational institutions; student performance; the numbers of high school graduates and postsecondary degrees; and expenditures on education. 

This guide (PDF, 43 pages) helps school and district leaders use data to better inform their use of disciplinary actions. Developed by the Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast and Islands Urban School Improvement Alliance, administrators can use this guide to determine whether disciplinary actions are disproportionately applied to some student subgroups and whether differences exist in student academic outcomes across the types of disciplinary actions that students receive. Schools and districts can also use the guide when designing and implementing their own analyses and when engaging in conversations with external researchers who are studying disciplinary data. 

This multi-volume descriptive report presents information from the National Longitudinal Transition Study 2012, a longitudinal study conducted over several decades to examine the characteristics, experiences, and post-high school outcomes of youth with an individualized education program (IEP). The report shows that, overall, youth with an IEP feel positive about school but are more likely than their peers to struggle academically and to lag behind in taking key steps toward postsecondary education and jobs. 

This study examined the accuracy of early warning indicators used by six Seattle-area school districts to identify students at risk of not graduating from high school. Published by Regional Education Laboratory Northwest, the report shows the indicators did not accurately identify many students who dropped out, especially newcomer English learner students, suggesting that school districts may want to examine the accuracy of their own indicators for different student populations.

This report illustrates changes in several key characteristics of the teaching force between the 1987-1988 and 2011-2012 school years, including the number of teachers, the level of teaching experience, and the racial/ethnic diversity of the teaching force. The report focuses on how these demographic changes varied across different types of teachers and schools.

This archived webinar series features four hour-long technical web-based trainings that address how to improve or sustain indoor air quality (IAQ) management programs within schools or school districts. School professionals can use this training to learn about the implementation of a successful framework for IAQ management, critical actions needed to address building-related environmental health, and the use of tools in the School IAQ Assessment Mobile App to identify and prioritize IAQ improvements.