Institution and System-Level Policies

This research snapshot provides an overview of a SERN-funded project by Thomas Dee and Emily Penner that analyzed the impact of the African American Male Achievement (AAMA) program in Oakland, California. The AAMA is the first program in the nation to embed a culturally-centered curriculum specifically targeted to black male students into the regular school day at the district level. The study used data from a 12-year period to assess the program's impact on high school persistence. The snapshot shares key findings, insights, and future directions for the project.

This research snapshot summarizes a project led by Alison Koenka as part of the National Study of Learning Mindsets Early Career Fellowship. The project explores two questions: 1) Do academic labeling and mathematics tracking predict differences in students’ beliefs about intelligence, motivational beliefs, and academic performance? 2) Does a growth mindset program (i.e., an intervention promoting beliefs that intelligence is malleable) differentially influence students’ beliefs and performance based on their academic labeling and mathematics tracking experiences?

This research brief offers a summary of what we know about belonging from years of scientific research.

This research summary brief provides an overview of a paper by Greg Walton and Tim Wilson, exploring how wise interventions can improve outcomes and implications for policy and practice across a broad range of domains. The brief shares a background on what wise interventions are, how they work, and the ways they can be used to improve outcomes.

This research brief discusses the findings from a study by Matthew Kraft and his colleagues. In this study the team analyzed data from New York City Public Schools to explore how dimensions of school climate related to teacher turnover and student achievement. They found that improvements in all four dimensions of school climate measured in the study (leadership, expectations, collaboration, and safety) were associated with reductions in teacher turnover and that as schools improved their climate, students had increased academic gains.

This research synthesis provides an overview of how insights from mindset science can inform the design of educational environments in K-12 and postsecondary education. It describes how students' psychological experience of school shapes their motivation to learn and their learning outcomes. The brief distills principles from 40 years of research on mindsets and motivation about how of learning environments can be designed to be inclusive, growth-oriented, and meaningful.

This issue brief shares what researchers have learned about how belonging concerns affect gender representation in the physical sciences and engineering (pSTEM) and how we can use this understanding to increase women’s participation in these fields.

Nicole Stephens, MarYam Hamedani, and Mesmin Destin examined the effectiveness of a program that helped students understand how differences in social background contribute to their experiences in college.