The Student Success Network (SSN) is a group of about 80 youth development and education organizations (including schools) that have coalesced around the goal of measuring and improving students’ social emotional learning skills.

Design2Learn is an afterschool program for students in middle school—a period in which student performance in science often declines sharply.

CS4All is a 10-year, $81 million public-private partnership between the City of New York and the private sector, designed to bring computer science education to every student in NYC public schools.

The Research Alliance for New York City Schools is collaborating with MDRC on a rigorous study of the effects of the Urban Assembly school support network on students’ academic and social emotional outcomes.

The Research Alliance is continuing our partnership with the NYC DOE to define, measure, and support effective learning environments in NYC schools.

In recent years, policymakers across the country have instituted school choice policies, which aim to increase equity and narrow achievement gaps by offering students access to a wide range of schools, including schools outside their home neighborhood.

New York City is home to the largest high school choice program in the country. Since 2004, all City 8th graders have been required to rank their 12 preferred high school programs (in 2014-2015, there are over 700 programs offered in 400 schools).

One of the most significant challenges facing schools in New York City and around the nation lies in their relationship to larger societal inequalities.

What can be learned from low-performing middle schools that have beaten the odds and substantially improved student performance?

Research has demonstrated important connections between students’ sense of safety—both physical and emotional—inside their schools and outcomes such as academic effort and achievement.

Some amount of teacher turnover is generally thought to be constructive, as it brings new ideas, energy, and skills to schools. However, research suggests that too much turnover may have serious instructional, financial, and organizational costs.

In the 2010-2011 academic year, three New York City middle schools began piloting School of One (SO1), a program that leverages data to individualize math instruction.

Educators have long asserted that the middle grades are a time of both great importance and vulnerability. Anecdotal and empirical evidence suggest that students encounter new social and emotional challenges, increased academic demands, and major developmental transitions during these years.

In the 2012-2013 school year, the NYC Department of Education served 145,000 students designated as English language learners (ELLs)—nearly 15 percent of the total student population.

Recent years have seen a tremendous growth in data-driven initiatives aimed at improving schools, including instructional techniques and accountability systems that rely heavily on using and interpreting data.