Research and Evaluation

As part of an effort to increase the participation of South Sudanese in the peace process and now the civic life of their new nation, the Sudan Radio Service provides access to balanced and useful information through radio-based education, news, and entertainment programs presented by local presenters in nine languages. Independent research found that Sudan Radio Service has approximately one million listeners.

Sudan Radio Service also builds the capacity of Sudanese journalists through its Certificate in Broadcast Journalism program and through on-the-job training.

The Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast and Islands (REL-NEI) is one of ten regional laboratories and has a mission to help pre-K–16 educators use the best available evidence to make decisions leading to improved student achievement and reduced performance gaps. REL-NEI places a special emphasis on helping states, districts, and schools build capacity to use their data effectively; forming and conducting high-quality research and evaluation through new “research alliances”; and helping regional education stakeholders incorporate data-based inquiry practices into their decision-making.

EQuALLS2 increases access to quality basic education and livelihood skills in areas most affected by conflict and poverty in the Philippines (primarily the Muslim areas in the Mindanao island group in the south). EQuALLS2 is a large-scale project that seeks to benefit 345,000 children and youth in 37 municipalities and four cities by training 37,238 educators and school officials, building the capacity of 850 local education stakeholder groups, and expanding local education resources through public-private partnerships.

The Social Legacy Program (SLP) reaches out to youth and other vulnerable groups in the Europe and Eurasia region, giving them the tools they need to become local leaders and promote social change. Due to widespread socio-economic insecurity and a dramatic collapse in basic social services, these groups face great barriers to finding work and gaining viable skills, while the region on the whole struggles to make the transition towards market-oriented, democratic societies.

GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) is a program funded by the U.S. Department of Education to give all 8th grade students the skills, encouragement, and preparation needed to pursue post-secondary education. The program includes teacher professional development in Math, Language Arts, and Technology Integration, help with school work, week-long summer and day-trips to area universities, as well as career and college financial planning information.

This study will examine what factors enhance, or undermine, researchers’ ability to maintain honesty in the ways in which they conduct research. It will take place within a set of research centers, where scientists who do laboratory work are expected to collaborate with researchers who conduct human studies. Findings will help to improve professional education of scientists and enhance research integrity among scientists.

The ITEST Learning Resource Center at EDC held a convening designed to develop a theoretical framework to guide future research on youth motivation in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) with a particular emphasis on populations most underrepresented in the STEM workforce. Two guiding questions were the focus of the event: 1) What is currently known about motivation in STEM for underrepresented youth? 2) What can be done to cultivate new research around STEM motivation for underrepresented youth?

EDC is developing and testing a 2-year, intensive professional development model for building middle grades mathematics teachers’ facility with formative assessment. Using a combination of institutes, ongoing professional learning communities, and Web-based resources, this model attends both to teachers’ knowledge of critical aspects of formative assessment and their implementation of formative assessment in the classroom.

EDC is analyzing data from Ohio’s child care subsidy and early education databases in order to address questions about the nature and impact of child care, pre-K, and Head Start collaboration. Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), pre-K, and Head Start all serve low-income children under the age of 5, but each of these programs is guided by different goals, standards, delivery models and operational hours, resulting in unique strengths as well as differences in quality.