K-12 Education

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Access to a high-quality K-12 education is critical for the optimal growth and development of every child. Children who attend excellent schools benefit from a range of opportunities designed to develop their intellectual abilities and social skills. The benefits are long-lasting, as educational achievement is linked to higher lifetime earnings and better health. However, there remains a stubborn achievement gap in America's schools due to disparities in funding and teacher training. FPG's work in K-12 education aims to provide educators, public officials, and parents with the resources and tools needed to ensure that a high-quality education is accessible to students from all backgrounds and at all grade levels.

Featured Project

With the motto, “teachers learning, students growing,” literacy experts at Targeted Reading Instruction (TRI)—a project at FPG—have been providing professional development for kindergarten through second grade teachers for the past 15 years to help struggling young readers.

Featured FPG News Story

In 2018, a team of researchers at FPG and George Mason University launched the Bilingualism, Education, and Excellence (BEE) Project, which was funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) within the U.S. Department of Education. Learn some initial insights from the team.

Featured Project

Project EXPRESS: EXamining interventions to PRomote Executive function and Social Skills is a five-year study evaluating two treatment programs working with adolescents on the autism spectrum. The two interventions are being implemented by middle school staff in schools in North Carolina and the San Diego area of California.

Current Projects

This replication study seeks to demonstrate the effectiveness of Targeted Reading Instruction (TRI, formerly called Targeted Reading Intervention) in helping grade 1 struggling readers make substantial gains in reading during one school year. It extends prior TRI studies by conducting an independent external evaluation of the TRI, testing long-term impacts for struggling readers into grade 3, and examining teachers’ sustained impacts for three years.
The purpose of this study is to examine associations between language of instruction, student engagement, academic-self-concept, approaches to learning, student-teacher relationships, and gains in academic outcomes for students attending dual language educational settings.
The Calhoun Intermediate School District is seeking support for the capacity development of their systemic support staff and network partners in best practices of implementation science to support implementation of evidence-based practices with their participating local education agencies (LEAs). To support development of internal implementation capacity, the National Implementation Research Network (NIRN) will provide virtual training, coaching, and consultation supports.
The purpose of this project is to support the use of implementation science methods and practices within the technical assistance services provided by the Comprehensive Center Region 7. The NIRN team will support capacity building efforts of the TA providers and the state education agencies being served by the comprehensive center as well as the implementation of cross-state initiatives.
The K-12 Coherent Instructional Systems portfolio of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s U.S. Program seeks to support a cohort of provider-local education agency partnerships focused on implementing coherent instructional systems (CIS) built around high-quality middle-years mathematics curricula in contexts that serve Black, Latino, and/or English Learning-designated students, and students who are experiencing poverty. As a Learning Partner for the Effective Implementation Cohort (EIC), the National Implementation Research Network (NIRN) at UNC-Chapel Hill's Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute seeks to support the cohort of Provider-Local Education Agency partnerships in their implementation and measurement efforts related to their scale-up of high-quality mathematics curricula.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate two group-based treatments: (1) the Program for Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS), which targets social skills, and (2) Unstuck and On Target (UOT), which targets executive function skills. The interventions are two 45-minute sessions per week across 16 weeks and will be implemented by school-based staff in middle schools in North Carolina and Southern California (San Diego area).
This project will train school staff who support students using pull-out reading instruction and intervention (e.g., “educators” such as reading specialists, paraeducators, instructional facilitators, tutors) to use Targeted Reading Instruction (TRI, formerly called Targeted Reading Intervention) with two adaptations: 1) a digital version of the traditionally “paper and pencil” intervention (“TRI app”) in a 2) high dosage model whereby educators provide daily reading support to multiple K-3 students not yet reading on grade level.
Effective implementation capacity is essential to improving education. The SISEP Center supports education systems in creating implementation capacity for evidence‐based practices benefiting students with disabilities. Project funding is by the Office of Special Education Programs.
This project involves a systematic review of literature on evidence-based teaching practices in the K-12 education system in the United States to (1) identify practices that have demonstrated success in academic achievement for diverse students, (2) examine whether these successful teaching practices have been adopted and implemented, and (3) identify system conditions needed to adopt. The literature review will result in an open-access publication to inform the field.