Our Research

This 2012 policy perspective presents a new three-year model for post-baccalaureate teacher preparation and development aimed at improving the quality of the educator workforce statewide. The proposed "New Partnership-based Model for Massachusetts Teacher Preparation" is research-based and focuses on partnerships at the district level to achieve joint accountability for the training of a majority of teachers working in the Commonwealth.

This 2012 case study highlights the work by union, district, and community leaders in Springfield Public Schools, offering a compelling picture of labor-management-community collaboration in practice. The goal of the case study is not for communities to simply replicate the systems and structures Springfield uses to collaborate, but to learn and apply the key lessons to their local contexts.

This 2011 report focuses on challenges associated with high rates of student mobility in Massachusetts public school districts, and identifies promising strategies for overcoming these challenges.

This 2011 policy brief provides policymakers in Massachusetts with an understanding of how student learning plans (also known as individualized learning plans) work, an overview of the research and effectiveness of this approach on improving a variety of student outcomes, and state trends in mandating SLPs for all students.

This 2011 report commissioned by the Rennie Center and Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) offers a blueprint for strengthening assessment policy, pointing out how new technologies are opening up new possibilities for fairer, more accurate evaluations of what students know and are able to do.

In 2010, EdVestors issued a four-year retrospective report on the winners of the School on the Move Prize from 2006 to 2009. Researched and written by the Rennie Center, this report identified five principles of school improvement shared by winning schools.

This 2010 report focuses on providing students with a broader set of skills that will enable them to thrive in an increasingly diverse, rapidly evolving and globally-connected world, known as 21st century skills.

This 2010 issue brief provides survey results about district leaders' perceptions of 21st century skills. Survey findings provide a picture of school and district priorities for student learning statewide, including the skills and knowledge school administrators believe are most important for their students to acquire.

This 2010 policy perspective reviews the necessity of school discipline policies, laws governing the policies, and national research on the effects of disciplinary removal. The brief describes overall trends in the disciplinary removal (suspensions and expulsions) of Massachusetts public school students and findings from a more in-depth analysis of discipline data from the 2007-2008 school year.