News

Stay in the Game! Member Districts Show Progress Keeping Students in School

October 31, 2024

Proving Ground's work with the Stay in the Game! Attendance network is making a difference in Ohio. COLUMBUS, Ohio (Oct. 31, 2024) – Ohio faces a chronic absenteeism crisis. While the latest data shows progress, school districts in the Stay in the Game...

Searching for Consistency in Attendance Data Recording, Reporting, and Utilization in the USA

January 10, 2024

Amber Humm Patnode, Acting Director of Proving Ground, has co-authored new work on attendance reporting in Orbis Scholae. Abstract: According to the United States Department of Education (USDOE), 16% or over eight million kindergarten through twelfth...

Connecting with Families and Students in Continuous Improvement Efforts

January 10, 2024

Amber Humm Patnode, Acting Director of Proving Ground, shares progress in PG's Ohio districts in the tenth installment of Improving Improvement, NNERP's quarterly series focused on leveraging the power of research-practice partnerships (RPPs) to build...

A Pathway to Change: Building Student Success Systems to Support Students with Disabilities

September 21, 2023

Proving Ground Acting Director Amber Humm Patnode joins other experts in discussing how best to support students with disabilities. Read more at gradpartnership.org.

Elevating Student Voice in Improvement Work

November 30, 2023

Amber Humm Patnode, Acting Director of Proving Ground, shares how to strategically embed empathy-building activities and student voice in improvement work, in the ninth installment of Improving Improvement, NNERP's quarterly series focused on leveraging...

Post-Pandemic, 2 Out of 3 Students Attend Schools With High Chronic Absenteeism

October 12, 2023

Analysis of federal data reveals ‘a relaxed attitude’ toward daily attendance, experts said. It’s well established that chronic absenteeism has skyrocketed since the pandemic. But a new analysis of federal data shows the problem may be worse than...

Proving Ground Partners with Rhode Island Department of Education for LEAP District Support Program

November 17, 2021

New Superintendent Institute and workshop series to support new LEAP District Support Program. Cambridge, MA — Proving Ground, an initiative of the Center for Education Policy Research (CEPR) at Harvard University, launched a new partnership today with...

Improving Improvement: Testing Theories of Institutional Capacity Building

September 23, 2021

This is the fifth installment of Improving Improvement, our quarterly series focused on leveraging the power of research-practice partnerships (RPPs) to build schools’, districts’ and states’ capacity to improve. In our first year or so of writing for...

Student Electronic Social & Emotional Learning Group Activity for Improving Attendance

August 21, 2020

Proving Ground Director, Dave Hersh, is a guest on the Education Data Chat podcast discussing Proving Ground's work and how it has adapted in relation to the COVID pandemic. Listen to the podcast here.

Districts Pivot Their Strategies to Reduce Chronic Absenteeism During Distance Learning

July 29, 2020

An EdSurge article features the work of both Proving Ground and NCRERN and how what we have learned can can help districts continue to reduce chronic absenteeism during distance learning. ... On the other side of the country, another effort, housed at...

Improving Improvement: Lessons Learned from Working with Partners During the Covid-19 Crisis

June 17, 2020

The second installment of the NNERPP Improving Improvement series featuring Proving Ground and the National Center for Rural Education Research Networks. This is the second installment of IMPROVING IMPROVEMENT, our quarterly series focused on leveraging...

Improving Improvement: Introduction

March 23, 2020

NNERPP featured Proving Ground and the National Center for Rural Education Research Networks in their newsletter. They will continue to cover different aspects of the project in a series. Improving Improvement is a new series in NNERPP Extra focused on...