Proving Ground works with partners on a range of focus areas, and you can find our resources below:
Engaging Families From a Distance
Chronic Absenteeism
Educational Software Reports
Resources
ENGAGING FAMILIES FROM A DISTANCE
Since 2018, Proving Ground has worked with school districts to effectively reach parents and families. Using data from 12 randomized controlled trials, Proving Ground has compiled our best practices for using strategic automated messaging to communicate from a distance.
Download Resource
CHRONIC ABSENTEEISM
Student User Profile
A resource that can be used to get to know your students, particularly in the case of designing student interventions. It can be used to gain insights into student feelings, needs, interests, and barriers to attending school. The materials can also be used as in-class or homework activities.
Your child missed learning the alphabet today: A randomized trial of sending teacherwritten postcards home to reduce absences
Zachary Himmelsbach, Dana Weisenfeld, Jihyun Rachel Lee, David Hersh, Lisa Sanbonmatsu, Douglas O. Staiger & Thomas J. Kane (2021) Read the original report published at Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness.
Reduce Absences in Early Grades with Personalized Postcards
Proving Ground is building a series of guides designed to share lessons learned through successful interventions piloted by its member districts to decrease chronic absenteeism.This is a step-by-step guide for districts who are interested in implementing a postcard intervention to reduce absences.
Reduce Absences in Early Grades with Personalized Postcards: Technical Appendix
This technical appendix provides more detail about the methods and analytic approach outlined in the step-by-step guide.
EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE REPORTS
Exploring ST Math’s Implementation and Impact
Exploring ST Math’s Implementation and Impact: Technical Appendix
Proving Ground worked with 13 school systems across the country to assess the impact and implementation of ST Math, a mathematics educational software program. We found that students who increased their average weekly usage of ST Math from fall to spring experienced higher math test score gains than students whose usage remained the same.These gains were highest for students with lower baseline usage. Across sites, students used ST Math less than the vendor’s recommended amount, though there was considerable variation within each site. Teachers and schools were responsible for most of this variation.
These resources summarize the findings from these analyses.
Proving Ground worked with partner districts to examine the impact of a low-cost, teacher-focused behavioral intervention on student-level usage of educational software in K-8, detailed in this CEPR Working Paper.