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A RAND team conducted an independent implementation evaluation of the Re-Engineering Systems of Primary Care Treatment in the Military (RESPECT-Mil) Program, a system of care designed to screen, assess, and treat posttraumatic stress disorder and depression among active duty service members in the Army's primary care settings. Evaluating the Implementation of the Re-Engineering Systems of Primary Care Treatment in the Military (RESPECT-Mil) presents the results from RAND's assessment of the implementation of RESPECT-Mil in military treatment facilities and makes recommendations to improve the delivery of mental health care in these settings. Analyses were based on existing program data used to monitor fidelity to RESPECT-Mil across the Army's primary care clinics, as well as discussions with key stakeholders. During the time of the evaluation, efforts were under way to implement the Patient Centered Medical Home, and uncertainties remained about the implications for the RESPECT-Mil program. Consideration of this transition was made in designing the evaluation and applying its findings more broadly to the implementation of collaborative care within military primary care settings.

New state standards for what students should learn in English language arts and literacy have changed expectations for what teachers should know and be able to do in their classrooms. This report provides U.S. educators' perspectives on their readiness and needs for support to help students meet state standards. Findings are drawn from surveys of the American Teacher and School Leader panels, national samples of K–12 teachers and school leaders.

U.S. mathematics teachers have been working to adjust their instruction in response to states' adoption of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics and similar standards. Drawing on web-based surveys of U.S. teachers, this report presents data on how prepared teachers feel to address new mathematics standards and what professional development opportunities they think they need to help them implement standards effectively.

This report shares U.S. principals' and teachers' concerns about implementation of state assessment tests aligned to the new standards, drawing on new survey tools for understanding educators' perspectives: RAND's American Teacher Panel (ATP) and American School Leader Panel (ASLP). Findings indicate particular concern with students' test performance, as well as more prevalent concerns about the PARCC assessment compared with other assessments.

Evaluations of federal programs designed to improve student achievement generally depend on data gathered by the states for school accountability purposes, rather than data specifically designed for program evaluation. In addition, these data are available at the school level but not at the student level. This article first discusses issues related to the quality of school-level data collected as part of state accountability systems, including the reliability and validity of school-level test scores as a measure of the value added by schools to student learning. It then outlines various ways in which school-level data can be usefully analyzed and illustrates the challenges inherent in doing so, including the challenges of aggregating data across states to find an overall program effect. The final section discusses the implications of the arguments presented here for measuring changes in school performance and linking these effects to a specific program. Ultimately, our ability to measure changes in outcom...

Since Operation Desert Shield/Storm (ODS/S), the reserve forces have participated in almost every large foreign deployment. Understanding how mobilizations and deployments of reservists affect their attitudes and those of their families and employers is important because of the potential effects on retention and future recruiting. This article examines retention of enlisted reservists three years after Operation Desert Storm, using a rich array of data available from the 1991 Guard/Reserve Survey of Officers and Enlisted Personnel. Overall, there is little difference between the retention of mobilized and nonmobilized reservists. The most important factors in retention are satisfaction with reserve duty and spouses' attitudes toward reserve participation. Among the mobilized, a statistical model shows no difference in the probability of retention, regardless of economic loss. However, these conclusions may not extend to deployments that are less popular and more frequent, such as those experienced by the reserve components in recent years.

Teacher supply and demand issues are of critical importance as our society enters the 21st century. Over the next decade, there will be an increasing demand for new teachers––about two million––due in part to a dramatic increase in enrollments and high attrition rates as an aging teacher workforce becomes eligible for retirement. Where these teachers will come from and where they will teach is important to understand as our society faces increasing racial, ethnic, and linguistic diversity. Amid this diversity is a continuing concern that some racial-ethnic groups are disproportionately placed at risk. Thus, this article focuses on the supply and demand patterns of minority teachers, with special attention to teachers of students in high-risk districts. We analyze data on teachers from Texas between 1979 and 1996. We provide a variety of descriptive results––both univariate and multivariate––showing that while Texas has been successful in attracting minority teachers, it has a long way to go in attaining the goal of the Texas State Board of Education: to have a teacher workforce that reflects the racial-ethnic composition of the state.

Women and nonwhites are an increasing percentage of U.S. service academy entering classes. Their first-year completion and graduation rates have also increased, and their graduation rates are somewhat higher than at comparable civilian institutions.

Five cities that received a grant from The Wallace Foundation, along with three other cities that were not part of the initiative, were successful in using data from management information systems to improve out-of-school-time programs.

This report presents trends on the implementation of Title I parental choice options from the National Longitudinal Study of No Child Left Behind and the Study of State Implementation of Accountability and Teacher Quality Under No Child Left Behind. In 2006-2007, 6.9 million students were eligible for Title I public school choice, a fourfold increase since 2002-2003, and more than 3.3 million were eligible for Title I supplemental educational services, a nearly sixfold increase. However, participation rates remained low at 1 percent for the Title I public school choice option and 17 percent for supplemental educational services. Public school choice was constrained at the middle and high school levels because large numbers of school districts have only one middle school and one high school.

RAND researchers conducted a three-year study of New York City's promotion policy, using interviews, case studies, student surveys, and demographic and test score data to determine its effects on the outcomes of 5th-grade students held to the policy.

Although the availability of No Child Left Behind public school choice and supplemental educational options continues to expand for students in underperforming schools, only a small percentage of eligible students participate in these programs.

This report presents findings on the implementation of parental choice options from the first year of two national studies of No Child Left Behind. In 2004-2005, nearly 6.2 million students were eligible for Title I school choice and as many as 1.8 million were eligible for supplemental educational services. Only about one percent took advantage of the school choice option, and about 17 percent took advantage of supplemental services. In a subsample of large urban districts, the average achievement of the schools chosen by students using the school choice option was consistently higher than the average achievement of the schools they came from, and their parents were largely satisfied with the new schools. The report also notes that low participation rates in Title I school choice and supplemental educational services may be related to problems communicating with parents.

This research brief discusses California, Georgia, and Pennsylvania's implementation of the standards-based accountability systems required by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, presenting the views of teachers and administrators in these states.

This research brief reports the results of a study examining the implementation and effectiveness of a middle school reading coach program in Florida.

This research brief summarizes the results of a 2006 pilot survey of military retirees, providing information on retirees' enrollment in civilian health care plans and reliance on TRICARE, the Department of Defense-sponsored health insurance.

Some members of Congress became concerned that the rapid pace of the military drawdown and accompanying skill consolidations might be eroding military readiness, particularly in the maintenance fields.