This policy guide highlights trends in special education enrollment across the country and state strategies that can more equitably fund and support high-quality services for students. This report received research support from Professor Christopher Cleveland.

David previously taught at Central Falls High School for over 16 years, bringing a wealth of frontline classroom experience and a deep, generational connection to local Rhode Island education.

“The findings are overwhelmingly clear that on average, more instructional time improves student learning outcomes,” Matthew Kraft, a professor of education and economics at Brown University, told Oregon lawmakers in January during a legislative hearing on the topic.

After nearly a decade of transforming teacher preparation and shaping the MAT program, Professor Diane Silva Pimentel reflects on her time at Brown, her students, and passing the torch to the next generation of science educators.

Professor Christopher Cleveland received the NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship for his research, "Understanding Special Education at Scale."

Christopher Cleveland, an assistant professor of education and education policy, was coauthor of a study finding that participation in disability accommodation programs in K-12 schools skews heavily toward students from wealthier families.

Dr. Gil is recognized for her unwavering commitment to student-centered pedagogy and her transformative impact on the next generation of urban educators.

Matthew Kraft, a professor of education and economics, was named a recipient of the 2026 Guggenheim Fellowship. This year’s fellows were selected from nearly 5,000 applicants. Applications in the Creative Arts and Humanities and the Sciences increased by 50% and 86%, respectively. The fellowship is offered to scholars in any field and is determined based on past accomplishments and future potential, according to the foundation’s website. Kraft is among 223 fellows who will receive a monetary stipend through the fellowship to pursue independent work. The value of the stipend is decided based on each researcher’s project.

Article cites Professor Matthew Kraft's research on how decreasing instructional time lowers student achievement.

As part of Brown Climate Week, practitioners from across Rhode Island explored how education policy, school leadership, and environmental partnerships shape climate learning in schools.

Professor of Education Matthew Kraft provided commentary on an analysis he co-led on time in school across the U.S.

A study led by researchers at Brown’s Annenberg Institute found that millions of American PreK-12 students attend classes within a quarter mile of an environmental hazard site, and nearly half of public and private schools are within a mile of such a site. “[The] findings really shocked us,” Professor of Education Matthew Kraft said. “This data shows this should be a topic that is a central part of our discussion of how we support teaching and learning in our public and private schools.”

Professor of Education Matthew Kraft, founding director of the Sustainable Education Research Initiative at Brown’s Annenberg Institute, was interviewed on “Possibly,” a co-production of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative and Ocean State Media.

“Based on a broad body of rigorous research, time in school is a fundamental resource for educational success,” said Matthew Kraft, a professor of education and economics at Brown University. “The findings [are] overwhelmingly clear that on average, more instructional time improves student learning outcomes, including student performance on state standardized tests.”

In this podcast, Associate Professor of Education Policy John Papay discusses Rhode Island’s education funding formula, which determines how much money the state sends to each school district.

Professors Matthew Kraft, John Papay, and Lindsay Page were named to the 2026 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings.

These rankings recognize the 200 university-based scholars in the United States who had the biggest impact on educational practice and policy last year.

According to Brown University professor Matthew Kraft, high-impact tutoring is “among the most effective education interventions ever to be subjected to rigorous evaluation.” When the basic tenets of high-impact tutoring are followed—same tutor with the same student; student-to-tutor ratio of no more than 4:1; at least 90 minutes of tutoring per week—gains in student achievement reliably follow.

The Rhode Island Department of Education recently released its "Blueprint & Strategic Plan for Differently-Abled Students’ Success." Professor Christopher Cleveland spoke with The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. about some of his 'kudos' and 'questions' regarding the plan.

Celebrating Professor Emeritus Wong's career of scholarship, visionary leadership, and dedication to equity in urban education.

This fall, Providence’s Classical High School began offering its entrance exam in Spanish for the first time in the public school’s 182-year history. Professors Tricia Kelly and Christopher Cleveland provided commentary.

“One of the central concerns with gifted education, in particular with the younger ages, are considerations for which students are going to be able to be identified as gifted. This is a clear concern when the system has an opt-in policy, where it might require families to sign up for some like outside assessment to be identified as gifted, and not all families might have the resources or the knowledge to do that,” said Christopher Cleveland, assistant professor of education and education policy at Brown University.

Brown University partnership strengthens connections between teacher preparation and classroom practice.

Mentorship, peer learning, and new research bolster support for early-career educators.

Professor Matt Kraft provided commentary on SustainableEd, an initiative he founded that launched in July with a new report that synthesizes research examining the relationship between climate change and education.

Professor Matthew Kraft launches new initiative with groundbreaking research.

Professor Kenneth Wong was interviewed about the shift in federal K-12 education policymaking away from the U.S. Department of Education.

Andrea Flores has been promoted to Associate Professor of Education, and Matthew Kraft has been promoted to Professor of Education and Economics.

Gupta will teach a new undergraduate course exploring the intersection between education, innovation, and economic opportunity.

Professor Kelly advances multilingual education through support, training, and advocacy.

Laura Snyder has been selected as a 2025 recipient of the Karen T. Romer Award for Excellence in Advising, and Andrea Flores has been chosen to receive the Meenakshi Narain Excellence in Research Mentoring (ERM) Award.

Research co-led by Professor Matthew Kraft found that public school students spend vastly different amounts of time in class each day, depending on where they live.

Professor Christopher Cleveland weighs in on the impact of DEI program cuts in schools.

Professor Lindsay Page and other authors discuss the potential impact of research funding cuts on education effectiveness and efficiency.

Professor Andrea Flores argues that proposed Tennessee legislation allowing public schools to deny enrollment to undocumented students threatens the state's future by undermining the 1982 Supreme Court decision in Plyler v. Doe.

Developed by Professor Matthew Kraft, EDUC 0120: K-12 Education Systems and Climate Change aims to empower future educators to combat the climate crisis

Developed by Jacques Lesure, EDUC 1015: Reimagining Power: Community-Driven Evaluation and Education, will explore how to use culturally responsive approaches to evaluate the effectiveness of social programs in partnership with three organizations serving young people in Providence.

Education Faculty members Christopher Cleveland and Kenneth Wong weigh the potential impacts of both Republican and Democratic party platforms on U.S. education policy.

The Education Department is pleased to announce that Professors Kenneth Wong, David Rangel, and Matthew Kraft have been awarded funding to support innovative research projects aimed at improving educational opportunities for students.

John Papay, associate professor of education and economics and the director of the Annenberg Institute, weighs in on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) policy discussion.

Faculty members Christopher Cleveland and John Papay have received prestigious research grants as part of the Student Upward Mobility Initiative. They will join 16 other research teams nationwide exploring how PK–12 education can enhance students' future economic mobility.

Our new "Insight to Impact" series invites faculty from the Education Department to share how their recent research can be applied in practical ways that improve education systems. Here, we look at Professor Cleveland's research papers, "Understanding Individualized Education Program (IEP) Goals at Scale" and "The Effects of Response to Intervention on Disability Identification and Achievement."

Bilena Dabalen ‘25 and Morgan Isabell ‘26 both spent this summer researching the history of for-profit companies affecting public education as UTRA Research Assistants for Professor Tracy Steffes, Chair of the Department of Education.

In her new book, Professor Jin Li explores the philosophical origins of the concept of self in both Eastern and Western cultures and synthesizes her findings with cutting-edge psychological research to reveal a fundamental contrast.

Teacher strikes are tactics that unions use to influence contract negotiations and high-profile actions that have the potential to signal the need for policy change. Professor Matthew Kraft (Brown University) and co-author Melissa Arnold Lyon (UAlbany) studied the political economy of strikes by collecting original data on U.S. teacher strikes from 2007-2018.

A three-year study focused on the evaluation and improvement of teacher preparation programs aims to identify best practices among existing models of evaluation tools and provide recommendations for developing new models. Under the direction of an interdisciplinary steering committee that included Professor John Papay, the project outcomes will be made applicable and accessible to different stakeholders, including state and federal agencies, teacher preparation programs, practitioners, and researchers.

In examining the state of the U.S. K-12 teaching profession over the last half century, Matthew A. Kraft (Brown University) and Melissa Arnold Lyon (University at Albany) find that the current state of the teaching profession is at or near its lowest levels in 50 years. Kraft and Lyon identify and explore a range of hypotheses that might explain these historical patterns including economic and sociopolitical factors, education policies, and school environments.