Improving education means supporting programs that can bring about or influence systemic change. Profiled on StrategicEdSolutions are dozens of programs that work. All were independently evaluated by the American Institutes for Research (AIR), possess evidence demonstrating their contributions to improved college readiness and access, and have demonstrated track records of positively impacting educational outcomes and are organized by BHEF’s Keys to Improvement. Over 200 programs were reviewed, and only those with the strongest evidence for success are included here. Each program featured is described in a one-page summary that outlines its most salient features, including program stakeholders, scope of impact, and evaluation track record.
In addition to providing overviews of these programs, please consider submitting a program to be evaluated for inclusion.
Click here for a PDF of all programs that work or use the pull-down menu on the right to view the programs organized by content area.
BHEF’s Program Inclusion Methodology
Programs included on BHEF’s StrategicEdSolutions resource center go through a rigorous two-phase review process. First, programs are pre-screened based on their relevancy and ability to be replicated. Specifically, programs must fall under one of the five BHEF Keys to Improvement that lend themselves to programmatic solutions and have publicly available information regarding program design and implementation. Programs that pass the pre-screening process are then subject to the prioritization review, which looks more closely at relevancy, ability to be replicated, and program effectiveness, as documented by rigorous research.
As programs and their supporting documentation evolve, this resource center will evolve as well. During the development phase of StrategicEdSolutions.org, BHEF contracted with the American Institutes for Research (AIR) to screen and evaluate education programs that work. AIR, a nationally recognized leader in using rigorous research reviews to identify effective educational programs, led the development of the U.S. Department of Education's What Works Clearinghouse, and has produced widely circulated reviews of comprehensive school reform interventions, school turnaround, and related topics. For BHEF's StrategicEdSolutions.org site, AIR developed standards for the quality of the research, reviewed hundreds of studies on over 200 programs, and summarized the evidence and descriptions of programs in easy-to-read profiles.
Many of the programs not included on the site were left off because of a lack of sound evidence demonstrating effectiveness. Of course, there are many programs that seek to improve college readiness, and some programs may have been overlooked in the initial review process, or may now have research that was not previously available. As a result, you are encouraged to review BHEF’s Keys to Improvement standards and submit your own programs for inclusion on this site. If you have questions about this process, please contact us.
