From the abstract: "The last decade has seen an increased focus through policy and research for schools to move towards an evidence-informed practice. Although some practitioners now access the external research evidence when deciding which interventions to adopt in their school, research suggests many still do not. Instead, approaches to teaching and learning are often informed by trends and the opinions and experiences of practitioners. Little is known about what intervention programmes/approaches are used in schools and whether they are evidence-based. We conducted this study to assess the range and evidence of interventions used in a school cluster in Wales, which comprised two secondary schools, seven primary schools and one special school. Using questionnaires, we evidenced 242 interventions. Following screening, we included 138 of these in the analysis and categorised them according to the 'SEN Areas of Need'. We then conducted a rapid systematic review of the literature for these interventions and found that 30% had some evidence of positive impact on pupil outcomes, 67% had no published evidence, and 3% had causal evidence to suggest they were ineffective. One year later, we conducted a follow-up study to assess if schools’ knowledge of the evidence for the interventions, presented through a summary report, had an impact on their provision. Our data suggest that the reports had very little impact on existing provision, and some schools continued to use the same interventions. The limitations of this study and directions for the cluster, policy and research are discussed." A review of Accelerated Reader is included in this paper. Accelerated Reader was found that "based on the more robust evidence (2, 3) available for AR, it is considered to be a promising intervention." Citation: Pegram, J., Watkins, R. C., Hoerger, M., & Hughes, J. C. (2022). Assessing the range and evidence-base of interventions in a cluster of schools. Review of Education, 10(1), e3336.The Full Report is available online: <https://doi.org/10.1002/rev3.3336>.

"This report presents the Education Policy Institute and Renaissance Learning's fourth assessment of the learning loss experienced by pupils in England as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It builds on our third report that was published in June 2021. It is based on assessment data from Renaissance Learning's Star Reading and Star Maths. Star Assessments are computer-adaptive in nature and adapt to the individual, providing an assessment that identifies gaps in learning from the entirety of the curriculum independent of their current year group. Star assessments also include a standardised measure which takes account of the pupil's age in years and months. This data has been linked with data held by the Department for Education in the National Pupil Database which has enabled us to carry out analysis by pupil characteristic. In our previous report we carried out analysis of assessments undertaken in the spring term in 2020/21 which enabled us to carry out an initial assessment of whether pupils lost learning as a result of the second instance of in-person school closures for the majority of pupils. In this report we will, for the first time, breakdown our estimates of learning loss for the spring term by various characteristics to understand how the latest disruptions to in-person learning have impacted certain characteristic groups. We will also, for the first time, provide estimates of learning loss for secondary-aged pupils in reading for the spring term." The Full Report is available online: <https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6239cb91d3bf7f6ac63c390c/Understanding_progress_in_the_2020-21_academic_year_Complete_findings_from_spring_term_Oct2021.pdf>.

"This report presents the Education Policy Institute and Renaissance Learning's fifth assessment of the learning loss experienced by pupils in England as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is based on assessment data from Renaissance Learning's Star Reading and Star Maths. Star Assessments are computer-adaptive in nature and adapt to the individual, providing an assessment that identifies gaps in learning from the entirety of the curriculum independent of their current year group. Star assessments also include a standardised measure which takes account of the pupil's age in years and months. This data has been linked with data held by the Department for Education in the National Pupil Database which has enabled us to carry out analysis by pupil characteristics. In this report we provide estimates of the overall level of learning loss by the end of the summer term in the 2020/21 academic year which is then broken down by various characteristic groups. Furthermore, for the first time, we provide estimates of learning loss by the second half of the autumn term split by degree of pupil-level absence in the autumn term to determine if there is any association between absence and our estimates of learning loss. We also look at the association between school level absence and our estimates of learning loss in the second half of the autumn term and spring term." The Full Report is available online: <https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6239cb5fe90e0779a2c9952a/Understanding_progress_in_the_2020_to_2021_academic_year_Findings_from_the_summer_term_and_summary_of_all_previous_findings.pdf>.

Freckle has recently received Digital Promise's Research-Based Design product certification. This certification is intended to serve as a reliable signal for consumers, including school administrators, educators, and families, looking for evidence of educational technology (edtech) products that are based in research about learning. Renaissance submitted evidence confirming a link between research on how students learn and Freckle's design.The certification is available online: <https://productcertifications.digitalpromise.org/research-based-certified-products/>.

Renaissance Star Early Literacy and Renaissance Star Reading are approved as Diagnostic Assessments, also known as screeners, by the Ohio Department of Education (ODE). Ohio educators can use these assessments to determine if K-3 students are on track or not on track for reading at grade level.The Star Reading Third Grade Proficiency Assessment is also approved by the ODE. This test is an alternative reading assessment that enables students to "demonstrate an acceptable level of reading performance for promotion to fourth grade." The full report is available online: <https://docs.renaissance.com/R63538>.

This white paper contains the research foundation for Freckle. The Full Report is available online: <https://docs.renaissance.com/R63478>.

About the review: "The Colorado Department of Education (CDE) has contracted with WestEd (www.WestEd.org), a national, nonprofit, nonpartisan research and development organization, to conduct the legislatively mandated READ ACT Evaluation. CDE selected the WestEd-led partnership, including Augenblick, Palaich and Associates (www.apa-consulting.net) and RTI International (www.rti.org), through a competitive bidding process conducted between October and December 2019. The purpose of this component of the evaluation is to assess whether CDE-approved assessments meet the requirements of SB 19-199 and widely accepted professional technical and quality criteria. This report begins with ratings regarding the extent to which the vendor-provided assessment evidence addresses the SB 19-199 requirements and the additional technical and quality criteria. It then details how we made our summary ratings, first across the legislative requirements and then across the additional criteria, including a selection of descriptive notes on the findings. The final page includes a summary rating for both the SB 19-199 requirements and the additional technical and quality criteria and, if relevant, a rationale for removal from the advisory list."The review is available online: <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GKFtMHAqHoGZVsMU0PX0rbzJ10BRPl0x/view>.

About the review: "The Colorado Department of Education (CDE) has contracted with WestEd (www.WestEd.org), a national, nonprofit, nonpartisan research and development organization, to conduct the legislatively mandated READ ACT Evaluation. CDE selected the WestEd-led partnership, including Augenblick, Palaich and Associates (www.apa-consulting.net) and RTI International (www.rti.org), through a competitive bidding process conducted between October and December 2019. The purpose of this component of the evaluation is to assess whether CDE-approved assessments meet the requirements of SB 19-199 and widely accepted professional technical and quality criteria. This report begins with ratings regarding the extent to which the vendor-provided assessment evidence addresses the SB 19-199 requirements and the additional technical and quality criteria. It then details how we made our summary ratings, first across the legislative requirements and then across the additional criteria, including a selection of descriptive notes on the findings. The final page includes a summary rating for both the SB 19-199 requirements and the additional technical and quality criteria and, if relevant, a rationale for removal from the advisory list."The review is available online: <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cFnDuD6qeJZlOLWvdvl_ENWmxTMhVK7r/view>.

Star Reading and Star Math have been rated highly by the National Center on Intensive Intervention (NCII) as academic screening assessments. The Full Review is available online: <https://charts.intensiveintervention.org/ascreening>.

Star Reading and Star Math have been rated highly by the National Center on Intensive Intervention (NCII) as academic screening assessments. The Full Review is available online: <https://charts.intensiveintervention.org/ascreening>.

Star CBM Passage Oral Reading (formerly CES Standard Reading Passages) has been rated highly by the National Center on Response to Intervention (NCII) as an academic screening assessment. The Full Review is available online: <https://charts.intensiveintervention.org/ascreening>.

The National Center on Intensive Intervention (NCII) finds that Star CBM Passage Oral Reading is a high quality academic progress monitoring tool. The Full Reviews are available online: <https://charts.intensiveintervention.org/aprogressmonitoring>.

How Kids Are Performing: Tracking the School-Year Impact of COVID-19 on Reading and Mathematics Achievement: Spring 2020-2021 Edition examines how students are performing across the entire 2020-2021 school year. Based on insights from millions of student assessments, the report explores key questions, including: 1. How much did students grow during the 2020-2021 school year compared with typical school-year growth? 2. How much has the pandemic impacted student performance by the end of the 2020-2021 school year? 3. What are the pandemic's impacts in instructional terms? The report is available online: <https://docs.renaissance.com/R63444>.