Provides research, evaluation, consulting, and technical assistance services that contribute to the lifelong process of learning and improving personal performance.

Produces and disseminates information to provide motivation and tools to enable individuals to make informed decisions about health issues.

Develops and implements education testing programs that benefit students, parents and public officals.

Works with the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the government's primary source for collecting and analyzing data about public education.

Helps to provide all children with access to a quality education, and empowers people, organizations, and communities to bring about social change.

Is committed to helping clients improve the effectiveness of their workforce through a wide range of management, organizational, and business improvement efforts.

Produces, maintains and disseminates systematic reviews of the effects of social and behavioral interventions.

Our work in this practice area focuses primarily on these key questions:

Preparing students for college

• What high school courses do secondary students need to complete in order to increase their chances of going to and succeeding in college?
• When, where, and how have TRIO programs been successful in increasing college enrollment?
• When, where, and how can secondary students successfully combine early college course taking with earning their high school diploma?

Paying for college

• How do students and their families pay for college? How does this vary across different types of institutions?
• What types of institutional cost data are needed to better understand how colleges and universities allocate their resources and derive tuition costs?
• What time series modeling techniques are the most historically accurate for projecting aggregate loan volume and cohort default rates?
• If Congress raised individual student debt ceilings, what would be the expected impact on aggregate loan volume and default rates?
• How well do the multiple financial aid programs administered by the state of Maryland serve the needs of students attending the state's postsecondary institutions?

Improving postsecondary institutions 

• What impact has the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) had on institutions receiving support and on the larger higher education community?
• How can the Title II partnerships between institutions of higher education and public school districts be strengthened to improve the preparation of new elementary and secondary school teachers?
• What roles to faculty members play at different types of postsecondary institutions, and how have these roles changed over time?
• What level of literacy skills can current postsecondary students demonstrate and how does this vary by type of school, program, and enrollment standard?
• To what extent have Model Institutions for Excellence (MIE) demonstrated effective practices to increase the number of minority students pursuing careers in the science and technology fields?
• How can college and universities improve their verification of student financial aid applications?

Applying the skills of recent graduates to community needs

• What strategies are effective in recruiting individuals outside of the field of education into the teaching profession?
• What strategies increase the proportion of highly qualified teachers in a community’s classrooms?
• To what extent are state efforts to link financial aid to work obligations effective in either helping students pay for college or reducing workforce shortages?