Louis T Mariano

Central to Qatar's education reform was the development of internationally benchmarked curriculum standards and standards-based assessments in four subjects: Arabic, English as a foreign language, mathematics, and science. This report recounts the development of Qatar's standards-based student assessment system, providing important lessons learned for Qatar and other countries that are seeking to implement similar measures on a large scale.

Organizations varied in how they financed these efforts-some increased internal spending or reallocated resources-and in receipt of external funding.

The authors provide information on the implementation and outcomes of the four-day school week using quantitative and qualitative data from a variety of sources. The authors add to the literature by providing the richest qualitative data on the four-day-school week to date, analyzing the broadest set of outcomes for a variety of stakeholders, and using the most up-to-date data available.

In this report, part of a series on professional development for school principals, the authors analyze the effects of a large-scale implementation of the National Institute for School Leadership's Executive Development Program (a widely used principal professional development program) and paired coaching for middle school principals in three states.

This tool describes RAND efforts to develop and employ personnel inventory models to conduct human capital management analyses. It should be of interest to analysts at the formative stage of a project to help in visualizing potential analytic paths.

Researchers sought to identify the root causes of underrepresentation for women and members of racial/ethnic minority groups in the U.S. Coast Guard; factors shaping representation at each phase of the career life cycle; and facilitators of and barriers to increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion.

This report documents the results of a study examining challenges that Air Force civilian women, racial/ethnic minorities, and individuals with disabilities may face in advancing to higher pay grades as well as factors influencing retention decisions. The study analyzed demographic differences in advancement and retention patterns and conducted focus groups and interviews with close to 300 participants.

The authors examine the process the Air Force uses to determine manpower requirements, compare it with processes used in other services and organizations, and evaluate options for increasing the efficiency of the Air Force process.

The Air Force's special operations and combat support specialties in the enlisted force are among the highest in demand by the service yet have persistently high rates of attrition in initial skills training. This report addresses challenges for implementing new approaches to these high-demand, high-attrition specialties' recruiting, screening, and development processes, and takes a holistic approach to identifying methods to fill process gaps.

Despite the Air Force s efforts to create a force that mirrors the racial, ethnic, and gender differences of the nation s population, minority groups and women are underrepresented in the active-duty line officer population, especially at senior levels (i.e., colonel and above). This report examines the reasons for this, with the goal of identifying potential policy responses."

The New York City Department of Education asked RAND to conduct an independent longitudinal evaluation of its 5th-grade promotion policy. The findings of that study, conducted between March 2006 and August 2009, provide a comprehensive view of the policy's implementation and its impact on student outcomes, particularly for students at risk of retention and those who were retained in grade.

Pilot survey of military retirees provides useful information on retirees' health care status, civilian health insurance enrollment, and reliance on TRICARE, the Department of Defense sponsored health care plan. Findings suggest that retirees with civilian health insurance also continue to rely on TRICARE for medical and drug coverage and that higher premiums for civilian health insurance may cause them to shift entirely to TRICARE.