The Pennsylvania Clearinghouse for Education Research (PACER): Translating Research and Analysis for Education Policymakers

Began in June 2011

Home / / Projects / The Pennsylvania Clearinghouse for Education Research (PACER): Translating Research and Analysis for Education Policymakers

The Pennsylvania Clearinghouse for Education Research—PACER—is a Research for Action project designed to inform education policy discussions through rigorous, objective research. The goal of PACER research is to identify and eliminate inequity in Pennsylvania’s system of public education and highlight actionable policy reforms to expand effective practices. PACER projects connect education policymakers, journalists, practitioners, and impacted families and communities with accurate, timely analysis of pressing issues to increase the likelihood that policy reforms that impact school children are based on sound research evidence and the experiences of other high-performing public education systems.

To connect with RFA’s PACER team, please contact David Lapp, Senior Policy Fellow, at dlapp@researchforaction.org or 267-295-7761.

PACER is made possible through generous support of The Heinz Endowments and the William Penn Foundation.

Project Director(s)

David Lapp

Senior Fellow, Policy Research

Research Team

Leana Cabral

Senior Research Associate

Kate Callahan

Executive Director

Mark Duffy

Senior Research Associate

Mary Eddins

Research Associate

Dae Y. Kim

Chief Statistician

Anna Shaw-Amoah

Former RFA Employee

Related Publications

Publication

Students Experiencing Homelessness in Pennsylvania: A 2024 Update

David Lapp, Anna Shaw-Amoah

This PACER brief provides RFA’s updated analysis of data on students experiencing homelessness in Pennsylvania, highlighting prevalence, challenges with identification, disparities in educational opportunities, and impact on academic outcomes. Our main findings include that: Roughly…

revisiting-research-on-school-closings-cover-image

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Revisiting Research on School Closings: Key Learnings for District and Community Leaders

Mary Eddins, Maja Pehrson, Kevin Burgess

While school closures are often framed as necessary adjustments due to population shifts, building issues, or declining enrollment, the reality is these decisions spark fierce debate and can disproportionately impact students and communities of color.…

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Pennsylvania School Funding and School Staffing Disparities

David Lapp, Anna Shaw-Amoah

Pennsylvania operates one of the most inequitable public school systems in the nation, with among the largest disparities in school funding, educational opportunities, and student achievement. In this brief, RFA examines the relationship between school…

Publication

State Funding to Support Out-of-School Time Programming in Pennsylvania

Mark Duffy, Tracey A. Hartmann

Out-of-school-time (OST) refers to programs that offer students activities after school and/or during the summer. Despite evidence of significant benefits and a clear demand from families, Pennsylvania has no dedicated state funding to provide OST…

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Persistent Unequal Access to Educational Opportunity in Pennsylvania For K-12 Students

David Bamat, Justis Freeman

Research for Action’s Educational Opportunity Dashboard is an interactive on-line tool to synthesize data and rank all 50 states by how well they provide students access to schools that offer 14 indicators of educational opportunity…

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The Negative Fiscal Impact of Cyber Charter School Expansion in Pennsylvania Due to COVID-19

David Lapp, Mary Eddins

Pennsylvania has the highest cyber charter school enrollment in the country with student enrollment soaring in 2020-21 due to concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic. School districts paid over $1 billion in tuition for students…

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FAQ: Superintendents in Pennsylvania School Districts

Mary Eddins, Leana Cabral, David Lapp, Molly Pileggi, Saxon Nelson, Ammani Ahmad-Khan

Superintendent leadership plays an important role in charting the trajectory of school district operations and ultimately of student learning. Meanwhile, several school districts undergo a superintendent transition each year, yet relatively little is known about…

Publication

Special Education Funding in Pennsylvania Charter Schools

David Lapp

For many years, policymakers, researchers, and education stakeholders in Pennsylvania have been examining and debating the Commonwealth’s system of funding special education in charter schools. Despite all this attention, there remains significant confusion about how…

Publication

Students Experiencing Homelessness in Pennsylvania: New Evidence of Under-Identification and Inequity

Anna Shaw-Amoah, David Lapp

Properly identifying when students are experiencing homelessness is the first step to providing them academic supports and other rights afforded by federal law. As RFA found in 2018, Pennsylvania schools have a history of under-identification.…

Publication

Teacher Diversity in Pennsylvania from 2013-14 to 2019-20

Anna Shaw-Amoah, David Lapp, Dae Y. Kim

As RFA documented in Patching the Leaky Pipeline, teachers of color (TOCs) are important for all students and particularly for students of color (SOCs). Yet, despite promising statewide initiatives to improve teacher diversity, there is…

Publication

State Funding to Ensure Safe and Healthy Facilities: Lessons for Pennsylvania

Mark Duffy, David Lapp

Long before closures due to the coronavirus pandemic, many Pennsylvania schools faced a different health crisis: unsafe facilities. Crumbling buildings, asbestos, lead, and other school facility health and safety risks plague many schools across Pennsylvania,…

Publication

Teacher Use of Digital Tools: Results of a Survey of District Teachers in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Scranton and Neshaminy

Kasey Meehan, Kate Callahan

When schools in Pennsylvania and across the nation were suddenly shuttered in March due to COVID-19, teachers were faced with an enormous challenge: how to effectively teach and engage their students remotely when the vast…

Publication

Unequal Access to Educational Opportunity Among Pennsylvania’s High School Students

Pennsylvania’s students consistently score above the national average on overall student achievement. However, the state’s achievement gaps between White students and Black and Hispanic students are consistently among the worst in the country, even when…

Publication

Equity-Focused Charter School Authorizing Toolkit

David Lapp

Providing high-quality and equitable learning opportunities should be a primary goal of all schools and school systems. Charter schools comprise the most steadily growing sector of Pennsylvania’s public education system, now home to over 160…

Publication

Trauma-Informed Schools in Pennsylvania: Aligning Expansion with High-Quality Implementation

Mark Duffy, Rachel Comly

Recent momentum to develop a trauma-informed education system provides an important opportunity for Pennsylvania schools. About two out of every three school-age children are likely to experience at least one traumatic event, such as abuse, neglect,…

Publication

Students Experiencing Homelessness in Pennsylvania: Under-Identification and Inequitable Enrollment

Anna Shaw-Amoah, David Lapp

Housing instability and homelessness are highly detrimental to children and youth, and the effects often linger long after the experience itself. Students who have experienced homelessness are more likely to drop out of school and,…

Publication

New Data on Teacher Diversity in Pennsylvania

David Lapp, Jason Fontana

RFA’s most recent analysis of Pennsylvania’s teacher diversity data is available in the following publication: Teacher Diversity in Pennsylvania from 2013-14 to 2019-20 Recently, the Pennsylvania Department of Education provided new data for 2016-17 that…

Publication

School Performance Profiles: Still Not the Sum of a School’s Parts

David Lapp, Lindsey Liu

Since 2013, the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) has annually published School Performance Profiles (SPPs), which assign a summative academic performance score for every traditional public and charter school in Pennsylvania by rating each school…

Publication

Patching the Leaky Pipeline: Recruiting and Retaining Teachers of Color in Pennsylvania

David Lapp, Jason Fontana, Alison Stohr

RFA’s most recent analysis of Pennsylvania’s teacher diversity data is available in the following publication: Teacher Diversity in Pennsylvania from 2013-14 to 2019-20 Research shows that exposure to teachers of color has a positive impact…

Publication

Charter School Special Education Funding in Pennsylvania

David Lapp, Joshua Lin

For many years there have been calls to reform how Pennsylvania funds special education both for school districts and charter schools. While some modest changes were recently legislated, they applied exclusively to new state special…

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College Affordability in PA: How Did We Get Here, and What Can Be Done?

Virginia Hunter, Mark Duffy, Joshua Lin, Austin Slaughter

A postsecondary credential is quickly becoming the only reliable gateway to the middle class. A college certificate or degree is associated with higher household income and stability, better health, and a stronger, more competitive economy.…

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Racial Disparities in Educational Opportunities in Pennsylvania: A First Look at New Civil Rights Data

Della Moran, David Lapp, Joshua Lin, Austin Slaughter

We know that segregation and educational inequity are harmful to students and weaken school systems. Yet 62 years after Brown v. Board of Education rendered the doctrine of “separate but equal” unconstitutional, it has been…

Publication

Quality Ratings and Improvement Systems in Early Childhood Education: Promising Approaches for Pennsylvania

Della Moran, Katie Englander

Policymakers are recognizing that Pennsylvania has fallen behind in providing equitable access to high quality early childhood education. Gov. Tom Wolf ran on a campaign promise of universal pre-k access and proposed an unprecedented budget…

Publication

Community Schools in Practice: Research on Implementation and Impact

Della Moran, Mark Duffy

Community schools are receiving increased attention in Pennsylvania and across the country as policymakers and practitioners strive to address the effects of poverty on academic performance, and provide more comprehensive supports for traditionally-underserved populations. While…

Publication

Creating a Comprehensive Picture of School Performance

Mark Duffy, Della Moran

For more than two decades, states have been required to report publicly on the academic performance of schools and districts. These school rating systems have received increased public attention amid growing concerns about the prevalence and…

Publication

Educational Vouchers – Facts, Figures, and a Summary of the Research

Research for Action

Educational vouchers have gained increasing currency in recent months as a potential school reform strategy in Pennsylvania. Both Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidates have publicly endorsed vouchers in some form, and the Pennsylvania legislature has expressed interest…

Publication

Charter School Authorization and Accountability: An Overview for State Policymakers

Research for Action

This PACER Issue Brief–the second in a series–examines national research on charter school authorization, and highlights what other states are doing in this area of school reform.

Publication

Teacher Effectiveness: The National Picture and Pennsylvania Context

Research for Action

This first-in-a-series issue brief poses questions and provides research-based answers on teacher evaluation systems – a top priority of legislators during the fall 2011 legislative session. It provides a summary of research and emerging practices…

Publication

Issue Brief: Higher Education Accountability

Research for Action

There is broad agreement that a postsecondary education is more important than ever. But college costs are rising while funding levels are dwindling. This PACER Issue Brief examines the issue of higher education accountability and…

Publication

Issue Brief: Performance Pay for Teachers

Research for Action

This PACER Issue Brief–the third in a series–examines alternative teacher compensation models, specifically pay for performance. It builds on the series’ first brief on teacher effectiveness to provide context, identify challenges, and answer questions about…

Publication

Issue Brief: School District Portfolio Management

Research for Action

In Philadelphia, an ambitious effort to restructure the district has been proposed. The draft Blueprint for Reforming Philadelphia’s Public Schools, released in April 2012, sets two distinct goals: 1) Safe, high-performing schools district-wide; and 2)…

Publication

An Analysis of Pennsylvania’s Cyber Charter Schools

James Jack, John Sludden, Adam Schott

Pennsylvania’s first charter school opened in 1998, enrolling 44 full-time students. The sector has since grown to 16 schools enrolling 35,000 students from all but one school district in the Commonwealth. This PACER Issue Brief…

Publication

From Start to Finish: An Analysis of State Speeches, Education Priorities, and Key Adoptions in 2013

Research for Action

Annual State of the State and budget addresses delivered by governors hold particular promise for such analysis. While state policy is, by its very nature, idiosyncratic (e.g., variable legislative sessions, differences in the make-up of…

Publication

School Closings Policy

Research for Action

The nation’s largest school districts have increasingly turned to building closures to address budget deficits, demographic shifts, and the movement of students to charter schools. This PACER Issue Brief examines school closings policy.

Publication

Teacher Effectiveness: An Update on Pennsylvania’s Teacher Evaluation System

Research for Action

This policy brief provides a closer look at Pennsylvania’s new teacher evaluation system and the efforts of the Pittsburgh Public Schools to implement reforms. This brief includes implications for state policymakers, district leaders, and education…

Publication

Early Childhood Education in Pennsylvania

Elizabeth Park, John Sludden

Early childhood education has emerged as a priority for state and national policymakers, even in the face of declining education budgets elsewhere. This PACER brief examines the research and policy base surrounding early childhood education.

Publication

Local School Governance in Philadelphia

Mark Duffy

School district governance in Philadelphia has long been a subject of debate. In this PACER brief, RFA examined the history of Philadelphia school governance; surveyed the governance structures in a sample of other large, urban…

Publication

Revisiting Cyber Charter School Performance

John Sludden, Lucas Westmaas

RFA’s updated cyber charter school analysis shows that cybers continue to lag far behind both traditional public and charter schools on the state’s performance measure, and average cyber performance trails behind the average performance of…

Publication

The Potential Effects of Opting Out of State Tests in Pennsylvania

Jessica K. Beaver, Lucas Westmaas, John Sludden

Parents across the country have expressed frustration with standardized tests. This policy brief examines the degree to which student opt-outs might influence Pennsylvania’s new school rating system, the School Performance Profile (SPP), which relies heavily…

Publication

PA Keystone Exams: Analysis of 2013-14 Publicly-Available Data

Michael A. Norton, John Sludden, Daniel A. Long, Marvin Barnes

Pennsylvania’s two-decade experience with standards-based education reform has been marked by an increasing reliance on test-based accountability. This research brief provides education stakeholders with accurate, comprehensive analysis to inform the growing debate about Keystone Exams.

Publication

Pennsylvania’s School Performance Profile: Not the Sum of its Parts

John Sludden, Lucas Westmaas, Jessica K. Beaver, Adam Schott

Test-based accountability has been a primary feature of public school policy since 2001, when the No Child Left Behind Act required states to adopt annual assessment programs, identify sanctions for schools that did not meet…

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