RMC's history of identifying and disseminating promising educational practices began with its involvement in the National Diffusion Network and Joint Dissemination Review Panel (1974-1995) and continues with its long-standing (1982-present) relationship with the Blue Ribbon Schools Program to identify research-based practices and programs. We develop content for dissemination through innovative digital technologies and evaluate new technologies for engaging students and delivering instruction.

Highlights

Doing What Works
In collaboration with WestEd and American Institutes for Research, RMC is translating resarch into multimedia tools for educators, administrators, and others. Narrated and visual descriptions of best practices, interviews with experts and practitioners, and planning tools are available at the Doing What Works website on topics such as early childhood education, English language learning, mathematics, the psychology of learning, and school improvement.

Blue Ribbon Schools Program
RMC manages the national Blue Ribbon Schools Program, which honors academically superior or dramatically improving public and private schools in the U.S. Through profiles and case studies, we document strategies and practices that are closing the achievement gap. We also convent Blue Ribbon panels, host an annual awards ceremony, and report demographic and test data to the U.S.E.D. Read site visit profiles and watch presentations by award-winning schools from 2003 to the present.

New York Benchmark High Schools Pilot Study
With Magellan Foundation support, RMC's pilot study of five high schools with low student dropout rates identifies practices that kept students engaged in school and graduating. Achieving Graduation: New York Benchmark Schools contains case studies, summaries of practice, an annotated bibliography, research framework, and a self-assessment tool for secondary school educators.

Evaluating Innovative Technologies
As part of our media evaluation work, we examine the impact of new technologies on learning in informal environment through work such as our front-end evaluation of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's Science on a Sphere exhibit at the Maryland Science Center. RMC's current work includes evaluating a range of Web-based social media to engage minority young adults in learning environmental science. This formative study looks at podcasts, social networking, user-generated media, and other technologies. 

Other work:

• Massachusetts Charter School Accountability Inspections