As required by the U.S. Department of Education, data will be collected to ensure program fidelity and monitor impact on learning. We will use the gold standard randomized control trial (RCT) model of education research. PAL will recruit 80 middle schools. Schools will be randomly divided into treatment (starting in the next cohort) and delayed treatment groups (business as usual for one school year prior to participation in PD and receiving equipment). Our external evaluators, the
American Institutes of Research (AIR), will securely collect, deidentify, and analyze data. Stipends will be provided for participants' time for providing data.
Participation in the data collection is voluntary, and individuals may opt out at any time. Please carefully consider the ability and willingness to fully participate in all activities before agreeing to join the project as opt-outs after randomization negatively impacts the quality of the data analysis.