PAL 2.0 Research Project

What We Do

We have designed professional learning experiences to support educators in learning how to implement prosocial education to enhance the school climate and culture.

Teachers

Teacher Leaders

Administrators

All teachers in all content areas and grade levels will engage in 40 hours of high-quality professional learning to support implementing prosocial education in the classroom. These interactive, virtual sessions engage teachers in collaborative learning experiences that enhance the school culture by creating a community of learners that utilize the same classroom management practices and set similar high expectations for students. 

Teacher-leaders engage in teacher professional learning plus an additional 18 hours of PD to grow their skills in supporting the needs of adult learners and examining how to serve their peers as a mentor and coach. These skills help mentor teachers have a greater impact and provide more effective support to their colleagues.

Middle school administrators engage in 18 hours of professional learning to examine current policies and practices that impact the school climate and culture. They then collect and use data to refine practices to support and enhance the mission, vision, and values of their school.

How We Do It

This is a 5-year, $8 million grant project funded by the US Department of Education to study the effectiveness of the PAL 2.0 professional learning program on: 

1) enhancing school climate and culture 

2) improving student behavior 

3) increasing student engagement and motivation, and 

4) strengthening classroom management practices 

This is a random control trial (RCT) of 80 schools. Once the schools have been recruited to participate, our external evaluation partners, the American Institutes of Research (AIR) will randomize the schools into two groups: a treatment group and a control group. The 40 Treatment schools will engage in professional learning experiences during the 2025 - 2026 school year. The 40 Control schools will engage in professional learning experiences during the 2026 - 2027 school year. Both the treatment and control schools will provide data during the 2025 - 2026 school year. By doing this the study seeks to understand what impact the PD has on our treatment schools compared to what the climate and culture are like in a typical school that has not yet gone through the PD. 

Survey Data

Fall 2025 & Spring 2026

Teachers will complete surveys before and after participating in the program to determine professional growth. 

Students will take climate and culture surveys at the beginning and end of the year to see what differences they are noticing.

Observation Data

Fall 2025 & Spring 2026

Teachers will record an entire class period at the beginning and end of the year. Our trained observers at AIR will review the videos to examine growth in the  implementation of prosocial education practices.

Achievement Data

Spring 2026

AIR will collect student achievement data from the treatment and control schools and compare them to see if the professional learning program had a significant impact on student academic achievement as compared to the control schools.

Demographic Data

Fall 2025 & Spring 2026

Demographic data about the schools will be collected to help us get a more complete picture of the school setting and allow us see how the participating schools compare. AIR will look at information such as the number of students, number of teacher, teacher - student ratio, number of administrators, years of teaching experience, student free and reduced lunch status, number of IEP students, and much more.