Edie Harding, Barbara McLain - January 2000

In 1998, the Institute studied the preparation and development of teachers in Washington State at the request of its Board of Directors. A report was published by the Institute in August 1999, Teacher Preparation and Development . The study included surveys of beginning teachers and principals. Due to space limitations, not all the data from the surveys and from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction’s (OSPI) certification and employment data base were available in the report. This chartbook provides additional insights from the Institute’s study. The link to the appendix above provides a copy of the survey and a summary of survey responses.

Wade Cole, Robert Barnoski - November 2006

As one in a series of reports on the WASL, this report describes the use of alternate assessments for tenth grade students in special education in spring 2006.

Annie Pennucci, Laurie Anderson - December 2011

Washington’s Learning Assistance Program (LAP) provides funding to school districts for supplemental services for K–12 students at-risk of not meeting state standards in reading and math. The state Quality Education Council (QEC), which makes recommendations to the legislature regarding basic education, requested that the Washington State Institute for Public Policy (Institute) collaborate with the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) on a study that measures the impact of LAP on student achievement.

This study is being conducted in two phases: (1) statistical analysis of the association between LAP funding and student outcomes; and (2) site visits at schools that provide LAP-funded services. This report describes preliminary results from the statistical analysis, focusing on elementary school student test scores. The final report, due September 1, 2012, will examine other grade levels and outcome measures.

This report was revised January, 2012, to include an executive summary.

Julia Cramer, Kristofer Bitney, Paige Wanner - June 2018

Washington State provides funding to school districts to help underachieving students through the Learning Assistance Program (LAP). The 2013 Washington State Legislature directed the Washington State Institute for Public Policy to prepare an inventory of evidence-based and research-based effective practices, activities, and programs for use by school districts in LAP and to update the inventory each two years thereafter. This report describes the fourth update to the inventory of evidence-based and research-based practices for use in LAP.

Find previous versions of the LAP inventory with the following links: third update, second update, first update, and initial report.

Marna Miller, Rebecca Xie - October 2022

In 2021, the Washington State Health Care Authority (HCA) conducted a survey of adults in Washington to better understand the prevalence of gambling and problem gambling. HCA contracted with WSIPP to conduct additional analyses.

WSIPP’s analysis found that fewer than half of respondents reported they had gambled in the past 12 months. Of those who had gambled, 3.5% were classified as problem gamblers. Statistically significant differences were detected in the prevalence of gambling and problem gambling among some different demographic populations (demographics collected include gender, marital status, ethnicity, age, education, military service, employment, type of insurance, and geographic region). Compared to those who gambled only in brick-and-mortar establishments, online gamblers were significantly more likely to be problem gamblers. Gamblers who self-identified as having problems with substance use, mental health, or other behaviors, were more likely to be problem gamblers than others not reporting these problems. Most of the population said they thought the harms of gambling outweighed the benefits. A similar proportion said the availability in Washington was fine—neither too available nor not available enough.

Robert Barnoski - December 2003

The 2003 Washington State Legislature directed the Institute to determine if there are changes to Washington’s sentencing structure that could reduce costs without endangering public safety. This interim report describes the research plan, as well as the steps taken as of December 2003.

The final report is available in two parts:
Part I: Historical Trends
Part II: Recidivism Analyses

Wade Cole - January 2008

This report examines the effectiveness of Promoting Academic Success (PAS) for students in the class of 2008, where effectiveness is defined as the difference in performance on WASL retakes for students who did and did not participate in PAS. We conducted statistical analyses to evaluate effectiveness by subgroup, by PAS session, and overall effectiveness.

Robert Barnoski, Wade Cole - February 2007

This report describes how student characteristics are individually associated with performance on the reading, writing, and math assessments of the 10th-grade WASL in spring 2006, and identifies groups of students with the lowest and highest met-standard rates.

Robert Barnoski - February 2006

This report analyzes the relative accuracy of the LSI-R in predicting felony sex recidivism for Washington State sex offenders.

Jian Cao, Ernst Stromsdorfer, Greg Weeks - December 1990

This report examines the dynamics of poverty for women in Washington State. Data from the Family Income Study are used to investigate why women become poor, why some stay poor, and what allows some to escape poverty altogether.