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.

Robert Barnoski - August 1996

This brief describes Washington’s juvenile court early intervention project administered at the county level. The purpose of the early intervention program is to keep participants from re-offending. The program targets offenders sentenced to probation for the first time who are assessed as having a high risk for re-offending.

Wade Cole, Robert Barnoski - November 2006

A basic indicator of student performance on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) is the percentage of students who meet standard. This percentage can vary depending on which students are included in the calculation. As one in a series of reports on the WASL, this analysis describes the different ways to calculate the “met standard” rate.

Robert Barnoski - May 2000

This briefing paper looks at intensive parole program youth and answers the following questions: (1) Are intensive parole youth completing their parole supervision within 24 weeks of placement on the supervision? (2) Can we compare the status of these intensive parole youth with the status of youth in a control group? and (3) How does intensive parole affect the likelihood that youth will experience supervision difficulties?