Teacher and student in red shirt high five
Spotlight

BellXcel

Three out of four low-income children in the U.S. fail to meet standards for mathematical proficiency in the fourth grade, as compared with only 41 percent of middle-income children. To support students struggling with math, it takes highly skilled educators and coordinated programs, particularly in remote environments. BellXcel provides an evidence-based software platform designed to help schools and community-based organizations design, manage, and deliver high-quality summer and afterschool programs for youth, including programs focused on improving math skills and engagement.

During the pandemic, BellXcel’s software platform proved to be a scalable way to provide partners the support they needed for addressing instructional and operational challenges and confidently implementing high-quality programs in virtual, in-person, and hybrid environments.

In summer 2021, BellXcel grew their reach from 17,000 students to over 70,000 students, ensuring engaging and holistic learning experiences were available to students, families, and teachers. In addition to growing reach, the organization maintained a high level of impact: 81-84 percent of participating families reported their child’s growth in key socioemotional domains, including confidence, problem-solving, and communication skills. And students who pre-tested below 40th and 10th percentiles gained two and 2.5 months of math skills, respectively. 

Overdeck Family Foundation provided unrestricted funding and strategic support to help BellXcel take a remote summer model from an idea to a reality in just a few months, which was crucial to meeting community demand during the pandemic. With our investment, the BellXcel team was able to build out and launch their innovative platform, achieve high growth numbers, and adapt to support students, families, teachers, and the out-of-school-time field throughout the pandemic.

Research Repository

A collection of research funded by Overdeck Family Foundation.

Summaries of Research Grants

As a leading education funder, we are dedicated to advancing the belief that “evidence matters” through novel, methodologically sound, and actionable research that uncovers programs and models with the potential to positively improve outcomes for all children. We believe research is a key way to increase awareness of what’s effective and to impact evidence-based decision making and practice across our main grantmaking areas: early childhood, informal STEM education, and K-9 programs that include supporting educators and student-centered learning environments.

Aligned with our core value of “learn better, together,” Overdeck Family Foundation is committed to promoting transparent research practices by lifting up timely findings of the research we fund. We update this page as research is concluded and published, ensuring transparency for the field and our grantees.

Research Areas

Early Childhood

Validation and knowledge generation studies in the field of early childhood.

Read More

K-9 Education

Research into what works for students and educators in the classroom.

Read More

Out-of-School STEM

Validation and knowledge generation studies on the impact of out-of-school STEM.

Read More

Other

Research into cross-cutting topics across the education sector.

Read More

Early Childhood

COVID-19 Relief Bolstered U.S. Child Care Programs in Crisis

Effect of Family Connects' Universal Postpartum Nurse Home Visiting Program on Child Maltreatment and Emergency Medical Care at 5 Years of Age: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Effect of Nurse-Family Partnership's Intensive Nurse Home Visiting Program on Adverse Birth Outcomes in a Medicaid-Eligible Population: A Randomized Clinical Trial

I-LABS - Dual-MEG Interbrain Synchronization During Turn-Taking Verbal Interactions Between Mothers and Children

I-LABS - Language Experience During Infancy Predicts White Matter Myelination at Age Two

I-LABS & LENA - Language Input in Late Infancy Scaffolds Emergent Literacy Skills and Predicts Reading-Related White Matter Development

Implementing CenteringParenting Model With an Urban Pediatric Population to Measure and Improve Clinical Outcomes and Parent Satisfaction

LENA - The Impact of a Language-Based Intervention, a Two-Part Study

LENA - The Relationship Between Conversational Turns and Student Achievement

Nebraska Spotlight: Key Findings That Highlight Connections Among Early Childhood Development, Families and Communities

Sparking Connections: Evaluations of Mobile Messaging on Response Caregiving

Young Mathematicians in Worcester Evaluation

K-9 Education

Does Teacher Professional Development Improve Student Learning? Evidence from Leading Educators' Teacher Fellowship Model

Efficacy Analysis of Zearn Math in DC Public Schools

EdTech Context Inventory: Factor Analyses for Ten Instruments to Measure EdTech Implementation Context Features

Engaging Families Leads to Student Academic Gains and Increased Attendance: How TalkingPoints Improved Outcomes in a Large Urban School District

Examining PowerMyLearning's Family Playlists' Impact on Student Social Emotional Learning and Science Mastery through Short-Cycle RCTs

Impact of PowerMyLearning's Social Emotional Learning Program: 2021-2022 Mid-Year and School Year Analysis

Khan Academy - Use of MAP Accelerator Associated With Better-Than-Projected Gains in MAP Growth Scores

Study of CommonLit 360 Shows Gains on Reading Achievement

The Impact and Implementation of Leading Educators' Chicago Collaborative Teacher Professional Development Program

The Next Education Workforce - Team-Based Staffing Models Can Make Schools Work Better for Both Learners and Educators

Unlocking Acceleration: How Below-Grade Level Work is Holding Students Back in Literacy

UPchieve - Report on Impact of Online Tutoring on Math Achievement

Zearn - Catching Up and Moving Forward: Accelerating Math Learning for Every Student

Out-of-School STEM

Camp Invention - Invention Education as a Context for Children's Identity Exploration

DiscoverE: Messages Matter

Museum Digital Engagement: Before, During, and Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic

Other

Access to Afterschool Programs Remains a Challenge for Many Families

Afterschool Rising to the Challenges Brought on by the Pandemic

Learning Heroes' Parents 2022 - Hidden in Plain Sight: A Way Forward for Equity-Centered Family Engagement

Opportunity Insights - Social Capital I: Measurement and Associations with Economic Mobility