School reform
Test-Based Accountability and the Effectiveness of School Finance Reforms
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceTags: School reform, AssessmentA recent literature provides new evidence that school resources are important for student outcomes. In this paper, we show that school finance reform-induced increases in student performance are driven by those states that had test-based accountability policies in place at the time. By… more →
Improving Low-Performing Schools: A Meta-Analysis of Impact Evaluation Studies
Tags: School reformThe public narrative surrounding efforts to improve low-performing K-12 schools in the U.S. has been notably gloomy. Observers argue that either nothing works or we don’t know what works. At the same time, the federal government is asking localities to implement evidence-based interventions. But… more →
How Increased School Choice Affects Public School Enrollment and School Segregation
Topics: School ChoiceWe investigate the determinants and consequences of increased school choice by analyzing a 22-year school panel matched to county-level demographic, economic, and political data. Using an event-study design exploiting the precise timing of charter school enrollment change, we provide… more →
The learning curve: Revisiting the assumption of linear growth across the school year
Topics: Student LearningImportant educational policy decisions, like whether to shorten or extend the school year, often require accurate estimates of how much students learn during the year. Yet, related research relies on a mostly untested assumption: that growth in achievement is linear throughout the entire… more →
Is the Rise of High School Graduation Rates Real? High-Stakes School Accountability and Strategic Behavior
Tags: High schools, School reformHigh school graduation rates have increased dramatically in the past two decades. Some skepticism has arisen, however, because of the confluence of the graduation rise and the starts of high-stakes accountability for graduation rates with No Child Left Behind (NCLB). In this study we provide… more →
A Political Framework on How ESSA’s Devolved Federal Authority Influences State Policymaking Toward Educationally Disadvantaged Students
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceTags: School reformThe Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 (ESSA) grants states unprecedented discretion in implementing many of the federal law’s requirements concerning the needs of the nation’s educationally disadvantaged students. This theoretical paper addresses a void in the policy implementation literature… more →
Investing for Student Success: Lessons From State School Finance Reforms
Tags: School reformRecent research demonstrates that, when more money is spent on education for students from low-income families, achievement and graduation rates improve. So, too, do life outcomes such as employment, wages, and reduced poverty rates. Investments in instruction, especially high-quality teachers,… more →
Teacher Turnover: Why It Matters and What We Can Do About It
Without changes in current policies, U.S. teacher shortages are projected to grow in the coming years. Teacher turnover is an important source of these shortages. About 8% of teachers leave the profession each year, two-thirds of them for reasons other than retirement. Another 8% shift to… more →
The Longitudinal Effects of School Improvement Grants
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceTags: School reform, School districtsSchool Improvement Grants (SIG) represent one type of governments’ capacity-building investment to spur sustainable changes in America’s persistently under-performing public schools. This study examines both short- and long-run effects of the first two cohorts of SIG schools from two states and… more →
Deeper Learning Networks: Taking Student-Centered Learning and Equity to Scale
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceOne of the mysteries of education reform is how leaders and educators can successfully instantiate, sustain, and spread student-centered pedagogical practices from a few schools to many others. Advocates for deeper learning grapple with this mystery as they seek to transform teaching and… more →
The Road to High-Quality Early Learning: Lessons From the States
Marjorie Wechsler, David Kirp, Titilayo Tinubu Ali, Madelyn Gardner, Anna Maier, Hanna Melnick, Patrick M. Shields.Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceAlthough there is considerable research on the elements of high-quality preschool and its many benefits, particularly for low-income children and English learners, little information is available to policymakers about how to convert their visions of good early education into on-the-ground… more →
Community Schools as an Effective School Improvement Strategy: A Review of the Evidence
Topics: Student LearningTags: School reform, EquityThis report synthesizes the research evidence about the impact of community schools on student and school outcomes. Its aim is to support and inform school, community, district, and state leaders as they consider, propose, or implement community schools as a strategy for providing equitable,… more →
Is Effective Teacher Evaluation Sustainable? Evidence from DCPS
Topics: Teacher and Leader DevelopmentTen years ago, many policymakers viewed the reform of teacher evaluation as a highly promising mechanism to improve teacher effectiveness and student achievement. Recently, that enthusiasm has dimmed as the available evidence suggests the subsequent reforms had a mixed record of implementation… more →
Nearly three decades into the charter school movement, what has research told us about charter schools?
Topics: School ChoiceTags: Charter schools, School reformWhen charter schools first entered the landscape, the debate was contentious, with both advocates and critics using strong rhetoric. Advocates often sold charter schools as a silver bullet solution for not only the students who attend these schools, but the broader traditional public school… more →
Federalism, Race, and the Politics of Turnaround: U.S. Public Opinion on Improving Low-Performing Schools and Districts
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceTags: School reformPublic support for school improvement policies can increase the success and durability of those reforms. However, little is known about public views on turnaround. We deployed questions and embedded experiments in a nationally representative 2017 survey (n=4,214) to uncover opinions regarding (a… more →
The Effects of Race to the Top School Turnaround in North Carolina
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceTags: Assessment, School reformFederal education policies gave political and financial support for state education agencies to turnaround low-performing schools on an unprecedented scale. North Carolina’s ambitious program turned around over half of all schools nationwide that underwent turnaround funded by Race to the Top.… more →
Does a successful randomized experiment lead to successful policy? Project Challenge and what happened in Tennessee after Project STAR
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceTags: School reform, Class sizeEvidence-based policy is the practice of basing policy decisions on rigorous research evidence, such as randomized experiments. But it is unclear how often evidence-based decisions produce more effective policy. We evaluate an evidence-based policy implemented in 1989-93, after the state of… more →
The Next Generation of State Reforms to Improve their Lowest Performing Schools: An Evaluation of North Carolina’s School Transformation Initiative
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceIn contrast to prior federally mandated school reforms, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) allows states more discretion in reforming their lowest performing schools, removes requirements to disrupt the status quo, and does not allocate substantial additional funds. Using a regression… more →
Using a Text-as-Data Approach to Understand Reform Processes: A Deep Exploration of School Improvement Strategies
Topics: MethodsTags: School reformAlthough program evaluations using rigorous quasi-experimental or experimental designs can inform decisions about whether to continue or terminate a given program, they often have limited ability to reveal the mechanisms by which complex interventions achieve their effects. To illuminate these… more →
Accountability-Driven School Reform: Are There Unintended Effects on Younger Children in Untested Grades?
Topics: Student LearningTest-based accountability pressures have been shown to result in transferring less effective teachers into untested early grades and more effective teachers to tested grades. In this paper, we evaluate whether a state initiative to turnaround its lowest performing schools reproduced a similar… more →