In studies of educational achievement, students' self-reported number of books in the family home is a frequently used proxy for social, cultural, and economic background. Absent hard evidence about what this variable captures or how well, its use has been motivated by strong associations with student outcomes. I show that these associations rest…

Joellen Killion reports on the results of a five-year professional development intervention consisting of workshops and curriculum units conducted in six elementary schools in an urban district to gauge teacher knowledge and practices in science instruction for English language learners. The study looked at predictors of teacher change that…

A Friedman Foundation report attempts to find empirical support for the contention that competition from private schools, through voucher programs, improves the effectiveness of public schools. In the first year of Ohio's new EdChoice voucher program, the report claims to have found substantial academic gains at public schools exposed to the…