This report explores implementation of the District of Columbia Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) in the first two years after Congress reauthorized it with some changes under the SOAR Act of 2011. Key findings include the following: (1) Just over half of all DC private schools participated in the OSP, with current schools more likely to have…

This report explores implementation of the District of Columbia Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) in the first two years after Congress reauthorized it with some changes under the SOAR Act of 2011. Key findings include the following: (1) Just over half of all DC private schools participated in the OSP, with current schools more likely to have…

It is difficult to make a clear impact statement about charter schools. Much of the available research is equivocal, and many important questions related to the impact of charter schools remain unanswered. Researchers have primarily examined four general topics with respect to the impact of charter schools; (1) Do charter schools raise student…

Expanding schooling options for children in low performing schools is one of the major principles of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) policy, representing two reform initiatives for public education school improvement that have dominated the conversations among public education policymakers, test-based accountability and school choice. Given their…

The authors of this memo to President-elect Barack Obama state that many in Congress are now proposing that the federal government intervene to address a range of problems in education by creating new programs and federal subsidies, including public school infrastructure and construction, funding for runaway college tuition costs, and the costs of…

The school accountability movement has led to a marked increase in the use of standardized test scores to measure school and teacher productivity, yet little is known about the correlation between test score gains and improvements in long-term outcomes. In the first chapter of my dissertation, I study the impact of a school choice policy in…

This analysis examines the demographics of the special needs population in public and private schools in Oklahoma and estimates the impact on school enrollments providing tax credit funded scholarship grants for special needs students. The author and his colleagues develop a model that shows how the expenditures of Oklahoma's school districts vary…

As part of a larger project to rethink the federal role in elementary and secondary education, the Center on Education Policy prepared this compendium, which summarizes the findings of major studies of the implementation and effects of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) conducted by various organizations and agencies. The brief summaries are…

This is one of three documents constituting the mandated Interim Report on the National Assessment of Title I. This Executive Summary describes the studies that comprise the National Assessment of Title I and provides executive summaries of the findings of Volumes I and II. Volume I, Implementation of Title I, focuses on implementation of key…

This study evaluates the initial effect of Washington, D.C.'s Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) on the academic performance of public schools and its effects on the opportunities that District students have to attend integrated schools. The OSP is a federally sponsored school voucher program that provides vouchers worth up to $7,500 for an…

The Title I program, created in 1965, is the largest federal program supporting elementary and secondary education and is intended to help ensure that all children have the opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and reach proficiency on challenging state standards and assessments. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) expanded the…