Influencing major education policies in the US such as school vouchers and charter schools, market theory assumes that organizational autonomy, parental choice, and competition between schools improve the quality of education. However, whether those policies can influence the instructional core of schools is not well understood. Comparing private…

According to MetLife's March 2011 Survey of the American Teacher: Preparing Students for College and Careers, approximately 93% of secondary school parents, 85% of secondary teachers, and 80% of business executives believe college and career readiness should be a priority in the nation's classrooms. This college and career readiness priority is…

This paper uses student level data from New York City to study the relationship between a public school losing enrollment to charter school competitors and the academic achievement of students who remain enrolled in it. Geographic measures most often used to study the effect of school choice policies on public school student achievement are not…

Competitions are used by many teachers at the grass roots level to develop the talents of their gifted students. Each year the top Math, Chemistry, and Physics Olympiad students are identified and assembled into national teams that compete against teams from around the world. This article summarizes findings from the American Olympiad study. Our…

According to a new study of Milwaukee public schools, student achievement has benefited from voucher-based school competition. A novel method, using geocoding, was proposed for measuring the degree of competition within the city of Milwaukee and, in turn, for determining whether such competition has increased or decreased the achievement of public…