Through the years, education policy has changed and shifted to include the issue of choice in politics and policy. Charter schools have increased in Texas and tax credit and voucher systems have been implemented in many parts of the United States. Due to this increased presence of choice, public schools responded with the implementation and…

Recent research on statewide voucher programs in Louisiana and Indiana has found that public school students that received vouchers to attend private schools subsequently scored lower on reading and math tests compared to similar students that remained in public schools. The magnitudes of the negative impacts were large. A case to use taxpayer…

Language immersion programs are becoming more available as a form of school choice in both private and public education in the United States and beyond. While there is research on the benefits of immersion education regarding overall intelligence, there is still much skepticism as to why parents would place their child in an immersion program vs.…

In the past several decades, Boston has been a proving ground for new strategies such as mayoral control, charter schools, and expanded access to early childhood education. Located in a state known for rigorous standards and accountability, Boston Public Schools (BPS) has consistently ranked among the top-performing large public school districts…

The School Choice Demonstration Project has published a series of reports written in the fifth and final year of its evaluation of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP). This review is of Report #32, which compares the test performance of MPCP students to that of a sample of students from the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS). The comparisons…

The general purpose of this five-year evaluation is to assess the effectiveness of Milwaukee's independent charter schools in promoting student achievement growth. Independent charter schools are authorized by nonschool-district entities and are considered "independent" because they are not a part of the Milwaukee Public School District…

Jeb Bush campaigned for governor on a clear and bracing set of education reforms in 1998. Having won office, he immediately pursued a dual-track strategy for reforming Florida's K-12 education system: standards and accountability for public schools, choice and options for parents. Florida lawmakers followed those reforms with additional measures.…

This paper presents an updated WWC (What Works Clearinghouse) Quick Review of the Report "The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program Longitudinal Educational Growth Study Third Year Report". The study examined whether students in Milwaukee who use a voucher to attend private school have greater mathematics and reading achievement than…

This study is an examination of Florida and Michigan's performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress's (NAEP) standardized test, often referred to as "the nation's report card." Immediately prior to and during Florida's immense improvement on these scores from the past 15 years, the state made substantial changes to its…

The purpose of this report is to provide descriptive data regarding the test scores of Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) students in grades 4, 8 and 10 in reading, math and science, as reported to the School Choice Demonstration Project 2009-2010. The tables, graphs, and histograms presented in this report provide a snapshot of these…

The general purpose of this evaluation is to assess the effectiveness of independent charter schools in promoting two desirable student outcomes: student achievement growth and educational attainment. Independent charter schools are authorized by non-district entities and are considered "independent" because they are not a part of the…

Spelling is a critical component to literacy development. Teachers of American children living overseas as well as adult "Third Culture Kids" (TCKs) have reported that spelling is especially challenging for the TCK population. This study investigated whether a difference existed in TCK spelling achievement compared to U.S. norms, as well…

The "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) Act of 2001, Public Law 107-110 (U.S. Congress), was passed by Congress in response to perceived failure of the public school system to effectively educate students, particularly disadvantaged students in the United States. The relationship of NCLB school choice to student achievement has not been…

This article focuses on how parental school choices affect the degree of racial and academic segregation in charter schools. The research design allows for a direct comparison of the racial and academic conditions of the district schools students exited to the charter schools they entered. Parents choose to leave more racially integrated district…

The purpose of this report is to provide descriptive data regarding the test scores of Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) students in grades 4, 8 and 10 in reading, math, and science, as reported to the School Choice Demonstration Project 2008-2009. The tables, graphs, and histograms presented in this paper provide a snapshot of these…