Bui, Craig, and Imberman assessed the impact of gifted and talented programs on student achievement using regression discontinuity and random assignment to gifted magnet schools. In both analyses, they found minimal impact of the gifted and talented programs on student achievement. This commentary addresses two concerns associated with the study.…

The Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University conducted a large-scale analysis of the impact of charter schools on student performance. The center's data covered 65-70% of the nation's charter schools. Although results varied by state, 17% of the charter school students have significantly higher math results than …

"How New York City's Charter Schools Affect Achievement" estimates the effects on student achievement of attending a New York City charter school rather than a traditional public school and investigates the characteristics of charter schools associated with the most positive effects on achievement. Because the report relies on an…

Despite Slavin and Madden's mountains of data, questions about Success for All results remain unanswered. Belief in SFA's unique success has caused Congress to reshape Title I policy in favor of comprehensive schoolwide reform models, influenced state and court program mandates, and restricted teachers' choices in serving disadvantaged students.…

An evaluation of 14 independent experiments in early intervention, conducted in the late 1950s and early 1960s, revealed program characteristics related to positive outcome: the early age at intervention; the higher adult-child ratio; and more home visits, direct participation of parents, and services for families. (Author/MLF)

School districts should be allowed to dispense with labeling children as disadvantaged and to use the Title I support they receive in schools that have a high proportion of children from poor families. (Author/MLF)

Recent research indicates that participating in service-learning programs appears to benefit youngsters, but there is scant evidence demonstrating the connection between service and particular educational objectives. Except for consistent evidence supporting a reflection component, researchers have failed to identify which program elements and…

Taking issue with the preceding article by Caruso and Detterman, the author contends that research can be one of many respected voices in the political process. According to him, recent research on the effects of early education has played a crucial role in policy decisions about Project Head Start. (Author/WD)

Two rebuttals to William Cooley's criticisms of Title I programs in the January 1981 issue of "Educational Leadership" claim he incorrectly interpreted the data on the effectiveness of the programs. Cooley responds. (MLF)

A new report published by the Manhattan Institute for Education Policy, "The Effect of Special Education Vouchers on Public School Achievement: Evidence from Florida's McKay Scholarship Program," attempts to examine the complex issue of how competition introduced through school vouchers affects student outcomes in public schools. The…

Three British studies recently compared the examination results of pupils from comprehensive schools with those of selective schools. Each study reached somewhat contrasting conclusions. Major differences among the studies are discussed in order to clarify reasons for the contrasting interpretations and to illustrate the major difficulties in…

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…

In 1990, Milwaukee (Wisconsin) became the site of the first publicly funded school-choice program providing low-income parents with vouchers that could be used to send their children to secular, private schools. An evaluation of Milwaukee's school-choice experiment was conducted by a team of researchers, headed by John Witte at the University of…

Effective schools are typically defined as those schools which improve or maintain already-established high levels of student achievement. A number of issues and research needs are raised which relate to the identification of effective schools. Unless the nature of "effectiveness" can be described and agreed upon, researchers face the possibility…

Mentoring programs cannot always obliterate deficiencies in adult/child relationships or better student achievement. Two successful programs are the Big Brother/Big Sister program and the Office of Juvenile Justice's Juvenile Mentoring Program. (JUMP). Social support, not social control, is essential. Sidebars contain program tips and selected…