The charter school sector has expanded beyond brick-and-mortar schools to cyber schools, where enrollment grew almost tenfold between 2015 and 2020. While a large literature documents the effects of charter schools on test scores, fewer studies explore impacts on attainment or postsecondary outcomes and there is almost no work exploring the…

The central argument of the article is that charter schools operate as a mechanism to circumvent the institutional constraints imposed on the public manager and thus restore the 'market' equilibrium in which all students have the same purchasing power. This changes the mechanisms of hiring and allocating teachers, making the system more equitable…

Despite ongoing reform efforts, academic achievement in the U.S. educational system is declining both on internal measures as well as on international comparative assessments. While students from affluent backgrounds continue to do well academically, there is a growing achievement gap as underprivileged urban students fall further behind. This…

Previous research evaluating grammar school effectiveness has generally relied on snapshot or longitudinal regression models to deal with pre-existing differences between grammar school pupils and those in non-selective schools. These passive designs are based on correlations, and cannot demonstrate clear positive causal relationships between…

In this paper, we examine the relationships between overall institutional faculty diversity and law student diversity at institutions with Top 14 law schools and Association of American Universities (AAU) member institutions with law schools over the past decade. We chose to examine these institutions because they are arguably the most influential…

This study compares the estimated grammar school effect in different regression models, and explains why previous evidence of the effectiveness of grammar school is mixed. Like most studies of school effectiveness evaluation, previous research on grammar school effect usually applies regression to control for confounding between-school factors and…

China serves as an indispensable recruitment market for higher education institutions across the globe. Using large-scale administrative and survey data from one of China's pipeline provinces for sending students abroad, we provide new evidence on the factors influencing Chinese students' graduate school choices internationally. We model…

School rating websites are increasingly used by parents to assess the quality and fit of U.S. K-12 schools for their children. These online reviews often contain detailed descriptions of a school's strengths and weaknesses, which both reflect and inform perceptions of a school. Existing work on these text reviews has focused on finding words or…

This publication summarizes an academic review paper on preschool effectiveness, "Lottery Evidence on the Impact of Preschool in the United States: A Review and Meta-Analysis" by Jesse Bruhn and Emily Emick. The 44 papers summarized fall into three categories: studies of three model preschool programs begun in the 1960s known as…

Universalization of basic education in India has increased demand for access to secondary schooling, yet concerns about quality and equity remain. While evidence of poor learning attainment continues to accumulate, less is known about classroom interactions or how these relate to student outcomes. In this article, we employ a unique data set that…

While the effect of teachers' unions on school districts continues to be debated, the research literature provides few definitive conclusions to guide these discussions. In this article, we examine the relationship between teachers' union contracts and school district efficiency. We define efficiency as the ratio of short-run productivity (student…

Across the globe, education quality has become synonymous with student performance. The shift towards test-based accountability (TBA) has changed what is required of schools and what it means to be a 'good teacher'. Different tools may trigger a performance orientation within schools, from administrative (such as the Inspectorate) to market…

This article introduces an Australian adaptation of an approach to supporting school leadership and improvement pioneered by educationalists David Townsend and Pam Adams, from Alberta, Canada. Referred to as the North Coast Initiative for School Improvement, the adaptation involved school leaders, academics, and government officials who combined…

The term Catholic microschool refers to a sustainable Catholic school that is rooted in the tenets of Catholic faith and that has employed excellence in faith formation, academic programs and operational vitality while maintaining a student population that is smaller than its neighboring schools. Overall, 25 percent of the Catholic schools in the…

It is a common perception among US employers, educators, and policymakers that there is a shortage of skilled workers who meet vacant manufacturing jobs requirements in the current workforce. Although opinions vary on who or what is responsible for this shortage, a bigger question remains: How do we fix the problem? The current study presented an…