Computers are an important part of modern education, yet large segments of the population--especially low-income and minority children--lack access to a computer at home. Does this impede educational achievement? We test this hypothesis by conducting the largest-ever field experiment involving the random provision of free computers for home use to…

"The ABCs of School Choice" is the most comprehensive guide to every private school choice program in America, showcasing the voucher, tax-credit scholarship, education savings accounts, and individual tax credit/deduction programs currently operating in 21 states and Washington, D.C. "The ABCs of School Choice" provides policymakers, advocates,…

This article describes the development of early warning indicators for high school and beyond in the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) by the Value-Added Research Center (VARC) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, working in conjunction with staff from the Division of Research and Evaluation at MPS. Our work in MPS builds on prior early warning…

Trade or business expenses are deductible if they are ordinary and necessary with respect to the trade or business in which they were incurred. Treasury Regulations bring education expenses into this purview but only if they maintain or improve skills already acquired or allow a taxpayer to maintain his current position. Related travel expenses in…

The infrastructure for arts and cultural support in the United States is complex and adaptive. Citizens who enjoy the arts can choose from a wide array of drama, visual and media arts, dance, music, and literature available in formal and informal settings--theaters, museums, and concert halls, but also libraries, schools, places of worship,…

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Course Credits on the Quick: Controversial Online Recovery Programs Speed the Path to Graduation (Andrew Brownstein); (2) Collaborating to Make Schools More Inclusive…

When Tim Clevenger became executive director of the University of Oregon Alumni Association in 2011, he was dismayed to learn that revenue, including paid memberships, was steadily declining. The association staff and board of directors considered multiple strategies to boost earnings, with stabilizing and growing dues revenue high on the list.…

Louisiana is gearing up to open a new front in its push to expand educational choice, essentially creating a marketplace that lets students shop around for publicly funded courses--both online and face-to-face--beyond their schoolhouse doors. More than 30 providers already have stepped forward seeking state approval to take part in the Course…

For more than two decades, the vision of a statewide system of student mobility has driven Ohio's articulation and transfer initiatives, which guarantee that specific courses will be applied to degrees and certificates at public two- and four-year postsecondary institutions. This chapter outlines how Ohio developed a comprehensive, guaranteed…

This article discusses new evidence on the effectiveness of dual enrollment in increasing college achievement in New York City (NYC). After reviewing existing research on the effectiveness of dual enrollment programs, the authors discuss the results of a recent evaluation of College Now, the dual enrollment program of The City University of New…

Graduation credit requirement reforms were expected to have a significant impact on the American educational landscape, but scholars have concluded that these reforms have exhibited less impact than expected on a wide range of educational outcomes. Drawing on Lipsky's theory of street-level bureaucracy, we hypothesize that graduation requirement…

While studies focused on student GPA scores, transfer credits and the nature of articulation agreements help to inform research related to the transfer student experience, studies investigating the students themselves are still very limited. This study extends the direction modeled by previous literature that has gathered perceptions and comments…

We study a popular dual enrollment program in Washington State, "Running Start" using a new administrative database that links high school and postsecondary data. Conditional on prior high school performance, we find that students participating in Running Start are more likely to attend any college but less likely to attend four-year…

The MCPS Office of Shared Accountability conducted an evaluation of the "High School Plus" (HS+) program implemented in Montgomery County (Maryland) Public Schools (MCPS). HS+ is one of the intervention programs offered by MCPS to provide additional ways of earning high school credits for students who have failed courses required for…

Many are accustomed to the idea that we learn at school and that a college education is acquired in college classrooms. In reality, however, learning takes place in all aspects of a person's life--through military experience, raising a family, volunteering, and, perhaps most significantly, in the workplace. Learning that occurs in the workplace…