Three essays consider implications of the strong association between student background character... more Three essays consider implications of the strong association between student background characteristics and academic performance. Chapter One considers the incentives that school choice policies might create for the efficient management of schools. These incentives would be diluted if parents prefer schools with desirable peer groups to those with inferior peers but better policies and instruction. I model a "Tiebout choice" housing market in which schools differ in both peer group and effectiveness. If parental preferences depend primarily on school effectiveness, we should expect both that wealthy parents purchase houses near effective schools and that decentralization of educational governance facilitates this residential sorting. On the other hand, if the peer group dominates effectiveness in parental preferences, wealthy families will still cluster together in equilibrium but not necessarily at effective schools. I use a large sample of SAT-takers to examine the distribution of student outcomes across schools within metropolitan areas that differ in the structure of educational governance, and find little evidence that parents choose schools for characteristics other than peer groups. 2 This result suggests that competition may not induce improvements in educational productivity, and indeed I do not obtain Hoxby's (2000a) claimed relationship between school decentralization and student performance. I address this discrepancy in Chapter Two. Using Hoxby's own data and specification, as described in her published paper, I am unable to replicate her positive estimate, and I find several reasons for concern about the validity of her conclusions. Chapter Three considers the role of admissions tests in predictions of student collegiate performance. Traditional predictive validity studies suffer from two important shortcomings. First, they do not adequately account for issues of sample selection. Second, they ignore a wide class of student background variables that covary with both test scores and collegiate success. I propose an omitted variables estimator that is consistent under restrictive but sometimes plausible sample selection assumptions. Using this estimator and data from the University of California, I find that school-level demographic characteristics account for a large portion of the SAT's apparent predictive power. This result casts doubt on the meritocratic foundations of exam-based admissions rules.
and he is a nationally recognized researcher in the economics of education and school finance. He... more and he is a nationally recognized researcher in the economics of education and school finance. He has conducted numerous large-scale studies focused on the Title I programs, special education, K12 education, and early intervention programs. He has published numerous papers in books and professional journals on variations in the costs of education and the development of approaches to measuring adequacy. Dr. James W. Guthrie, who founded MAP as a sole proprietorship in 1985, served as a Principal Task Leader for the New York Adequacy project. In addition to completing a Ph.D. in Education from Stanford, he has been a public school teacher, state education department official, federal government cabinet special assistant, education specialist for the United States Senate, and an elected local school board member. He has been a professor for the past 27 years and is the founding director of the Peabody Center for Education Policy at Vanderbilt University. He has published ten books, hundreds of professional and scholarly articles, and has garnered numerous academic distinctions. He specializes in school finance, education administration and leadership, policy analysis, and education and government.
Introductionn 11 Class size, peers and educational production 1.11 Introduction 1.22 Related stud... more Introductionn 11 Class size, peers and educational production 1.11 Introduction 1.22 Related studies 1.33 Data and construction of variables 1.44 Empirical analysis 1.55 Robustness of results 1.5.11 Alternative measures of class size 1.5.22 Inclusion of higher order terms of total enrolment and schooll average SES weight 18 1.5.33 Non-linear class size 1.5.44 Homogeneity with respect to SES 1.5.55 Schools with one class perr grade level 21 1.66 Concluding remarks Appendixx 1A Descriptive statistics 22 Heterogeneous effects of class size and peers 2.11 Introduction 2.22 Econometric background and previous research 2.33 The endogeneity problem and model of achievement 2.44 Empirical analysis 2.55 Concluding remarks 33 Differences in educational production between public and religious schools 3.11 X X 3.66 Concluding remarks 77 Appendixx 3A Overview of selected empirical studies 79 Appendixx 3B Descriptive statistics 84 44 Returns to schooling in the Netherlands 4.11 Introduction 89 4.22 Biases in the human capital earnings function and instrumentall variables technique 90 4.33 Issues and problems with instrumental variables 91 4.3.11 Instrument quality 92 4.3.22 Instrument validity 93 4.3.33 Instrument sensitivity 93 4.3.44 Imprecision of estimates 95 4.44 Literature survey 95 4.4.11 Literature survey conclusion 98 4.55 Data and empirical results 99 4.5.11 Brabant Survey 99 4.5.22 OSA Panel 4.66 Concluding remarks Appendixx 4A Inconsistency with weakly correlated and invalidd instruments Appendixx 4B Imprecision associated with instrumental variabless 122 Appendixx 4C Overview of results of IV rate-of-return studiess 124 55 When education doesn't pay off? 5.11 11 The term was coined by Schultz in his 1960 Presidential Address to the American Economic Association. 22 For instance, the OECD reports 1998 public expenditures on educational institutions reaching as high as 7.17% off gross domestic product (Denmark) with an average of 5.75% among its members countries (see OECD (2001),, p. 82). MAVOO is the acronym for Middelbaar Algemene Voortgezet Onderwijs, which can be literally translated as intermediate generall continuing education and serves as the lowest form of secondary general education in the Netherlands. MBO stands forr Middelbaar Beroepsopleiding or intermediate occupational education and is generally a four-year post-secondary educationall program that a majority of MAVO graduates enter. Chapterr 1 Classs size, peers and educational production 55 VBO stands for Voorbereidend Beroepsonderwijs or secondary vocational education, which serves as the lowestt form of secondary schooling in the Dutch educational system. 66 Note that all independent variables except for those based on IQ measures denote lagged indicators of individual,, class and school characteristics the year prior to the survey (1993-94), whereas achievement measures aree proxied by scores on tests taken within the first few months of the survey year (1994-95). 77 The three categories of religion/ideology are Protestant, Roman Catholic and "Other" which include Islamic, generall special and other ideologies. Public schools serve as the reference group. 88 The total number of observations contained in the PRIMA reference sample are 5,698, 5,368 and 5,608 for the 4*,, 6 th and 8 th grades, respectively. The number dropped due to missing values in the baseline variables are 965, 1,0077 and 1,018 leaving a total of 4,733, 4,361 and 4,590 usable observations, respectively, for 4 th , 6 th and 8 th grades.. 99 Note that Angrist and Lavy's instrument is based on enrollment at the grade level, whereas our instrument is basedd on total enrollment at the school level. Inn Section 1.5.2 we report results which show that including higher order terms of total enrollment and school averagee SES weight do not affect our findings.
This report was produced under U.S. Department of Education Contract No. EDPEP-11-O-0089/ Task Or... more This report was produced under U.S. Department of Education Contract No. EDPEP-11-O-0089/ Task Order 29 with American Institutes for Research. Joanne Bogart and Oliver Schak served as the contracting officer's representative. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the positions or policies of the Department of Education. No official endorsement by the U.S. Department of Education of any product, commodity, service, or enterprise mentioned in this publication is intended or should be inferred. For the reader's convenience, this publication contains information about and from outside organizations, including hyperlinks and URLs. Inclusion of such information does not constitute an endorsement by the Department.
California school systems and lay the foundation for substantive conversations about what educati... more California school systems and lay the foundation for substantive conversations about what education policies should be sustained and what might be improved to ensure increased opportunity and success for all students in California in the decades ahead. Getting Down to Facts II follows approximately a decade after the first Getting Down to Facts effort in 2007. This technical report is one of 36 in the set of Getting Down to Facts II studies that cover four main areas related to state education policy: student success, governance, personnel, and funding. What Does It Cost to Educate California’s Students? A Professional Judgement Approach Report Appendices Technical Report
Stanford University, is a past president of the American Education Finance Association, and is a ... more Stanford University, is a past president of the American Education Finance Association, and is a nationally recognized researcher in the fields of economics of education and school finance. He has conducted influential large-scale studies focusing on Title I programs, special education, K-12 education, and early intervention programs. In addition, he has published numerous papers in books and professional journals on variations in the costs of education and the development of approaches to measuring adequacy. Danielle DeLancey is a Research Associate at AIR and served as the Task Manager for the professional judgment panel (PJP) component of the California Adequacy Project. At AIR, Ms. DeLancey has worked on a range of research and evaluation projects including the examination of the effects of Proposition 227 on English Learners, an evaluation of the II/USP program and policy implementation monitoring at the federal level. Prior to AIR, Ms. DeLancey earned her M.Ed. in International Education Policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and worked at the classroom level coordinating outreach activities, curriculum development, facilitating professional development and as a middle grades science teacher. Dr. Jesse D. Levin served as the Principal Research Analyst for the PJP component of the California Adequacy Project and played a critical role in the analysis. Dr. Levin worked closely with Dr. Chambers on the development and implementation of the cost simulations for the California Project, and developed the computer programs to produce the final cost estimates underlying this study. Dr. Levin earned his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Amsterdam, where he conducted research on the impact of class size reduction on student achievement, differences in achievement of students in public and private schools, and cost benefit analysis concerning rates of return to education. Since coming to AIR, Dr. Levin has been involved in a number of studies addressing the costs of early intervention programs, effectiveness of educational practices and whole school reforms, and the costing-out of educational adequacy. members of the California Legislature. The AIR study is part of a larger group of studies coordinated through Stanford University and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation, and the Stuart Foundation. The AIR research team would like to thank the "Getting Down to Facts" study group for providing valuable feedback in the development of panel tasks and their panel participant recommendations.
compare SBF systems in two case study districts, to report the perceptions of key constituencies ... more compare SBF systems in two case study districts, to report the perceptions of key constituencies on these policies, and to present data on the patterns of resource allocation before and after implementation. Methodology To address these research questions, we used a mixed methods approach, collecting and examining qualitative and quantitative data from both districts.
What does it cost to provide early intervention services? Data collected as part of the National ... more What does it cost to provide early intervention services? Data collected as part of the National Early Intervention Longitudinal Study were used to determine expenditures for infants, toddlers, and their families receiving services through Part C programs. The study found that the national average total expenditure for early intervention services in the late 1990s was $15 740 and the average monthly expenditure was $916. Both the total expenditure and the monthly expenditure differed for children with different reasons for eligibility for early intervention services. The expenditures for children with diagnosed conditions and developmental delays were higher than those for children with only communication delays or risk conditions, although there was substantial variation in monthly expenditure within each of the 4 categories. Expenditures also varied as a function of children's health with the highest average monthly expenditure for children in poor or fair health. The findings illustrate the kinds of questions that can be addressed with expenditure data and underscore the need for the regular collection of expenditure data at the state and national levels. Careful examination of outcomes experienced by children with various conditions who receive special collections of services at various costs will allow resources for early intervention to be allocated more equitably and efficiently.
Early Colleges (ECs) provide high school students access to college coursework with the goal of i... more Early Colleges (ECs) provide high school students access to college coursework with the goal of increasing postsecondary opportunities for traditionally underrepresented students. We examine the impact of EC on postsecondary attainment, calculate the resulting monetary benefits, and then estimate the per-student costs of EC compared to traditional high schools to compare costs and benefits. Our findings indicate that students enrolling in ECs in our study are more likely to attend college and graduate with an associate or bachelor's degree.
Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Feb 1, 2002
an anonymous referee, and seminar participants m Amsterdam, Dublin and Jerusalem. We thank the Du... more an anonymous referee, and seminar participants m Amsterdam, Dublin and Jerusalem. We thank the Dutch organization for Scientific Research (NWO) for giving permission to use the PRIMA data, and Jaap Roeleveld for actually supplymg the data. We also thank the NWO Priority Program "Scholar" for financial support The authors take full responsibility for any remaining errors.
A sizeable body of rigorous empirical literature validates that state school finance reforms can ... more A sizeable body of rigorous empirical literature validates that state school finance reforms can have substantive, positive effects on student outcomes, including reductions in outcome disparities or increases in overall outcome levels. One recent major study found "a 20 percent increase in per-pupil spending each year for all 12 years of public school for children from poor families leads to about 0.9 more completed years of education, 25 percent higher earnings, and a 20 percentage-point reduction in the annual incidence of adult poverty." 1 Several other recent studies have reported positive effects of infusion of funding into high-need and low-spending districts, on student outcomes ranging from test score gains to graduation rates. 2 Educational Equity, Adequacy, and Equal Opportunity in the Commonwealth: An Evaluation of Pennsylvania's School Finance System vi Kansas, in the midst of litigation over funding adequacy, the legislature requested an updated study of costs, seemingly seeking a lower estimate than their prior study. But with judicial oversight involved, and a constitutionally independent state board of education responsible for the determination and oversight of standards, that study was handed off to the legislature's independent research arm (Legislative Division of Post Audit) 8 which maintained a high degree of integrity and independence in its oversight of the project. This ultimately yielded cost findings that were highly correlated with the legislature's previous study conducted by independent consultants. Perhaps equally important was the degree to which the process in Kansas was subject to public scrutiny, in part necessitated by the combination of judicial oversight coupled with media coverage. Independence and public openness and communication should be guiding principles moving forward.
Although historically less attention has been paid to the study of educator quantity, in recent y... more Although historically less attention has been paid to the study of educator quantity, in recent years growing concerns about teacher shortages have motivated state policymakers to turn their attention to the supply and demand of teachers (Motoko, 2015). However, to the extent that states report on teacher supply and demand, the approaches have varied considerably (Lindsay, Wan, & Gossin-Wilson, 2009). Conducting studies of teacher supply and demand is complicated by the fact that the available indicators of teacher supply, demand, shortage, and surplus are complex and often paint an ambiguous picture of whether and where problems exist, which can create more confusion than clarity for state leaders addressing the issue (Behrstock, 2009; Berg-Jacobson & Levin, 2015; Cowan, Goldhaber, Hayes, & Theobald, 2015). Gaining a clear understanding of teacher supply and demand in Massachusetts is especially important. Despite a recent increase in the number of individuals completing teacher preparation programs in fields exhibiting shortages (i.e., special education), there is still unmet demand in these areas (ESE, 2013). Moreover, the demographics of the teacher workforce do not reflect the population of students served, with minority teachers consistently underrepresented (ESE,
During the 2009-10 school year, American Institutes for Research (AIR) and Pivot Learning Partner... more During the 2009-10 school year, American Institutes for Research (AIR) and Pivot Learning Partners (PLP) formed a partnership with two large California school districts-Los Angeles Unified School District and Twin Rivers Unified School District-to implement and evaluate the impact of a comprehensive approach to local school finance and governance reform that creates the conditions for improved human resource management and a more equitable distribution of both resources and student learning opportunities. The Strategic School Funding for Results project (SSFR) was designed to (1) develop and implement more equitable strategies for allocating resources within each district; (2) make budget and resource allocation decisions more transparent; (3) link those strategies to policies and processes designed to encourage autonomy, innovation, and efficiency; and (4) strengthen accountability for improving student outcomes. What Policies Underlie SSFR? The core reform strategy offered by SSFR includes four basic elements: equity, autonomy linked to accountability, transparency, and a culture of innovation and efficiency. 1. SSFR achieves equity by implementing a student need-based funding model, and developing and implementing policies, processes, and tools (the Targeted Revenue Model or TRM) that support allocating dollars, rather than staff, to schools based on the needs of the students they serve. 2. SSFR links school autonomy to accountability by offering schools discretion over how they use the dollars they receive and holding schools accountable for the results (student outcomes). SSFR includes a site budgeting tool (the Planning, Budgeting, and Allocation of Resources tool, or PBAR) that engages school decision makers in a series of activities, including a needs assessment, goal setting, and the specification of instructional strategies and resource allocation necessary to achieve the goals within available revenues. 3. SSFR promotes increased transparency by simplifying and clarifying the processes by which resources are allocated to schools, increasing the participation of a wide range of stakeholders in the design of these processes, improving stakeholder access to information about the patterns of resource allocation and student outcomes within the revenue allocation and site budgeting tools, and simplifying the structures that support resource allocation decisions. 4. SSFR promotes a culture of innovation and efficiency. As these strategies are successfully implemented, SSFR encourages a culture of school innovation to improve performance and attract students and families; provides a structured, site-based budgeting tool in the context of a fixed revenue constraint; and encourages school leaders to operate efficiently to produce the best possible results. What Were the Benefits of Participation in the SSFR Project? Within the framework of the SSFR project, the AIR/PLP team provided the districts with data tools and analysis, technical assistance, coaching, and training to implement the funding strategies and evaluate their success. While common themes were promoted across the two
Three essays consider implications of the strong association between student background character... more Three essays consider implications of the strong association between student background characteristics and academic performance. Chapter One considers the incentives that school choice policies might create for the efficient management of schools. These incentives would be diluted if parents prefer schools with desirable peer groups to those with inferior peers but better policies and instruction. I model a "Tiebout choice" housing market in which schools differ in both peer group and effectiveness. If parental preferences depend primarily on school effectiveness, we should expect both that wealthy parents purchase houses near effective schools and that decentralization of educational governance facilitates this residential sorting. On the other hand, if the peer group dominates effectiveness in parental preferences, wealthy families will still cluster together in equilibrium but not necessarily at effective schools. I use a large sample of SAT-takers to examine the distribution of student outcomes across schools within metropolitan areas that differ in the structure of educational governance, and find little evidence that parents choose schools for characteristics other than peer groups. 2 This result suggests that competition may not induce improvements in educational productivity, and indeed I do not obtain Hoxby's (2000a) claimed relationship between school decentralization and student performance. I address this discrepancy in Chapter Two. Using Hoxby's own data and specification, as described in her published paper, I am unable to replicate her positive estimate, and I find several reasons for concern about the validity of her conclusions. Chapter Three considers the role of admissions tests in predictions of student collegiate performance. Traditional predictive validity studies suffer from two important shortcomings. First, they do not adequately account for issues of sample selection. Second, they ignore a wide class of student background variables that covary with both test scores and collegiate success. I propose an omitted variables estimator that is consistent under restrictive but sometimes plausible sample selection assumptions. Using this estimator and data from the University of California, I find that school-level demographic characteristics account for a large portion of the SAT's apparent predictive power. This result casts doubt on the meritocratic foundations of exam-based admissions rules.
and he is a nationally recognized researcher in the economics of education and school finance. He... more and he is a nationally recognized researcher in the economics of education and school finance. He has conducted numerous large-scale studies focused on the Title I programs, special education, K12 education, and early intervention programs. He has published numerous papers in books and professional journals on variations in the costs of education and the development of approaches to measuring adequacy. Dr. James W. Guthrie, who founded MAP as a sole proprietorship in 1985, served as a Principal Task Leader for the New York Adequacy project. In addition to completing a Ph.D. in Education from Stanford, he has been a public school teacher, state education department official, federal government cabinet special assistant, education specialist for the United States Senate, and an elected local school board member. He has been a professor for the past 27 years and is the founding director of the Peabody Center for Education Policy at Vanderbilt University. He has published ten books, hundreds of professional and scholarly articles, and has garnered numerous academic distinctions. He specializes in school finance, education administration and leadership, policy analysis, and education and government.
Introductionn 11 Class size, peers and educational production 1.11 Introduction 1.22 Related stud... more Introductionn 11 Class size, peers and educational production 1.11 Introduction 1.22 Related studies 1.33 Data and construction of variables 1.44 Empirical analysis 1.55 Robustness of results 1.5.11 Alternative measures of class size 1.5.22 Inclusion of higher order terms of total enrolment and schooll average SES weight 18 1.5.33 Non-linear class size 1.5.44 Homogeneity with respect to SES 1.5.55 Schools with one class perr grade level 21 1.66 Concluding remarks Appendixx 1A Descriptive statistics 22 Heterogeneous effects of class size and peers 2.11 Introduction 2.22 Econometric background and previous research 2.33 The endogeneity problem and model of achievement 2.44 Empirical analysis 2.55 Concluding remarks 33 Differences in educational production between public and religious schools 3.11 X X 3.66 Concluding remarks 77 Appendixx 3A Overview of selected empirical studies 79 Appendixx 3B Descriptive statistics 84 44 Returns to schooling in the Netherlands 4.11 Introduction 89 4.22 Biases in the human capital earnings function and instrumentall variables technique 90 4.33 Issues and problems with instrumental variables 91 4.3.11 Instrument quality 92 4.3.22 Instrument validity 93 4.3.33 Instrument sensitivity 93 4.3.44 Imprecision of estimates 95 4.44 Literature survey 95 4.4.11 Literature survey conclusion 98 4.55 Data and empirical results 99 4.5.11 Brabant Survey 99 4.5.22 OSA Panel 4.66 Concluding remarks Appendixx 4A Inconsistency with weakly correlated and invalidd instruments Appendixx 4B Imprecision associated with instrumental variabless 122 Appendixx 4C Overview of results of IV rate-of-return studiess 124 55 When education doesn't pay off? 5.11 11 The term was coined by Schultz in his 1960 Presidential Address to the American Economic Association. 22 For instance, the OECD reports 1998 public expenditures on educational institutions reaching as high as 7.17% off gross domestic product (Denmark) with an average of 5.75% among its members countries (see OECD (2001),, p. 82). MAVOO is the acronym for Middelbaar Algemene Voortgezet Onderwijs, which can be literally translated as intermediate generall continuing education and serves as the lowest form of secondary general education in the Netherlands. MBO stands forr Middelbaar Beroepsopleiding or intermediate occupational education and is generally a four-year post-secondary educationall program that a majority of MAVO graduates enter. Chapterr 1 Classs size, peers and educational production 55 VBO stands for Voorbereidend Beroepsonderwijs or secondary vocational education, which serves as the lowestt form of secondary schooling in the Dutch educational system. 66 Note that all independent variables except for those based on IQ measures denote lagged indicators of individual,, class and school characteristics the year prior to the survey (1993-94), whereas achievement measures aree proxied by scores on tests taken within the first few months of the survey year (1994-95). 77 The three categories of religion/ideology are Protestant, Roman Catholic and "Other" which include Islamic, generall special and other ideologies. Public schools serve as the reference group. 88 The total number of observations contained in the PRIMA reference sample are 5,698, 5,368 and 5,608 for the 4*,, 6 th and 8 th grades, respectively. The number dropped due to missing values in the baseline variables are 965, 1,0077 and 1,018 leaving a total of 4,733, 4,361 and 4,590 usable observations, respectively, for 4 th , 6 th and 8 th grades.. 99 Note that Angrist and Lavy's instrument is based on enrollment at the grade level, whereas our instrument is basedd on total enrollment at the school level. Inn Section 1.5.2 we report results which show that including higher order terms of total enrollment and school averagee SES weight do not affect our findings.
This report was produced under U.S. Department of Education Contract No. EDPEP-11-O-0089/ Task Or... more This report was produced under U.S. Department of Education Contract No. EDPEP-11-O-0089/ Task Order 29 with American Institutes for Research. Joanne Bogart and Oliver Schak served as the contracting officer's representative. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the positions or policies of the Department of Education. No official endorsement by the U.S. Department of Education of any product, commodity, service, or enterprise mentioned in this publication is intended or should be inferred. For the reader's convenience, this publication contains information about and from outside organizations, including hyperlinks and URLs. Inclusion of such information does not constitute an endorsement by the Department.
California school systems and lay the foundation for substantive conversations about what educati... more California school systems and lay the foundation for substantive conversations about what education policies should be sustained and what might be improved to ensure increased opportunity and success for all students in California in the decades ahead. Getting Down to Facts II follows approximately a decade after the first Getting Down to Facts effort in 2007. This technical report is one of 36 in the set of Getting Down to Facts II studies that cover four main areas related to state education policy: student success, governance, personnel, and funding. What Does It Cost to Educate California’s Students? A Professional Judgement Approach Report Appendices Technical Report
Stanford University, is a past president of the American Education Finance Association, and is a ... more Stanford University, is a past president of the American Education Finance Association, and is a nationally recognized researcher in the fields of economics of education and school finance. He has conducted influential large-scale studies focusing on Title I programs, special education, K-12 education, and early intervention programs. In addition, he has published numerous papers in books and professional journals on variations in the costs of education and the development of approaches to measuring adequacy. Danielle DeLancey is a Research Associate at AIR and served as the Task Manager for the professional judgment panel (PJP) component of the California Adequacy Project. At AIR, Ms. DeLancey has worked on a range of research and evaluation projects including the examination of the effects of Proposition 227 on English Learners, an evaluation of the II/USP program and policy implementation monitoring at the federal level. Prior to AIR, Ms. DeLancey earned her M.Ed. in International Education Policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and worked at the classroom level coordinating outreach activities, curriculum development, facilitating professional development and as a middle grades science teacher. Dr. Jesse D. Levin served as the Principal Research Analyst for the PJP component of the California Adequacy Project and played a critical role in the analysis. Dr. Levin worked closely with Dr. Chambers on the development and implementation of the cost simulations for the California Project, and developed the computer programs to produce the final cost estimates underlying this study. Dr. Levin earned his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Amsterdam, where he conducted research on the impact of class size reduction on student achievement, differences in achievement of students in public and private schools, and cost benefit analysis concerning rates of return to education. Since coming to AIR, Dr. Levin has been involved in a number of studies addressing the costs of early intervention programs, effectiveness of educational practices and whole school reforms, and the costing-out of educational adequacy. members of the California Legislature. The AIR study is part of a larger group of studies coordinated through Stanford University and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation, and the Stuart Foundation. The AIR research team would like to thank the "Getting Down to Facts" study group for providing valuable feedback in the development of panel tasks and their panel participant recommendations.
compare SBF systems in two case study districts, to report the perceptions of key constituencies ... more compare SBF systems in two case study districts, to report the perceptions of key constituencies on these policies, and to present data on the patterns of resource allocation before and after implementation. Methodology To address these research questions, we used a mixed methods approach, collecting and examining qualitative and quantitative data from both districts.
What does it cost to provide early intervention services? Data collected as part of the National ... more What does it cost to provide early intervention services? Data collected as part of the National Early Intervention Longitudinal Study were used to determine expenditures for infants, toddlers, and their families receiving services through Part C programs. The study found that the national average total expenditure for early intervention services in the late 1990s was $15 740 and the average monthly expenditure was $916. Both the total expenditure and the monthly expenditure differed for children with different reasons for eligibility for early intervention services. The expenditures for children with diagnosed conditions and developmental delays were higher than those for children with only communication delays or risk conditions, although there was substantial variation in monthly expenditure within each of the 4 categories. Expenditures also varied as a function of children's health with the highest average monthly expenditure for children in poor or fair health. The findings illustrate the kinds of questions that can be addressed with expenditure data and underscore the need for the regular collection of expenditure data at the state and national levels. Careful examination of outcomes experienced by children with various conditions who receive special collections of services at various costs will allow resources for early intervention to be allocated more equitably and efficiently.
Early Colleges (ECs) provide high school students access to college coursework with the goal of i... more Early Colleges (ECs) provide high school students access to college coursework with the goal of increasing postsecondary opportunities for traditionally underrepresented students. We examine the impact of EC on postsecondary attainment, calculate the resulting monetary benefits, and then estimate the per-student costs of EC compared to traditional high schools to compare costs and benefits. Our findings indicate that students enrolling in ECs in our study are more likely to attend college and graduate with an associate or bachelor's degree.
Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Feb 1, 2002
an anonymous referee, and seminar participants m Amsterdam, Dublin and Jerusalem. We thank the Du... more an anonymous referee, and seminar participants m Amsterdam, Dublin and Jerusalem. We thank the Dutch organization for Scientific Research (NWO) for giving permission to use the PRIMA data, and Jaap Roeleveld for actually supplymg the data. We also thank the NWO Priority Program "Scholar" for financial support The authors take full responsibility for any remaining errors.
A sizeable body of rigorous empirical literature validates that state school finance reforms can ... more A sizeable body of rigorous empirical literature validates that state school finance reforms can have substantive, positive effects on student outcomes, including reductions in outcome disparities or increases in overall outcome levels. One recent major study found "a 20 percent increase in per-pupil spending each year for all 12 years of public school for children from poor families leads to about 0.9 more completed years of education, 25 percent higher earnings, and a 20 percentage-point reduction in the annual incidence of adult poverty." 1 Several other recent studies have reported positive effects of infusion of funding into high-need and low-spending districts, on student outcomes ranging from test score gains to graduation rates. 2 Educational Equity, Adequacy, and Equal Opportunity in the Commonwealth: An Evaluation of Pennsylvania's School Finance System vi Kansas, in the midst of litigation over funding adequacy, the legislature requested an updated study of costs, seemingly seeking a lower estimate than their prior study. But with judicial oversight involved, and a constitutionally independent state board of education responsible for the determination and oversight of standards, that study was handed off to the legislature's independent research arm (Legislative Division of Post Audit) 8 which maintained a high degree of integrity and independence in its oversight of the project. This ultimately yielded cost findings that were highly correlated with the legislature's previous study conducted by independent consultants. Perhaps equally important was the degree to which the process in Kansas was subject to public scrutiny, in part necessitated by the combination of judicial oversight coupled with media coverage. Independence and public openness and communication should be guiding principles moving forward.
Although historically less attention has been paid to the study of educator quantity, in recent y... more Although historically less attention has been paid to the study of educator quantity, in recent years growing concerns about teacher shortages have motivated state policymakers to turn their attention to the supply and demand of teachers (Motoko, 2015). However, to the extent that states report on teacher supply and demand, the approaches have varied considerably (Lindsay, Wan, & Gossin-Wilson, 2009). Conducting studies of teacher supply and demand is complicated by the fact that the available indicators of teacher supply, demand, shortage, and surplus are complex and often paint an ambiguous picture of whether and where problems exist, which can create more confusion than clarity for state leaders addressing the issue (Behrstock, 2009; Berg-Jacobson & Levin, 2015; Cowan, Goldhaber, Hayes, & Theobald, 2015). Gaining a clear understanding of teacher supply and demand in Massachusetts is especially important. Despite a recent increase in the number of individuals completing teacher preparation programs in fields exhibiting shortages (i.e., special education), there is still unmet demand in these areas (ESE, 2013). Moreover, the demographics of the teacher workforce do not reflect the population of students served, with minority teachers consistently underrepresented (ESE,
During the 2009-10 school year, American Institutes for Research (AIR) and Pivot Learning Partner... more During the 2009-10 school year, American Institutes for Research (AIR) and Pivot Learning Partners (PLP) formed a partnership with two large California school districts-Los Angeles Unified School District and Twin Rivers Unified School District-to implement and evaluate the impact of a comprehensive approach to local school finance and governance reform that creates the conditions for improved human resource management and a more equitable distribution of both resources and student learning opportunities. The Strategic School Funding for Results project (SSFR) was designed to (1) develop and implement more equitable strategies for allocating resources within each district; (2) make budget and resource allocation decisions more transparent; (3) link those strategies to policies and processes designed to encourage autonomy, innovation, and efficiency; and (4) strengthen accountability for improving student outcomes. What Policies Underlie SSFR? The core reform strategy offered by SSFR includes four basic elements: equity, autonomy linked to accountability, transparency, and a culture of innovation and efficiency. 1. SSFR achieves equity by implementing a student need-based funding model, and developing and implementing policies, processes, and tools (the Targeted Revenue Model or TRM) that support allocating dollars, rather than staff, to schools based on the needs of the students they serve. 2. SSFR links school autonomy to accountability by offering schools discretion over how they use the dollars they receive and holding schools accountable for the results (student outcomes). SSFR includes a site budgeting tool (the Planning, Budgeting, and Allocation of Resources tool, or PBAR) that engages school decision makers in a series of activities, including a needs assessment, goal setting, and the specification of instructional strategies and resource allocation necessary to achieve the goals within available revenues. 3. SSFR promotes increased transparency by simplifying and clarifying the processes by which resources are allocated to schools, increasing the participation of a wide range of stakeholders in the design of these processes, improving stakeholder access to information about the patterns of resource allocation and student outcomes within the revenue allocation and site budgeting tools, and simplifying the structures that support resource allocation decisions. 4. SSFR promotes a culture of innovation and efficiency. As these strategies are successfully implemented, SSFR encourages a culture of school innovation to improve performance and attract students and families; provides a structured, site-based budgeting tool in the context of a fixed revenue constraint; and encourages school leaders to operate efficiently to produce the best possible results. What Were the Benefits of Participation in the SSFR Project? Within the framework of the SSFR project, the AIR/PLP team provided the districts with data tools and analysis, technical assistance, coaching, and training to implement the funding strategies and evaluate their success. While common themes were promoted across the two
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