Milwaukee Parental Choice Program: Descriptive Report on Participating Schools 2010–11

This report is the fifth in a series of annual reports produced by the School Choice Demonstration Project (SCDP) that will provide descriptive information about the schools participating in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP)

The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program: Descriptive Report on Participating Schools 2008 – 2009

This report is the third in a series of annual reports produced by the School Choice Demonstration Project (SCDP) that will provide descriptive information about the schools participating in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP). This year’s report contains a new section that examines schools from both the public and private sectors that are no longer receiving public funds

School Site Visits: What can we learn from choice schools in Milwaukee?

The School Site Visits study is part of the fifth series of annual reports produced by the School Choice Demonstration Project (SCDP). It describes some of the major challenges experienced and common practices demonstrated by thirteen (13) K-12 schools participating in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP). During the 2010-11 school year, there were 107 religious and secular schools participating in the MPCP. This report is based on visits to six of the high schools and seven K-8 schools that collectively reflect the wide range of characteristics associated with participating schools. This includes whether schools scored above or below average on the 2010-11 Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examinations in math and reading. Teams of researchers from the SCDP conducted one-day visits to each school during the spring and fall of 2011. Using a variety of interview, survey and observation instruments, the research teams gathered information about school practices in six general areas: (1) school culture, (2) student academic success, (3) effective leadership, (4) teacher quality, (5) religious integration and accommodation, and (6) school facilities. We use the data collected during the visits to describe the most common challenges the schools face and the common practices and strategies they use to overcome these challenges. Overall, a number of general lessons were learned

The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program: Descriptive Report on Participating Schools

This report is the second in a series of annual reports produced by the School Choice Demonstration Project (SCDP) that will provide descriptive information about the private schools participating in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP), the oldest and largest urban school voucher program in the U. S. The MPCP was launched in the fall of 1990 with seven participating schools enrolling 341 students

The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program: Descriptive Report on Participating Schools 2009 – 2010

This report is the fourth in a series of annual reports produced by the School Choice Demonstration Project (SCDP) that will provide descriptive information about the schools participating in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP)

Milwaukee Longitudinal School Choice Evaluation: Annual School Testing Summary Report

With the passage of 2005 Wisconsin Act 125, private schools participating in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) are now required to administer a nationally normed standardized test annually in reading, mathematics, and science to their MPCP (a.k.a. “Choice”) students enrolled in the 4th, 8th, and 10th grades. The law further directs Choice schools to submit copies of the scores from those tests to the School Choice Demonstration Project (SCDP) for processing and reporting to the Legislative Audit Bureau. During the 2006-07 school year, MPCP schools administered either nationally normed tests, such as the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, or the criterion referenced Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examinations (WKCE). The School Choice Demonstration Project received 5,194 nationally normed scores from 66 schools and 1,231 WKCE scores from 40 schools

Milwaukee Longitudinal School Choice Evaluation: Annual School Testing Summary Report 2007-08

With the passage of the 2005 Wisconsin Act 125, private schools participating in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) are now required to administer a nationally normed standardized test annually in reading, mathematics, and science to their MPCP (a.k.a. “Choice”) students enrolled in the 4th, 8th, and 10th grades. The law further directs Choice schools to submit copies of the scores from those tests to the School Choice Demonstration Project for processing and reporting to the Legislative Audit Bureau. During the 2007-08 school year, MPCP schools administered either nationally normed tests, such as the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, or the criterion referenced Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examinations (WKCE). The School Choice Demonstration Project (SCDP) received student test scores from 114 of the 115 schools participating in the MPCP that were required to administer tests. Specifically, the SCDP received 5,763 nationally normed student test scores from 81 schools and 1,735 WKCE scores from 36 schools. These school numbers add to 123 because some schools used both types of exams and sent all 4th, 8th, and 10th grade scores to the SCD

The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program: Baseline Descriptive Report on Participating Schools

The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) began as the nation’s first urban school voucher initiative in the fall of 1990. Initially, seven secular schools were authorized to enroll the 341 students who first participated in the program. By the 2006-07 academic year, a total of 17,749 voucher students were attending one of the 122 private secular and religious schools that participated in the MPCP or “Choice” program for the entire year

Family Voices on Parental School Choice in Milwaukee: What can we learn from low-income families?

This report, designed as one component of the comprehensive evaluation of the Milwaukee school system being conducted by the School Choice Demonstration Project (SCDP), is based on focus group conversations with low-income families whose children attend Milwaukee public and private schools. The report seeks to elucidate the demand side of school choice from the perspective of the end users. More specifically, it describes the experiences of low-income families and uses their insights to better understand the strengths and limitations of their attempts to exercise parental school choice. Among its distinguishing characteristics, Milwaukee has the first publicly funded means-tested voucher program in the United States. Coupled with traditional public schools and a robust charter school community, Milwaukee provides an unprecedented set of school options to its residents. Equally as important, Milwaukee provides those interested in urban education reform with a unique opportunity to learn from a city at a relatively advanced phase of school reform

Comparative analysis of homology models of the Ah receptor ligand binding domain: Verification of structure-function predictions by site-directed mutagenesis of a nonfunctional receptor

The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) is a ligand-dependent transcription factor that mediates the biological and toxic effects of a wide variety of structurally diverse chemicals, including the toxic environmental contaminant 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD). While significant interspecies differences in AHR ligand binding specificity, selectivity, and response have been observed, the structural determinants responsible for those differences have not been determined, and homology models of the AHR ligand-binding domain (LBD) are available for only a few species. Here we describe the development and comparative analysis of homology models of the LBD of 16 AHRs from 12 mammalian and nonmammalian species and identify the specific residues contained within their ligand binding cavities. The ligand-binding cavity of the fish AHR exhibits differences from those of mammalian and avian AHRs, suggesting a slightly different TCDD binding mode. Comparison of the internal cavity in the LBD model of zebrafish (zf) AHR2, which binds TCDD with high affinity, to that of zfAHR1a, which does not bind TCDD, revealed that the latter has a dramatically shortened binding cavity due to the side chains of three residues (Tyr296, Thr386, and His388) that reduce the amount of internal space available to TCDD. Mutagenesis of two of these residues in zfAHR1a to those present in zfAHR2 (Y296H and T386A) restored the ability of zfAHR1a to bind TCDD and to exhibit TCDD-dependent binding to DNA. These results demonstrate the importance of these two amino acids and highlight the predictive potential of comparative analysis of homology models from diverse species. The availability of these AHR LBD homology models will facilitate in-depth comparative studies of AHR ligand binding and ligand-dependent AHR activation and provide a novel avenue for examining species-specific differences in AHR responsiveness. © 2013 American Chemical Society