No Child Left Behind: Estimating the Impact on Choices and Student Outcomes

Several recent education reform measures, including the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), couple school choice with accountability measures to allow parents of children in under-performing schools the opportunity to choose higher-performing schools. We use the introduction of NCLB in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District to determine if the choice component had an impact on the schools parents chose and if those changed choices led to academic gains. We find that 16% of parents responded to NCLB notification by choosing schools that had on average 1 standard deviation higher average test scores than their current NCLB school. We then use the lottery assignment of students to chosen schools to test if changed choices led to improved academic outcomes. On average, lottery winners experience a significant decline in suspension rates relative to lottery losers. We also find that students winning lotteries to attend substantially better (above-median) schools experience significant gains in test scores. Because proximity to high-scoring schools drives both the probability of choosing an alternative school and the average test score at the school chosen, our results suggest that the availability of proximate and high-scoring schools is an important factor in determining the degree to which school choice and accountability programs can succeed at increasing choice and immediate academic outcomes for students at under-performing schools.

Information, School Choice, and Academic Achievement: Evidence from Two Experiments

We analyze two experiments that provided direct information on school test scores to lower-income families in a public school choice plan. We find that receiving information significantly increases the fraction of parents choosing higher-performing schools. Parents with high-scoring alternatives nearby were more likely to choose non-guaranteed schools with higher test scores. Using random variation from each experiment, we find evidence that attending a higher-scoring school increases student test scores. The results imply that school choice will most effectively increase academic achievement for disadvantaged students when parents have easy access to test score information and have good options to choose from.

Review of Christopher Douglas, A Genealogy of Literary Multiculturalism.

Christopher Douglas, A Genealogy of Literary Multiculturalism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2009. 372 pp. ISBN 9780801447693

When Actions Speak Louder Than Words: Extending the Reach of Qualitative Data Collecting

Through the lens of a study exploring dementia care partnering, the purpose of this methods article is to focus on the role of artifacts and embodied data in data collection. In addition, it illustrates how to use a range of data collecting methods. The article identifies benefits of additional data collecting methods to research and care. These include the need to expand data collecting methods beyond spoken word, integrate a range of data collecting approaches into research courses across disciplines, increase support of qualitative research, and advocate for greater inclusivity in research. Data collecting approaches can also have implications for quality of life among persons often excluded from research-building endeavors. They can contribute to the unfolding of new findings, which can influence care practice

Nutritional quality of lunches at a Seventh-Day Adventist school

The purpose of this study was to determine if what the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade children (n=36) at Central Valley Christian Academy (CVCA) were eating for lunch followed the beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) church and if lunches brought from home (LFH) provided more nutritional quality than combination lunches. This study showed that LFH (n=26) provided more overall nutrients for the students when compared with school-provided entrée lunches (n=1) and combination lunches (n=9). When comparing LFH with combination lunches, LFH met more of the nutritional requirements based on the Recommended Dietary Intake (RDI) and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005. The health message of the SDA church encourages an increased consumption of fruits and vegetables, adding high fiber foods to the diet, and a moderate consumption of fats, oils, sweets, meat, and dairy products. Students at CVCA fell short of all of these recommendations