The question of educational equity involves the gap in achievement between minority and nonminority students. RAND has conducted research into the effects of grouping students by ability, preschool participation, charter programs, and school funding on schools' abilities to provide equal education to students of varying socioeconomic, racial, and ethnic backgrounds.
Past Event
Numerous RAND Education researchers will present at the American Educational Research Association 2013 Annual Meeting, in San Francisco, CA April 27 through May 1, 2013. The theme of this year's meeting is “Education and Poverty: Theory, Research, Policy and Praxis.”
Commentary
Many countries have long traditions of full or partial government funding for higher education, but as they struggle with fiscal pressures, they seek ways to shift costs to users. Implementing greater cost sharing without coherent policies to mitigate its impact on students and institutions threatens to worsen both student access and institutional quality.
Report
Most California school districts with new flexibility about how to spend $4.5 billion in education funds opted to move most of the money into their general funds to balance budgets and avoid teacher layoffs.
News Release
Most California school districts with new flexibility about how to spend $4.5 billion in education funds opted to move most of the money into their general funds to balance budgets and avoid teacher layoffs.
Research Brief
Examines how California school districts responded to increased financial flexibility in the face of budget cut.
Report
Describes statewide patterns in California school district revenues and expenditures in light of a new state policy that increased flexibility over a large number of previously restricted categorical programs.
Report
Inclusionary Zoning (IZ) policies require that a proportion of units in market-rate residential developments are made affordable to lower-income households in exchange for development rights or zoning variances. IZ programs provide greater access to low-poverty neighborhoods, which are often correlated with high-performing schools.
Periodical
Andreas Schleicher of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development provides a global perspective on what drives high-performing educational systems.
Research Brief
RAND researchers found many similarities between charter and traditional schools in New Orleans but greater satisfaction among charter school parents with their children's schools, as well as more perceived choices.
Report
Hurricane Katrina set the stage for a public education transformation in New Orleans, replacing its school system with a decentralized system of school choice. This study examined principals', teachers', and parents' perspectives three years later.
Announcement
"Darleen Opfer has excelled as a teacher, working with policymakers, and in academia, where she has explored education policy and school improvement," said RAND President and CEO James A. Thomson.
Report
Examines the contribution of family, school, and neighborhood factors to the racial achievement gap in education.
Report
This groundbreaking report finds that students attending ''multi-grade'' charter high schools in Chicago attain substantially higher rates of graduation and college entry than do students in traditional public high schools.
Journal Article
This chapter discusses educational politics and policy process research and illustrates the ways research can utilize a transdisciplinary approach to address educational concerns of equity, efficiency, student learning, and educational outcomes.
Report
Provides an overview of empirical research on the effects that educational quality has on a community, including the impacts that education has on health, employment and earnings, housing values, tax revenues, and civic participation.
News Release
More than half of California’s preschoolers attend center-based early care and education programs, but the children who have the most to gain from preschool frequently are those least likely to participate in the programs.
Multimedia
RAND experts field questions from the media on the report Achievement and Attainment in Chicago Charter Schools.
Journal Article
Authors find that Michigan's high-spending school districts have a greater probability of issuing bonds after centralizing public school funding.
Journal Article
The use of complex value-added models that attempt to isolate the contributions of teachers or schools to student development is increasing. Several variations on these models are being applied in the research literature, and policy makers have expre...
Journal Article
Explores methods for detecting gender-based differential item functioning on a 12th-grade CR science test administered as part of the NELS:88