Can User Reviews Like Those on GreatSchools Improve Information for Schooling Choices?

November 10, 2024  |  By Douglas N. Harris, Jamie M. Carroll, Debbie Kim, Nicholas Mattei, Olivia G. Carr

This study examines how online reviews like those on GreatSchools help parents navigate schooling options for their children. Researchers analyzed over 600,000 reviews from 84,000 schools to understand how these reviews reflect the experiences and priorities of different users and school types, providing key information for families making school choice decisions.

The Role of School-Based Transportation in School Choice: Evidence from Detroit

October 10, 2024  |  By Jeremy Singer, Sarah Lenhoff

The transportation that schools offer affects school choice decisions, according to new research on kindergarten students in Detroit.

Responding to Crisis: Virtual Schooling in Oregon during the COVID-19 Pandemic

September 16, 2024  |  By Julie A. Marsh, James Bridgeforth, Laura Mulfinger, Desiree O'Neal, Tong Tong

Viral Change: Trends in Michigan Teacher Attrition and Mobility Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

February 29, 2024  |  By Bryant G. Hopkins, Katharine O. Strunk, Salem Rogers

Educators and policymakers across the country have been raising alarms about a growing teacher shortage. In this study, we use administrative data from Michigan to understand how teachers’ propensities to leave the public school system, switch districts, or switch schools shifted after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

National Longitudinal School Database

January 19, 2024  |  By Jamie M. Carroll, Douglas N. Harris, Anjana Nair, Emilia Nordgren

The National Longitudinal School Database (NLSD) was created by the National Center for Research on Education Access and Choice (REACH) to allow researchers to examine various aspects of traditional public schools, charter schools, magnet schools, and private schools.

How Has Centralized Enrollment Affected New Orleans Schools?

December 07, 2023  |  By Jane Arnold Lincove, Jon Valant

This report examines what happened when schools that had enrolled a highly disproportionate share of the system's white students entered the city's centralized enrollment system. It finds that the schools entering that system (OneApp/NCAP) led to increased access to those schools for Black and other nonwhite families.

Setting Priorities in School Choice Enrollment Systems: Who Benefits from Placement Algorithm Preferences?

December 07, 2023  |  By Jon Valant, Brigham Walker

This report looks closer at who benefits from the priority categories that are one part of centralized enrollment systems. For example, students with siblings or who live close to a school have a better chance of getting in. The researchers explored whether these categories favored students of certain races or socioeconomic classes. “ Even though the algorithm does not consider race when Black and white applicants requested the same schools as their first choice, white students were more likely to get a seat because they were more likely to have a geographic preference or a sibling in those schools,” said Jon Valant, the report’s lead author. “It’s important to recognize that these priorities are defined through a policy process–and work to ensure that the priorities align with the community’s values.”

How Should the Government Regulate Charter Schools? State Policy Patterns and Causal Effects

November 01, 2023  |  By Douglas N. Harris, Roy McKenzie

This brief describes how charter regulation varies across states, it shows how the regulations are related to charter school outcomes, and provides evidence of their policy effects.

Choice in a Time of COVID: Immediate Enrollment Decisions in New York City and Detroit

July 26, 2023  |  By Sarah Cordes, Sarah Winchell Lenhoff, Amy Ellen Schwartz, Jeremy Singer, Samantha Trajkovski

New research offers some of the first evidence of COVID-19’s impact on student mobility.

A Year That Forced Change: Examining How Schools and School Systems Adapted to the Challenges of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Calls for Racial Justice in 2020

July 18, 2023  |  By Huriya Jabbar, Taylor Enoch-Stevens, Sarah Winchell Lenhoff, Julie A. Marsh, Eupha Jeanne Daramola, Jacob Alonso, Jeremy Singer, Chanteliese Watson, Laura Mulfinger, Kait Ogden, Dwuana Bradley, Annie Hemphill, Sheneka Williams, Kate Kennedy

These two reports explore how educational institutions and their systems responded to two sudden disruptions, the COVID-19 pandemic and increased awareness of racial inequity. We compared responses from traditional, charter, voucher-receiving private schools and rural and urban districts.