Research centre set up to study school choice

A research centre concentrating on school choice, competition and achievement has received a US$10 million federal government start-up grant.

Under the terms of the five-year grant the Nashville-based centre will examine how school vouchers affect public schools, how charter and private schools influence student achievement, and what school accountability systems do to political competition within school districts.

A multidisciplinary team that includes political scientists, economists, sociologists, psychologists, curriculum experts, psychometricians, statisticians, public finance analysts, and legal scholars will attempt to answer a broad range of questions surrounding school choice.

The centre's first major project will explore the effects of charter schools on student achievement, reading instruction, parental involvement, and teacher recruitment and quality.

A second project will examine the effect of competition on public schools and school systems.

The centre will also offer a leadership institute for leaders of nontraditional public and private schools and a leadership development programme for public school principals and assistant principals on competing in an education marketplace that includes school choice.

Participating institutions in the Center on School Choice, Competition and Achievement include the Peabody College of Education at Nashville's Vanderbilt University, Harvard University's Program on Education Policy and Governance, the Brookings Institution, the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Northwest Evaluation Association, and the Stanford University School of Education.

More information is at this web page.