During the past decade, charter schools have been one of the fastest growing segments of the K–12 education sector. This is the first report to examine how charter schools may affect long-term attainment, including high-school graduation and college entry. The authors find that Chicago's...

Research on teacher productivity, as well as recently developed accountability systems for teachers, relies on “value-added” models to estimate the impact of teachers on student performance. We consider six value-added models that encompass most commonly estimated specifications. We test...

This authoritative and encyclopaedic reference work provides a thorough account of the public choice approach to economics and politics. The Companion breaks new ground by joining together the most important issues in the field in a single comprehensive volume. It contains state-of-the-art...

In this study we use data from Chicago and Florida to estimate the effects of attending a charter high school on the likelihood that a student will complete high school and attend college. Given the impact of educational attainment on a variety of economic and social outcomes, a positive result...

This article analyzes the relationship between charter high school attendance and educational attainment in Florida and Chicago. Students who attended a charter middle school and went on to attend a charter high school were 7 to 15 percentage points more likely to earn a standard diploma than...

We study the effects of various types of education and training on teacherproductivity. Previous studies on the subject have been hampered by inadequatemeasures of teacher training and difficulties addressing the non-random selectionof teachers to students and of teachers to training. We address...

In this paper we analyze a unique micro-level panel data set encompassing all publicschool students in grades 3-10 in the state of Florida for each of the years 1999/2000-2003/2004.We are able to directly link each student and teacher to a specific classroom and can thus identifyeach member of a...

In recent years Voting Rights Act cases brought by Hispanic litigants challenging local election systems have proliferated. This article analyzes the effects of election systems and demographic factors on the electoral success of Hispanics in municipal elections. Ability to speak English well...

The utility of value-added estimates of teachers' effects on student test scores depends on whether they can distinguish between high- and low-productivity teachers and predict future teacher performance. This article studies the year-to-year variability in value-added measures for elementary...

We consider the challenges and implications of controlling for school contextual bias when modeling teacher preparation program effects. Because teachers are not randomly distributed across schools, failing to account for contextual factors in achievement models could bias preparation program...