This report provides findings from the largest charter school study of its kind to date to use an experimental design. On average, charter middle schools that hold lotteries are neither more nor less successful than traditional public schools in improving student achievement, behavior, and...

This article draws on data and experiences observing and analyzing school lotteries from the National Evaluation of Charter School Impacts to describe challenges associated with lottery-based research. It presents evidence on the prevalence of oversubscribed charter middle schools and compares...

Assesses the effects of specific welfare reform policies, as well as other factors such as the economy, on changes in the food stamp caseload between 1994 and 1999. Suggests that economic growth explains nearly half of the caseload decline over this period. TANF work requirements, work...

This study explores the disparity in access to effective teachers in 29 school districts across the country, revealing that disadvantaged students receive poorer-quality instruction, on average, compared with other students. Mathematica conducted the studies for the Institute of Education Sciences.

Using longitudinal, student-level data, this working paper examines the entry and exit of students in KIPP middle schools, comparing KIPP’s rates of attrition and replacement with rates in nearby district-run schools.

Nonexperimental methods, such as regression modeling or statistical matching, produce unbiased estimates if the underlying assumptions hold, but these assumptions are usually not testable. Most studies testing nonexperimental designs find that they fail to produce unbiased estimates, but these...

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are considered the gold standard in estimating treatment effects. When an RCT is infeasible, regression modeling or statistical matching are often used instead. Nonexperimental methods such as these could produce unbiased estimates if the underlying...