This report describes Mathematica's work in developing value-added models (VAMs) that estimate teachers’ and schools’ contributions to the achievement of their students, and assisting the Pittsburgh Public Schools in developing performance-based pay plans for teachers and principals.

This report summarizes the evidence on measures of student achievement growth used in teacher evaluation that do not rely on traditional annual state assessments, and that instead use commercially available assessments, locally developed common assessments, and teacher-developed student learning...

Vouchers and charters are two of the most ambitious attempts to improve school performance through parental choice and privatization of governance. The updated edition of this book (which was first released in 2001) summarizes new empirical evidence on the achievement impacts of voucher programs...

This paper examines the charter school authorizing process using student-level data from Ohio, a state with a range of public and private authorizers. The study found charters authorized by nonprofits are less effective in promoting student achievement than other charter schools (though there...

Examines an urban district that had to close schools as a result of shrinking enrollment and made student achievement a factor in decision making.

Charter schools are publicly funded schools that operate autonomously, outside the direct control of local school districts, and generally enroll students through the choices of their parents rather than through residential assignment. These schools have proved popular nationwide. The authors...

This paper examines the charter school authorizing process using student-level data from Ohio, a state with a range of public and private authorizers. The study found charters authorized by nonprofits are less effective in promoting student achievement than other charter schools (though there...

This article uses data from Ohio, a state that allows a wide range of organizations to authorize charter schools, to examine the relationship between type of authorizer and charter-school effectiveness.