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The National Center on School Choice is funded by the United States Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences. The Center exercises national leadership in school choice research, including charter and magnet schools, private school vouchers, teacher recruitment, school management, and state policymaking.
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By virtue of the broad interest of policymakers and citizens in school choice alternatives, the National Center on School Choice is committed to the wide dissemination of major research findings across the nation. The Center draws upon recent technological advances to communicate with prominent scholars, state and local officials, practitioners, and citizens about new developments in the school choice debate and policy recommendations for future generations of American children.
View the Comprehensive Network of Researchers by Home Institution or Alphabetical Order.
Recent News and Events
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October 1, 2007
New Book Explores Effectiveness, Challenges of Charter Schools
As perhaps the fastest-growing sector in the school choice movement, charter schools claim to offer a bigger bang for the public education buck. The question is, is it true? According to Charter School Outcomes, a new book by some of the leading charter school researchers in the country, it depends.
Read the Press Release |
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April 30, 2007
Berends, Nicotera, Teasley research cited in two publications
Recent issues of Education Daily and the Chattanooga Times cited Center research on school transfer options under No Child Left Behind. In two working papers on the topic, Bettie Teasley, Anna Nicotera, and Professor Mark Berends reported preliminary findings on the federal provision, whose premise is that low-achieving and low-income students will perform better when they can transfer from persistently low-performing schools to higher performing schools. The Center researchers found that students who opted to change schools under this provision actually had slower achievement growth rates in their new schools than students who stayed in their underperforming schools. The two papers, A National Examination of the No Child Left Behind School Choice Policy (Teasley, Nicotera, & Berends, 2007) and Differential Effects of the No Child Left Behind Policy on Academic Achievement in Idaho (Nicotera, Teasley, & Berends, 2007) will be available soon on the NCSC website. |
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April 9, 2007
Center Scholars Attend AERA
A team of scholars from the Center attended the annual conference of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in Chicago, Illinois this spring. As panel chairs, presenters, or discussants, these researchers covered topics including charter law, school transfer options under No Child Left Behind, and schooling conditions that promote student achievement.
Read the Conference Papers |
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April 8, 2007
Center Researcher Wins Award
Vanderbilt senior and NCSC researcher Warren Langevin was this year’s winner of the Avery Leiserson Award, presented annually by Vanderbilt’s Department of Political Science to the author of the best paper written for that department. Langevin wrote "Reconsidering Political Influence in Japanese Courts" for a Spring 2006 course taught by Professor Neal Tate. After graduation this May, he will join the research staff at Vanderbilt’s National Center on Performance Incentives. |
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March 27, 2007
Supreme Court Defendants to Speak at Vanderbilt
Representatives from Kentucky’s Jefferson County Board of Education, a defendant in a significant U.S. Supreme Court case on school integration and choice, will speak at Vanderbilt this Friday, March 30 at 1:30 pm in the Wyatt Building. Dr. Robert Rodosky, director of accountability, research and planning, and Dr. Bernard Minnis, special assistant to the Superintendent, will discuss their role in the U.S. Supreme Court case in a talk entitled “An analysis of school integration and school choice in the Jefferson County Public Schools.”
The case, one of two involving school districts that use race as a tiebreaker in final student assignment decisions, came before the court in December. Jefferson County uses a “managed choice” plan, which aims at maintaining African American student enrollment at between 15 and 50 percent in any district school. Nine “back-to-basics” magnet schools in the district use race as a factor in student admissions. The counties argue that race is considered to diversify schools and to reduce segregation that may result from residential or neighborhood-based student assignment plans. Neither school district is under court order to racially balance their schools; both operate these plans voluntarily. The plaintiffs in each case – a parent group in Seattle and a parent of a student in Louisville – argue that school assignment in traditional public and magnet schools should be race-blind.
Jefferson County officials made similar presentations recently at the University of Virginia Law School, the regional conference of the NAACP, and the KY Civil Rights Commission. Their lecture has four parts: 1) the history of student assignment in the district; 2) the current student assignment process (which involves several methods of choice; 3) the Supreme Court legal issues; and 4) student outcome data.
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November 30, 2006
Vanderbilt Social Scientists Cited in Supreme Court Case
Mark Berends, Ellen Goldring, James Guthrie, and Claire Smrekar cited in amicus briefs for a Supreme Court case about school choice and the use of race as a deciding factor in student assignments.
Read the Vanderbilt Register Article |
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October 18, 2006
Loveless Announces New Research Study on No Child Left Behind Act
Tom Loveless of the Brookings Institution will discuss new research findings on the No Child Left Behind Act and National Assessment of Educational Progress at a public forum in Washington, DC.
Visit the Brookings Website |
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September 28, 2006
Department of Education Announces New Scientific Research Grant
The National Center on School Choice is pleased to announce that it has received a new grant from the United States Department of Education’s Institute of Education Services. The $3.3 million grant will fund a three year study comparing achievement gains and growth in schools of choice to regular public schools. The study will also look at differences among these schools in curriculum, instruction, and organizational conditions that promote achievement. Center researchers will administer principal and teacher surveys in about 280 schools of choice (charter, magnet, Catholic, and other religious and independent schools) and matched regular public schools. The data collected will allow for multi-leveling modeling strategies to estimate student achievement growth nested in students nested in teachers nested in schools - a rare quasi-experimental design across districts and school types. |
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May 10, 2006
National Conference on Charter School Research Announced
The first conference of the National Center on School Choice is scheduled to take place for one and a half days at Vanderbilt University from September 28-29, 2006. The theme of the conference is "Charter Schools: What Fosters Growth and Outcomes?" and will feature new research conducted by leading scholars in economics, law, political science, psychology, public finance, public policy, and sociology. Dr. Mark Schneider, Commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), will deliver the keynote address. The full line of papers presented at the conference will be published in an edited volume by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Visit the Conference Website |
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April 16, 2006
Berends Named Vice President of AERA Division on Policy and Politics
Director Mark Berends was recently elected to serve as Vice President of Division L (Policy and Politics) of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). As the fifth largest division of AERA, Division L brings together researchers and educators who are interested in understanding how educational policies affect educational organizations, students, teachers, parents, and communities.
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March 20, 2006
Berends, Guthrie to Chair Summer Program for Charter School Leaders
Professors Mark Berends and James W. Guthrie of the National Center on School Choice are jointly chairing a charter school leadership institute to be hosted at Vanderbilt University in summer 2006. The institute is an intensive one-week experience designed for individuals and teams who lead and manage charter schools. The institute will benefit members of an administrative team who are responsible for providing leadership within various domains of charter school administration. Participants will enhance their ability to make choices for their schools grounded in theory and supported by data.
Visit the Peabody Professional Institutes Website |
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March 15, 2006
Researchers to Direct New Publication on School Choice Research
National Center on School Choice researchers Mark Berends, Matthew Springer, Dale Ballou, and Herbert Walberg, accepted an invitation from the Lawrence Erlbaum Associates publication firm to edit the first Handbook of Research on School Choice. The volume will compile the most rigorous and policy-relevant scholarly research on elementary and secondary school choice, including charter schools, vouchers, home schooling, magnet schools, cyber school. The ultimate goal of the collected volume is to define the current state of research, policy, and practice in school choice. |
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February 1, 2006
Peterson Coordinates New Edited Volume on Future of School Choice
Paul E. Peterson, director of Harvard University’s Program on Education Policy and Governance and researcher with the National Center on School Choice, recently edited a new volume, Choice and Competition in American Education. In a group of essays originally published in Education Next, the book examines the promise and pitfalls of reform in American education. Overall, the new volume from Rowman and Littlefield paints the picture of an education landscape that will be greatly shaped by choice and competition in the 21st century.
Read More |
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January 27, 2006
Researchers Lead Finance Seminar for
Charter School Leaders
James W. Guthrie and Matthew G. Springer led a workshop on resource allocation and deployment practices for Tennessee charter school leaders. The workshop was part of a two-day conference organized by the Tennessee Charter School Resource Center and Vanderbilt University’s Peabody Professional Institutes. |
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January 26, 2006
Loveless Holds Public Forum on Policy Design of School Choice
Tom Loveless, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution and faculty affiliate with the National Center on School Choice, lead a discussion on the design of school choice policy and the concerns about the distribution of educational opportunities. The public event was coordinated for the release of Getting Choice Right: Ensuring Equity and Efficiency in Education Policy, a new book authored with Julian Betts. The forum was held at the Brookings Institution in the District of Columbia.
Read More and Download the Full Transcript |
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Monthly Podcasts
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March 30, 2007
School Integration and School Choice
Professor Claire Smrekar of Vanderbilt University discusses the role of social science research in a Supreme Court case over school integration and school choice.
Listen to the Podcast or Read the Transcript |
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November 8, 2006
Public-Private School Achievement Gap
Professor Paul Peterson of Harvard University discusses a new research study of student achievement in public and private schools. This working paper addresses methodological problems and substantive issues in a recent study conducted for the National Center for Education Statistics.
Listen to the Podcast and Read the Working Paper |
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October 3, 2006
Student Movement in the Context of Federal Transfer Policies
Research Assistant Bettie Teasley of Vanderbilt University discusses a new research study of student movement in the context of the No Child Left Behind Act.
Listen to the Podcast and Read the Working Paper |
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September 10, 2006
Previewing the National Conference on Charter School Research
Director Mark Berends of Vanderbilt University discusses the National Conference on Charter School Research at Vanderbilt University from September 28-29.
Listen to the Podcast and Read More |
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June 15, 2006
Shaping the Next Generation of Charter School Leaders
Assistant Dean Timothy Caboni of Vanderbilt University discusses the Peabody Professional Institute for Charter School Leaders and program curriculum.
Listen to the Podcast |
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May 15, 2006
Welcome to the Center and General Overview of Research Agenda
Director Mark Berends of Vanderbilt University introduces our podcast initiative and highlights promising goals in our research agenda for this calendar year.
Listen to the Podcast |
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Newsletter
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March 22, 2007
Choice Center Focus
This second issue of the Choice Center Focus discusses forthcoming books, recent studies, and project developments at the National Center on School Choice.
Read the Newsletter |
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September 28, 2006
Choice Center Focus
This first issue of the Choice Center Focus discusses the National Conference on Charter School Research at Vanderbilt University in September, recent studies from affiliated researchers, and new developments at the National Center on School Choice.
Read the Newsletter |
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Peabody Professional Institutes
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July 30, 2006 - August 3, 2006
Charter School Leadership
The Peabody Professional Institute for Charter School Leadership is an intensive one-week experience designed for individuals and teams who lead and manage charter schools. The institute will benefit members of an administrative team who are responsible for providing leadership within various domains of charter school administration. Additionally, participants will enhance their ability to make choices for their schools grounded in theory and supported by data.
Read More |
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