NEPC Initiatives

This new book tells the stories of exemplary public high schools that are using research-based practices for closing opportunity gaps in student learning. The practitioner-research author teams describe how these schools are creating challenging, engaging and supportive environments for their teachers and students.

Closing the Opportunity Gap brings together top experts who offer evidence-based essays that paint a powerful picture of denied opportunities. They also describe sensible, research-based policy approaches to enhance opportunities.

What would it take to close the vast opportunity gaps blocking the success of public-school students in the United States? NEPC’s costing-out study, called the “Price of Opportunity,” seeks to identify and estimate the cost of the resources and programs required to achieve this ambitious goal. The study also considers the balance between educational, social, and economic policy systems needed to eliminate opportunity gaps.

The International Partnership for the Study of Educational Privatization was established in 2024 as a consortium of research groups. It is anchored at the National Education Policy Center in affiliation with the Economics Department at Stockholm University in Sweden as well as the Turku University of Applied Sciences and the School of Education at the University of Turku in Finland.

The Schools of Opportunity project recognizes schools that serve as models, informing and inspiring the efforts of educators and communities throughout the US to become high schools that promote both excellence and equity.

The Research Hub for Youth Organizing supports young people’s capacity to claim power and create more just communities through field-driven research. The project is a collaboration between CU Engage and NEPC.

Spend It On Schools is an online game where visitors can clearly see how resources shortfalls for public education result from political choices to prioritize other expenditures.