NEPC Resources on Education Policy and Policymaking
The Conflict Over Parents’ Rights
How Much Do You Know About School Vouchers?
NEPC Review: The Economic Cost of the Pandemic: State by State (Hoover Institution, January 2023)
A report calculates the future economic burden that the pandemic has imposed through reduced student achievement levels. Under a set of assumptions about the link between achievement and earnings, this economic burden is projected to be very large, persistent, and variable across states. From there, the report contends that—to offset this achievement gap—schools need to be “made better” even as the report is silent on how schools can improve or if more funding is needed. Setting aside this exhortation, however, the report actually falls short of a full accounting of the total loss in children’s human capital from the pandemic. It focuses only on achievement deficits, failing to consider the other dimensions of human—and social—capital. Unfortunately, without a full reckoning or understanding of the damage the pandemic imposed on schoolchildren, it is unlikely that any policy responses will be adequate, efficient, or equitable.
NEPC’s Most Popular Publications of the Year
NEPC Review: The Effect of Constitutional Provisions on Education Policy and Outcomes (Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, April 2021)
A report published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis examines the potential effects of amending the education clauses contained in states’ constitutions. The apparent intent of this report is to provide an empirical justification for amending the education clause of Minnesota’s constitution. Specifically, the report lays out four independent empirical analyses in an attempt to advance a theory of action for improving education quality. Unfortunately, the analyses use methods and models that exceed the capacity and quality of the data. In addition, these methods and models are inadequately linked to one another or to the theory of action. Ultimately, the report provides little evidentiary basis for the proposed theory of action or for the current campaign to amend the Minnesota constitution.
NEPC Review: Youth Engagement in Collective Impact Initiatives: Lessons from Promise Neighborhoods (Urban Institute, December 2020)
Youth engagement allows young people to participate in decision-making processes about programs and policies that affect them. Drawing on data from the federal Promise Neighborhood initiative, the Urban Institute has published the report, Youth Engagement in Collective Impact Initiatives: Lessons from Promise Neighborhoods. The strengths and challenges presented in the report do align with previous research regarding the contexts that enable and constrain youth engagement, but the report fails to make these connections explicit. Overall, while championing youth engagement, the report misses an opportunity to influence future policy and practice.
How to Spot a Policy Distraction
The Price of Opportunity
A Few Weeks of Webinars
States’ Intervention in School Districts’ Finances
Reviews Worth Sharing: An Impact Analysis of North Carolina's Opportunity Scholarship Program on Student Achievement (June 2018)
Normally, when somebody hears about an evaluation of an education program, they reasonably assume the evaluation will tell them whether the program is working or not. When reading an evaluation report, policymakers, parents, and educators hope the evaluation will tell them if the program is helping the participating students. These seem like obvious, uncontroversial points.
On Monday, June 4, researchers from NC State released a working paper, An Impact Analysis of North Carolina’s Opportunity Scholarship Program on Student Achievement, which purports to be an evaluation of North Carolina’s largest private school voucher program. The authors enthusiastically publicized and distributed the report, making sure to provide advance copies to media organizations and a pro-voucher advocacy group. The report has been highlighted by all of the state’s major media outlets.
But there’s a problem: the report fails to tell us whether the Opportunity Scholarship program is working. The researchers’ efforts tell us nothing about whether accepting an Opportunity Scholarship will help or harm a student’s education.