Getting Beneath the Veil of Effective Schools: Evidence From New York City

In this paper, we collect data on the inner-workings of 39 charter schools and correlate these data with school effectiveness. We find that traditionally collected input measures—class size, per-pupil expenditure, teacher certification, and teacher training—are not correlated with school effectiveness. In stark contrast, we show that an index of five policies suggested by qualitative research—frequent teacher feedback, the use of data to guide instruction, high-dosage tutoring, increased instructional time, and high expectations—explains approximately 45 percent of the variation in school effectiveness. The same index provides similar results in a separate sample of charter schools. (JEL H75, I21, I28)

Seeing Red, Feeling Blue: The Impact of State Political Leaning on State Identification Rates for Emotional Disturbance

Investigations of why students with emotional disturbance (ED) are underidentified in special education have often focused on economic factors and problems with the definition of ED. The present study focuses on variation in underidentification across states and its relationship to political ideology. State-level political, economic, and demographic data were obtained from multiple sources, including the National Election Pool exit polls (2008), the U.S. Census Bureau (2010), the National Center for Educational Statistics (2010), the U.S. Department of Education/Office of Special Education Programs (2009), and the National Center for Children in Poverty (2009). The authors conducted a series of regression analyses in which per pupil expenditure, per capita income, percentage child poverty, ethnicity, and conservatism were used to explain state rates of ED identification and state rates of intellectual disability (ID) identification. The resulting model for the identification of ED explained more than 50% of the variance, with conservatism being the strongest predictor (β = -.72, p < .001), whereas per pupil expenditure was nonsignificant. States with higher levels of conservatism had distinctly lower ED identification rates. Conservatism was not a significant factor in state identification of ID. The influence of state political leaning on ED identification and special education for children and youth with ED is discussed.

A Search for Variables Affecting Underidentification of Behaviorally Disordered Students

Recently, several factors possibly contributing to underidentification and underservice to students with behavioral disorders have been suggested. The present study sought to examine the variable of average per pupil expenditure, size of minority population, and learning disabilities service level across states designated as high behavioral disorders service states and low behavioral disorders service states. Results show that no statistically significant difference between these two groups of states was found on any of the three variables examined. While a wide range of variability (.03 to 3.09%) in service level to students with behavioral disorders was found among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, the analysis does not support any of the variables tested as explanations for the observed variability. Finally, implications of the findings of the study and possible explanations for the observed variability are discussed.

Party Competition and Welfare Policies in the American States

Recent comparative, quantitative studies of state politics conclude that party competition and other political variables have little or no impact on important state policies such as per pupil expenditure, old age assistance, unemployment compensation, and aid to dependent children. These are rather unexpected and disturbing conclusions for they disconfirm relationships predicted by some of the most important theoretical formulations concerning democratic politics. Before re-examining the bases for these conclusions, a review of theory is in order.V. O. Key, Jr., set the context for examining the effects of political variables on state policies. He stressed the importance of two-party competition, or bi-factionalism in one-party states, as a determinant of policy. Key sees the degree of party competition as crucial because it reflects the extent to which politics is organized or unorganized. Party competition by producing some semblance of an organized politics lessens the difficulty of lower status groups in sorting out political actors and issues, thereby enabling them to promote their own interests more effectively. Since state social welfare policies are undoubtedly relevant to the interests of “have-nots,” we can utilize state expenditures in this area as a measure of the success that these groups have enjoyed. Key's formulation, then, would lead to a simple two variable model:P = e1S = k1P + ezWhere P is inter-party competition, S is expenditure on social welfare, and e1 and ez represent error or variables left out of the system, and k1 is a constant.