So Many Educational Service Providers, So Little Evidence

More than 15 years after the passage of No Child Left Behind, billions of dollars have been spent on school-turnaround policies and initiatives. Yet, this growing “school improvement industry” has received surprisingly little consideration. This study is an initial effort to begin to better understa...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal of education 2018-11, Vol.125 (1), p.109-139
Main Authors: MEYERS, COBY V., VANGRONIGEN, BRYAN A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic Achievement
Adult education
Catholic schools
Educational Improvement
Educational Policy
Educational research
Elementary Secondary Education
Learning
Outcomes of Education
Qualitative research
School Turnaround
Services
State Boards of Education
Systematic review
Teachers
Web Sites
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:More than 15 years after the passage of No Child Left Behind, billions of dollars have been spent on school-turnaround policies and initiatives. Yet, this growing “school improvement industry” has received surprisingly little consideration. This study is an initial effort to begin to better understand this industry’s supply side. We use qualitative research techniques to analyze the websites of 151 school-turnaround providers that have been endorsed, either directly or indirectly, by 13 state education agencies with publicly available lists of providers. In addition, we conduct a systematic review of the research evidence behind each provider, finding that the types of providers and the services that they purport offering vary considerably. Approximately 50% of providers indicate being research based, but 11% have evidence of impact on student achievement outcomes generally, and only 5% in turnaround contexts specifically. We consider several tensions in policy and practice that arise from this research.
ISSN:0195-6744
1549-6511
DOI:10.1086/699823