Higher rates of school switching by students contribute to achievement disparities and are typically theorized as driven by attributes of individual pupils or families. In contrast the neoclassical-economic account postulates that switching is necessary for competition among schools. We argue that both frames fail to capture social-referential and…

Aiming to relieve overcrowded schools operating on multiple tracks, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has invested more than $19 billion to build 130 new facilities over the past decade. District leaders asked researchers at Berkeley to estimate the achievement effects of this massive initiative--benefits that may stem from entering…

Purpose: Newly designed schools for centuries have projected fresh ideals regarding how children should learn and how human settlements should be organized. But under what conditions can forward-looking architects or education reformers trump the institutionalized practices of teachers or the political-economic constraints found within urban…

A study of 140 first- and second-grade classrooms and 1,925 students in the Brazilian states of Bahia and Ceara examined teaching practices and teacher behaviors in the classroom and their effects on students' early literacy achievement, as well as the influences of student, home, teacher, and school characteristics on literacy scores. (SV)