Research Activities

In 1997, the Center completed its four-year comprehensive study of public and private school choice programs in San Antonio. A final report summarizing the research findings was issued in June 1997, and a news release was prepared and circulated throughout the United States. The study was supported by a large grant from the U.S. Department of Education and supplemental funding from the Spencer Foundation of Chicago, the Walton Family Foundation, and three private foundations in San Antonio. The study encompassed a privately funded voucher program enabling low-income families to attend private schools, a district-wide choice program for language proficient students in the San Antonio Independent School District, and a group of non-choosing students in the San Antonio district as a control group. The study examined the impact of school choice on student achievement and persistence, on parent satisfaction, and on schools gaining or losing students.

Related additional research has focused on parent rights; the impact of vouchers on private school autonomy; the constitutionality of a voucher system; the factors prompting students to drop out of school choice programs; the values emphasized in private versus public school curricula; the impact of incentives on survey response rates; and the academic rigor of private, public choice, and public attendance-zone schools. The San Antonio school choice study has resulted in significant scholarly production. (See Research Reports and Publications.)

Research related to the original San Antonio study continues with regard to student tolerance. A comprehensive research study involving an interdisciplinary, interstate research team of university faculty members in Texas and New York has been completed. This study explored differences in levels of tolerance, patriotism and civic-mindedness between public and private school students in Texas and New York. Purposes of the study are to determine if private schools are any less effective than public schools in teaching tolerance and to provide insight into how students learn and apply civics information across educational systems and curricula. The latter will enable teachers and administrators to identify and adopt educational means that prove most effective. The findings are being reported in scholarly articles and conference papers, and the information will be compiled into a book that the principal researchers are writing. Additional funding is being sought for these projects.

The principal researchers for the San Antonio study were invited to present testimony before the Texas Senate Education Committee and the House Public Education Committee during the 1995 legislative session. A program evaluation provision suggested by the researchers was incorporated in the final language of the open-enrollment charter school measure that was enacted into law.

In 1996, the Texas State Board of Education selected the Center to be part of a research team charged with evaluating the state’s open-enrollment charter school program, the first generation of which encompassed twenty schools approved by the board. The multi-year evaluation began in August 1996 and is projected to continue for five years. The evaluation criteria include: student scores on assessment instruments; student attendance; student grades; incidents involving student discipline; socioeconomic data on students families; and parent and student satisfaction with their schools. In addition, the study encompasses costs of instruction, administration, and transportation incurred by open-enrollment charter schools; and the effect of charter schools on public school districts. The first-year report was completed in December 1997 and was presented to the Texas State Board of Education.  The second-year findings have been made at professional meetings and conferences including the annual meeting of the Southwest Educational Research Association in San Antonio in January, 1999 and at the Texas Education Agency Mid-Winter Administrator Conference that convened in Austin in February, 1999.   In addition, the Center's associate director presented the second-year findings at the University of North Texas School Board Conference in May, 1999.  The third-year report is currently in the final stages of development.  Copies of the evaluation reports may be obtained via the Web or by calling the Texas Education Agency Charter School Office at 512.463.9575.