Charter Schools

"Achievement and Attainment in Chicago Charter Schools." Kevin Booker, Brian Gill, Ron Zimmer, and Tim R. Sass, May 2008. During the past decade, charter schools have been one of the fastest growing segments of the K–12 education sector. This is the first report to examine how charter schools may affect long-term attainment, including high-school graduation and college entry. The authors find that Chicago's multi-grade charter high schools (those that include grades 6-12, 7-12, or K-12) appear to produce substantial positive effects on ACT scores, probability of graduating, and probability of enrolling in college. The large positive results suggest promise for multi-grade charter high schools (and perhaps charter high schools more generally) and demonstrate that evaluations limited to test scores may fail to capture important benefits of charter schools.

Medicaid Buy-In Program

"The Three E’s: Enrollment, Employment, and Earnings in the Medicaid Buy-In Program, 2006." Gilbert Gimm, Sarah R. Davis, Kristin L. Andrews, Henry T. Ireys, and Su Liu, April 2008. The Medicaid Buy-In program is part of a broader federal effort to improve employment outcomes for people with disabilities by allowing states to expand Medicaid coverage to workers with disabilities whose income and assets would ordinarily make them ineligible for Medicaid.  This report presents a national profile of the enrollment, employment, and earnings of Buy-In participants in 2006 and investigates the association between participant characteristics, state program features, and employment outcomes. The report notes that the Buy-In program continues to be a popular coverage option for states and enrollment is growing nationwide from 29,398 to 97,491 participants between 2001 and 2006. About 69 percent of participants nationwide were employed with average annual earnings of $8,237 in 2006. Full Report; Executive Summary 

No Child Left Behind and Parental Choice

"Title I School Choice and Supplemental Educational Services: Interim Report." Brian Gill, Jennifer Sloan McCombs, Scott Naftel, Karen Ross, Mengli Song, Jennifer Harmon, and Georges Vernez. State and Local Implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act: Volume IV, 2008. This report presents findings on the implementation of parental choice options from the first year of two national studies of No Child Left Behind. In 2004-2005, nearly 6.2 million students were eligible for Title I school choice and as many as 1.8 million were eligible for supplemental educational services. Only about one percent took advantage of the school choice option, and about 17 percent took advantage of supplemental services. In a subsample of large urban districts, the average achievement of the schools chosen by students using the school choice option was consistently higher than the average achievement of the schools they came from, and their parents were largely satisfied with the new schools. The report also notes that low participation rates in Title I school choice and supplemental educational services may be related to problems communicating with parents.

Hospital Information Technology

"New Hospital Information Technology: Is It Helping to Improve Quality?" Suzanne Felt-Lisk, in Hospital Management New Initiatives/Dimensions, 2008. Although health information technology (IT) is at the center of efforts to improve the nation’s health care system by enhancing patient safety and reducing inefficiencies, little evidence exists to link IT to quality improvements and efficiency gains. This book chapter reprints a May 2006 issue brief reporting on how six types of information technology have affected hospital quality, based on interviews with senior hospital executives. The findings suggest that IT has been an important factor in enhancing quality, particularly in terms of more timely clinical information, diagnosis, and treatment.

Out and About

Collecting and managing high-quality information is a central part of our core business. Mathematica's survey experts will be well represented at the 63rd Annual American Association for Public Opinion Research Annual Conference in New Orleans from May 15 to 18. The conference brings together the country's leading survey research scientists to discuss and analyze the latest findings on public opinion and survey methodology, theory, and results. Click here for a list of our survey researchers, survey operations professionals, statisticians, and systems analysts who will be presenting their work.

Mathematica's experts in TANF work programs, employment issues for people with disabilities, food stamp policy, and other issues will be presenting their research at the 11th Annual Welfare Research and Evaluation Conference, held May 28 to 30 in Washington, DC. This conference is a leading forum for researchers and analysts, state and local administrators, and federal officials and policymakers to discuss the latest evaluation findings, ways to incorporate findings into the design and implementation of programs and policies, and strategies for future evaluations. The conference is sponsored by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation in the Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Check out who is presenting from Mathematica.

Many of our experts will be presenting their work at the 25th AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting in Washington, DC, from June 8 to 10. We'll also be exhibiting our work in booth 404. Participants in this premier forum on health services research share findings, debate timely health policy issues, and learn about cutting-edge results.  Click here for a list of Mathematica presenters. For more information on the conference, go to http://www.academyhealth.org/conferences/arm.htm.