NEPC Review: From Surviving to Thriving: K-12 Choice and Opportunity for Rural Texas

The Report’s Rational for Its Findings and Conclusions To support its claims, the report compares the distribution of charter schools in Arizona with Texas and the academic achievement of rural students attending traditional public schools in the two states. [...] The Report’s Use of Research Literature The report has no designated literature review section and none of the 24 sources cited throughout the report are from academic peer-reviewed journals.2 Instead, the report cites a variety of reports from think tanks that support the expansion of school choice, news media stories, and opinion pieces. [...] The report focuses heavily on the amount of choice available in Arizona, describing the rural education choice marketplace as “robust” and “vigorous.” Missing from the report is a more balanced picture of the how school choice works in Ari- zona.3 For education choice marketplaces to flourish, it is vital that students have high-quality schooling options. [...] Review of the Report’s Methods Some of the evidence cited in the report is drawn from previously published reports from organizations that promote school choice such as EdChoice, the Arizona Charter Schools Association, and the Private School Review, a consumer-oriented school ratings website. [...] Retrieved September 7, 2023, from 23 The EdChoice report that provided the source of the figures for 2013-14 provided a breakdown of the number of private schools in the 12 counties with three or more private schools in Arizona without reference to community type.