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We present a detailed study of the coherence of a tunable capacitively-shunted flux qubit, designed for coherent quantum annealing applications. The measured relaxation at the qubit symmetry point is mainly due to intrinsic flux noise in the main qubit loop for qubit frequencies below $\sim3~\text{GHz}$. At higher frequencies, thermal noise in the bias line makes a significant contribution to the relaxation, arising from the design choice to experimentally explore both fast annealing and high-frequency control. The measured dephasing rate is primarily due to intrinsic low-frequency flux noise in the two qubit loops, with additional contribution from the low-frequency noise of control electronics used for fast annealing. The flux-bias dependence of the dephasing time also reveals apparent noise correlation between the two qubit loops, possibly due to non-local sources of flux noise or junction critical-current noise. Our results are relevant for ongoing efforts toward building superconducting quantum annealers with increased coherence., Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures

Landau-Zener tunneling, which describes the transition in a two-level system during a sweep through an anti-crossing, is a model applicable to a wide range of physical phenomena. Realistic quantum systems are affected by dissipation due to coupling to their environments. An important aspect of understanding such open quantum systems is the relative energy scales of the system itself and the system-environment coupling, which distinguishes the weak- and strong-coupling regimes. Using a tunable superconducting flux qubit, we observe the crossover from weak to strong coupling to the environment in Landau-Zener tunneling. Our results confirm previous theoretical studies of dissipative Landau-Zener tunneling in the weak and strong coupling limits. We devise a spin bath model that effectively captures the crossover regime. This work is relevant for understanding the role of dissipation in quantum annealing, where the system is expected to go through a cascade of Landau-Zener transitions before reaching the target state., Comment: 18 pages, 12 figures

Magnetic flux tunability is an essential feature in most approaches to quantum computing based on superconducting qubits. Independent control of the fluxes in multiple loops is hampered by crosstalk. Calibrating flux crosstalk becomes a challenging task when the circuit elements interact strongly. We present a novel approach to flux crosstalk calibration, which is circuit model independent and relies on an iterative process to gradually improve calibration accuracy. This method allows us to reduce errors due to the inductive coupling between loops. The calibration procedure is automated and implemented on devices consisting of tunable flux qubits and couplers with up to 27 control loops. We devise a method to characterize the calibration error, which is used to show that the errors of the measured crosstalk coefficients are all below 0.17%., Comment: 22 pages, 15 figures

It has been argued that, for a spatially invariant imaging system, the information one can gain about the separation of two incoherent point sources decays quadratically to zero with decreasing separation, an effect termed Rayleigh's curse. Contrary to this belief, we identify a class of point spread functions with a linear information decrease. Moreover, we show that any well-behaved symmetric point spread function can be converted into such a form with a simple nonabsorbing signum filter. We experimentally demonstrate significant superresolution capabilities based on this idea., Comment: Comments welcome!

We construct optimal measurements, achieving the ultimate precision predicted by quantum theory, for the simultaneous estimation of centroid, separation, and relative intensities of two incoherent point sources using a linear optical system. We discuss the physical feasibility of the scheme, which could pave the way for future practical implementations of quantum inspired imaging., Comment: 7 pages. 3 color figures. Title changed

We establish the multiparameter quantum Cram\'er-Rao bound for simultaneously estimating the centroid, the separation, and the relative intensities of two incoherent optical point sources using alinear imaging system. For equally bright sources, the Cram\'er-Rao bound is independent of the source separation, which confirms that the Rayleigh resolution limit is just an artifact of the conventional direct imaging and can be overcome with an adequate strategy. For the general case of unequally bright sources, the amount of information one can gain about the separation falls to zero, but we show that there is always a quadratic improvement in an optimal detection in comparison with the intensity measurements. This advantage can be of utmost important in realistic scenarios, such as observational astronomy., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. Comments welcome!

In a recent letter, arXiv:1509.00021, it was shown that the lensing of light around rotating boson stars and Kerr black holes with scalar hair can exhibit chaotic patterns. Since no separation of variables is known (or expected) for geodesic motion on these backgrounds, we examine the 2D effective potentials for photon trajectories, to obtain a deeper understanding of this phenomenon. We find that the emergence of stable light rings on the background spacetimes, allows the formation of "pockets" in one of the effective potentials, for open sets of impact parameters, leading to an effective trapping of some trajectories, dubbed quasi-bound orbits. We conclude that pocket formation induces chaotic scattering, although not all chaotic orbits are associated to pockets. These and other features are illustrated in a gallery of examples, obtained with a new ray-tracing code, PYHOLE, which includes tools for a simple, simultaneous visualization of the effective potential together with the spacetime trajectory, for any given point in a lensing image. An analysis of photon orbits allows us to further establish a positive correlation between photon orbits in chaotic regions and those with more than one turning point in the radial direction; we recall that the latter is not possible around Kerr black holes. Moreover, we observe that the existence of several light rings around a horizon (several fundamental orbits, including a stable one), is a central ingredient for the existence of multiple shadows of a single hairy black hole. We also exhibit the lensing and shadows by Kerr black holes with scalar hair, observed away from the equatorial plane, obtained with PYHOLE., Comment: 43 pages, 22 figures

We develop a temperature measurement of an atomic cloud based on the temporal correlations of fluorescence photons evanescently coupled into an optical nanofiber. We measure the temporal width of the intensity-intensity correlation function due to atomic transit time and use it to determine the most probable atomic velocity, hence the temperature. This technique agrees well with standard time-of-flight temperature measurements. We confirm our results with trajectory simulations., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures; accepted to PRA

We experimentally demonstrate optical trapping of 87Rb atoms using a two-color evanescent field around an optical nanofiber. In our trapping geometry, a blue-detuned traveling wave whose polarization is nearly parallel to the polarization of a red-detuned standing wave produces significant vector light shifts that lead to broadening of the absorption profile of a near-resonant beam at the trapping site. A model that includes scalar, vector, and tensor light shifts of the probe transition $5S_{1/2}$-$5P_{3/2}$ from the trapping beams, weighted by the temperature-dependent position of the atoms in the trap, qualitatively describes the observed asymmetric profile and explains differences with previous experiments that used Cs atoms. The model provides a consistent way to extract the number of atoms in the trap., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

We present a procedure for reproducibly fabricating ultrahigh transmission optical nanofibers (530 nm diameter and 84 mm stretch) with single-mode transmissions of 99.95 $ \pm$ 0.02%, which represents a loss from tapering of 2.6 $\,\times \,$ 10$^{-5}$ dB/mm when normalized to the entire stretch. When controllably launching the next family of higher-order modes on a fiber with 195 mm stretch, we achieve a transmission of 97.8 $\pm$ 2.8%, which has a loss from tapering of 5.0 $\,\times \,$ 10$^{-4}$ dB/mm when normalized to the entire stretch. Our pulling and transfer procedures allow us to fabricate optical nanofibers that transmit more than 400 mW in high vacuum conditions. These results, published as parameters in our previous work, present an improvement of two orders of magnitude less loss for the fundamental mode and an increase in transmission of more than 300% for higher-order modes, when following the protocols detailed in this paper. We extract from the transmission during the pull, the only reported spectrogram of a fundamental mode launch that does not include excitation to asymmetric modes; in stark contrast to a pull in which our cleaning protocol is not followed. These results depend critically on the pre-pull cleanliness and when properly following our pulling protocols are in excellent agreement with simulations., Comment: 32 pages, 10 figures, accepted to AIP Advances

The grating magneto-optical trap (GMOT) requires only one beam and three planar diffraction gratings to form a cloud of cold atoms above the plane of the diffractors. Despite the complicated polarization arrangement, we demonstrate sub-Doppler cooling of 87Rb atoms to a temperature of 7.6(0.6) uK through a multi-stage, far-detuned GMOT in conjunction with optical molasses. A decomposition of the electric field into polarization components for this geometry does not yield a mapping onto standard sub-Doppler laser-cooling configurations. With numerical simulations, we find that the polarization composition of the GMOT optical field, which includes sigma- and pi-polarized light, does produce sub-Doppler temperatures., Comment: Journal of the Optical Society of America B (2013)

It has been proven in arXiv:1303.0853 that all regular supersymmetric near-horizon geometries in minimal five-dimensional gauged supergravity admit automatic supersymmetry enhancement. Using this result, the integrability conditions associated with the existence of the additional supersymmetry are analysed, and the near-horizon geometries are determined explicitly. We show that they all correspond to previously constructed examples. Hence, there are no supersymmetric black ring solutions in minimal five-dimensional gauged supergravity., Comment: 16 pages, latex

We prove that the near-horizon geometries of minimal gauged five-dimensional supergravity preserve at least half of the supersymmetry. If the near-horizon geometries preserve a larger fraction, then they are locally isometric to $AdS_5$. Our proof is based on Lichnerowicz type theorems for two horizon Dirac operators constructed from the supercovariant connection restricted to the horizon sections, and on an application of the index theorem. An application is that all half-supersymmetric five-dimensional horizons admit an $\mathfrak{sl}(2, {\mathbb{R}})$ symmetry subalgebra., Comment: Section 7, on the sl(2,R) symmetry, has been added. 23 pages, latex, uses jheppub.sty

There is a strong and politically bipartisan push to increase access to government-funded pre-K. This is based on a premise that free and available pre-K is the surest way to provide the opportunity for all children to succeed in school and life, and that it has predictable and cost-effective positive impacts on children's academic success. The evidence to support this predicate is weak. There is only one randomized trial of a scaled-up state pre-K program with follow-up into elementary school. Rather than providing an academic boost to its participants as expected by pre-K advocates, achievement favored the control group by 2nd and 3rd grade. It is, however, only one study of one state program at one point in time. Do the findings generalize? The present study provides new correlational analyses that are relevant to the possible impact of state pre-K on later academic achievement. Findings include: (1) no association between states' federally reported scores on the fourth grade National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in various years and differences among states in levels of enrollment in their state's pre-K program five years earlier than each of those years (when the fourth-graders taking NAEP would have been preschoolers); (2) positive associations (small and typically not statistically significant) between NAEP scores and earlier pre-K enrollment, when the previous analysis is conducted using NAEP scores that are statistically adjusted to account for differences between the states in the demographic characteristics of students taking NAEP; and (3) no association between differences among states in their gains in state pre-K enrollment and their gains in adjusted NAEP scores. Under the most favorable scenario for state pre-K that can be constructed from these data, increasing pre-K enrollment by 10 percent would raise a state's adjusted NAEP scores by a little less than one point five years later and have no influence on the unadjusted NAEP scores. Unabashed enthusiasts for increased investments in state pre-K need to confront the evidence that it does not enhance student achievement meaningfully, if at all. It may, of course, have positive impacts on other outcomes, although these have not yet been demonstrated. It is time for policymakers and advocates to consider and test potentially more powerful forms of investment in better futures for children.

The mission of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) is to provide rigorous evidence on which to ground education practice and policy and to encourage its use. The Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (ESRA) requires that the Director of IES, on a biennial basis, transmit to the President, the National Board for Education Sciences, and the appropriate congressional committees, and make widely available to the public, a report containing: (1) a description of the activities carried out by and through the National Education Centers during the prior fiscal years; (2) a summary of each grant, contract, and cooperative agreement in excess of $100,000 funded through the National Education Centers during the prior fiscal years, including, at a minimum, the amount, duration, recipient, purpose of the award, and the relationship, if any, to the priorities and mission of IES; (3) a description of how the activities of the National Education Centers are consistent with the principles of scientifically valid research and the priorities and mission of IES; and (4) such additional comments, recommendations, and materials as the Director considers appropriate. The 2008 report discusses critical components of IES progress, recommendations for continued investments, and lessons learned. The report concludes that recent explosion of knowledge from education research is tied to a combined focus on rigor and relevance, and that moving education to a point at which the research base is sufficient to assure a good education for every student is the work of a generation, not of a few years. The director encourages continued forward movement. Four appendixes of Grant and Contract Awards are included: (1) National Center for Education Research; (2) National Center for Education Statistics; (3) National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance; and (4) National Center for Special Education Research. (Contains 42 footnotes and 2 figures.) [For the previous edition of this report, see ED497040.]

We describe a thin-film superconducting Nb microwave resonator, tunable to within 0.3 ppm of the hyperfine splitting of $^{87}$Rb at $f_{Rb}=6.834683$ GHz. We coarsely tuned the resonator using electron-beam lithography, decreasing the resonance frequency from 6.8637 GHz to 6.8278 GHz. For \emph{in situ} fine tuning at 15 mK, the resonator inductance was varied using a piezoelectric stage to move a superconducting pin above the resonator. We found a maximum frequency shift of about 8.7 kHz per 60-nm piezoelectric step and a tuning range of 18 MHz., Comment: accepted in AIP Advances

We present a scheme to couple trapped $^{87}$Rb atoms to a superconducting flux qubit through a magnetic dipole transition. We plan to trap atoms on the evanescent wave outside an ultrathin fiber to bring the atoms to less than 10 $\mu$m above the surface of the superconductor. This hybrid setup lends itself to probing sources of decoherence in superconducting qubits. Our current plan has the intermediate goal of coupling the atoms to a superconducting LC resonator., Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures, Quantum Optics V (QOV V) conference proceedings

In this document, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Director, Grover J. Whitehurst, presents results of the 2004 Long-Term Trend Reading and Mathematics Assessments. The 2004 results are based on a representative sample of over 28,000 public- and private-school students assessed in reading and mathematics, at ages 9, 13, and 17.

We classify all pseudo-supersymmetric extremal near-horizon geometries in minimal five-dimensional de-Sitter supergravity. It is shown that the only such near-horizon geometry is the near-horizon geometry of the de-Sitter BMPV solution, and hence there are no regular extremal pseudo-supersymmetric asymptotically de-Sitter black rings., Comment: 26 pages, latex. Minor typos in equations (4.16) and (6.12) corrected

This paper explains the mission of the Institute of Education Sciences and outlines the activities the Institute is undertaking. It also shares the reflections of the Director of the Institute of Education Sciences on the fit, and sometimes misfit, between the current activities of the education research community and the needs of practitioners and policy makers. The statutory mission of the Institute of Education Sciences is to provide decision makers and the general public with information on: (1) the condition and progress of education in the United States; (2) practices that improve academic achievement and access to education opportunities; and (3) the effectiveness of Federal and other education programs. These three functions are the responsibility of the organizational units of the Institute of Education Sciences: the National Center for Education Statistics, the National Center for Education Research, and the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance. Both the statutory mission of the Institute and its conceptual model point it toward applied research. Consequently, the primary focus of the Institute of Education Sciences is on work that has a high consideration of usepractical, applied work that is relevant to practitioners and policy makers. The preponderance of issues identified as high priority areas that the Institute is addressing relate to questions of effectiveness. Such questions are addressed most rigorously with randomized field trials, considered the only sure method for determining the effectiveness of education programs and practices. Although randomized trials are the gold standard for determining what works, they are not appropriate for all questions, and can be enhanced with results from other methods. A look at recent education research has indicated that randomized trials represent only about 6% of the research reported in American Association of Educational Research journals, although they predominate in the "Journal of Educational Psychology." These findings show a mismatch between what education decision makers want from research and what the education research community is providing. The Institute of Education Sciences is working to correct this mismatch through its focus on what works in education. (SLD)

The 2016 Education Choice and Competition Index (ECCI) is the fifth release of an annual compilation of data on the condition of K-12 school choice in the geographical areas served by the nation's 100 largest school districts. The ECCI captures information on: (1) the extent of choice; (2) the characteristics of the process by which parents and students choose schools, measured against an ideal; (3) the degree to which district funding and management processes favor the growth of popular schools at the expense of unpopular schools; and (4) the availability of subsidies for the costs of choice for poor families, particularly for transportation. This report is arranged in two parts. The first presents findings from the 2016 ECCI. The second part draws lessons from trends in the ECCI and from related research. Those lessons, which are the author's interpretations of the contextualized findings from the ECCI, are intended for policymakers and others concerned with the future of school choice in the U.S. [For the 2015 report, see ED614749.]

A recent analysis of Even Start, the federal family literacy program, has concluded that the relative emphasis in many local programs has shifted too far toward background issues of family functioning and too far away from focused efforts to enhance literacy skills (Haslam, 1998). In keeping with this analysis, the time seems to be right for a renewed emphasis on children's literacy within family literacy programs. Noting that the last decade has seen an explosion of research in the development of reading in children and on the precursors within the preschool period of reading readiness which has provided fundamental insights into the nature of reading, this paper seeks to present a brief survey of this new knowledge base, with the particular aim of highlighting work that is relevant to family literacy programs. The paper focuses on examining research on emergent literacy and its components. The data examined indicate that there are a number of interventions for preschool and early grade school children that make a significant impact on the key emergent literacy skills of children. The paper then discusses policy implications for family literacy programs. Contains a figure and 167 references. (NKA)

This report compares various measures of school segregation and reviews research findings on the extent of school segregation, trends in school segregation over time, and the relationship between academic achievement and segregation by income and race. The role of school quality in mediating and moderating the associations between school segregation and academic achievement is examined through observational and experimental research findings. Findings include: (1) there are a number of ways of measuring segregation for different groups, and geographical scales. Scholars studying segregation often use different indices, define their groups in different ways, and use different areas as the basis for assessing schools. It is important to be clear which particular aspect of segregation is the focus of any inquiry. Policymakers in particular need to be very careful in the way they use and interpret empirical results; (2) in terms of historical trends, school segregation within school districts declined sharply in the 1960s and 1970s, following civil rights legislation and court-ordered integration. A previously separate school system for black and white students became more integrated, especially in the South. But while the extent of racial segregation within school districts declined, segregation between school districts increased slightly over the same general period, in part because of "white flight" to suburban school districts; (3) the diversification of schools in recent decades has been largely driven by an increase in the Hispanic and Asian American populations. Only half of the students currently enrolled in public schools are white, compared to four in five in 1968. There has inevitably been a steep drop in the number of majority-white schools, to just below 60 percent. This renders measures of segregation based on attendance at "majority-white" schools less instructive. Both black and white students have become much more likely to share classrooms with Hispanics, but, since the 1980s, only marginally more likely to share classrooms with each other. Segregation strongly reflects local demographics and housing patterns. For example, rural and suburban schools are more heterogeneous than urban schools; (4) school segregation by family income (as distinct from race) is also at high levels and has increased since 1990, both within and between school districts. Race and economic status are of course correlated. Black students are four times as likely to be in a high-poverty school as a low-poverty one; for whites, the ratio is the other way round; (5) charter schools, which are open enrollment public schools managed outside the framework of the traditional school district, are generally more racially and economically segregated than traditional public schools. In particular, charter schools often enroll more black and poor students than traditional public schools in the same areas, and are more likely to be at one extreme or the other of racial and economic composition than traditional public schools. But there is significant variation between different cities and school districts; (6) it is difficult to disentangle the effects of race and poverty because they are correlated. Much of the research that examines the impact of school segregation on student outcomes confounds race and family income. But because most black families are not poor and most poor families are not black, and because government integration policies based on family income can pass legal muster whereas those based on race cannot, it is important to try to understand the effects of racial vs. economic school segregation on student outcomes (7) differences among schools in racial composition are associated with small but still meaningful differences in student achievement. However, the effect of racial composition on student achievement is primarily expressed though the correlation of race and family socioeconomic status. Thus, considering only school-level variables, it is poverty rather than race per se that impacts the achievement of students attending a school; (8) interventions that involve providing low-income and minority students with greater access to schools that are higher performing and more diverse (through school choice or housing policy) demonstrate positive impacts that appear to be mediated by the quality of schools rather than their racial composition; and (9) charter schools with a strong academic focus and "no-excuses" philosophy that serve poor black students in urban areas stand as contradictions to the general association between school-level poverty and academic achievement. These very high-poverty, high-minority schools produce achievement gains that are substantially greater than the traditional public schools in the same catchment areas. This is further evidence that school quality is a primary mediator of academic achievement rather than the racial or economic makeup of a school's student body.

In the United States, public policy and expenditure intended to improve the prospects of children from low-income families have focused on better preparing children for school through Head Start and universal pre-K. This school readiness approach differs from the dominant model of public support for early care and learning in Northern Europe, which places more emphasis on supporting families. It also differs from other government programs in the U.S., such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, that support low-income parents of young children by boosting income. Empirical comparisons of the impact on school achievement of boosting family income vs. providing free pre-K for four-year-olds, summarized in this paper, suggest that supporting family income is a more cost effective expenditure. A policy midpoint between more money for families vs. more money for pre-K is more money for families to spend on their young children. All these policy options should be on the table and subject to test as the nation moves towards increased attention to and investment in the early years.

The nation's PK-12 education ecosystem is poised to embrace programs intended to enhance soft skills. Soft skills are generally defined by exclusion as personal qualities other than the formal knowledge transmitted by schools that affect student adjustment, i.e., the effort that students put into their work and their social skills. Such soft skills are far too important for the education reform effort associated with them to suffer the fad-like fate of far too many education reforms of the past. There are danger signs in that regard. The goals of this report, which will extend over subsequent reports, are: (1) to raise important questions in the context of the expansion of efforts by schools to enhance the soft skills of their students and measure outcomes; (2) to suggest what prudent school officials and policymakers should do with respect to incorporating soft skills into the school curriculum given the number of unanswered critical questions about how to proceed; and (3) to spur the organizations and individuals that are at the forefront of the movement to increase their interest and investment in the many unknowns of soft skills reform. The embrace of soft skills by education reformers is well in advance of the development of conceptual, instructional, measurement, and accountability models of soft skills that are appropriate to education settings. It will take time to develop a productive program of work that can be incorporated into school reform. In the meantime, prudent policy and incremental experiments in practice are in order. Contains endnotes.

The traditional delivery system for public K-12 education in the U.S. is being disrupted by forces from without (e.g., forms of competition, including charter schools) and from within (e.g., new regulatory requirements, including meaningful teacher evaluation and the Common Core). As in any sizable sector of the economy, challenges to the status quo in education are often met by organized advocacy efforts. Because education in this country is by-and-large a public enterprise, champions of change and defenders of the status quo must turn to elected and appointed officials to advocate for their desired outcome. Do such advocacy efforts succeed in influencing the public policy that governs education? This report sheds light on that question by examining the influence and approach of advocacy organizations in three states that recently enacted or considered school reform legislation: Louisiana, Tennessee, and North Carolina. It builds upon research conducted for a previous report which focused exclusively on Louisiana. In the prior report, the authors introduced a new method to study influence: the Survey with Placebo (SwP), which asks respondents to rate the influence of a non-existent advocacy group (the placebo), along with actual entities engaged in advocacy. By comparing the scores of real organizations with those of the placebo group, a scale of influence with a known zero point is generated, allowing researchers to quantify the amount of influence any organization exercises. This study also employs the SwP technique, amended slightly based on lessons learned from its first use. Because the examined advocacy groups represent a diverse range of missions, utilize a variety of advocacy tactics, and focus efforts on different stages of the policymaking process, the researchers also employ a Critical Path Analysis (CPA) to differentiate advocacy organizations in terms of the paths through which they exercise influence. Applying these two methods to the case studies in Louisiana, North Carolina, and Tennessee provided several compelling findings with respect to the influence process and success of advocacy efforts, and also with regards to the future use of such measures in evaluating advocacy. Key findings with respect to the influence process: (1) The advocacy organizations we studied are a clearly recognized influence within each of the respective states. They have an impact on the introduction of policy into the legislative arena, the content of legislation, and the votes of members of the legislature; (2) Perceived influence closely tracks outcomes. When the policy of interest is not passed into law, opponents are credited with substantially greater influence than in sites where the policy is successful; (3) The effort to influence political outcomes, just like politics itself, is local. For example, approaches appropriate to a state in which the governor is the dominant political force with respect to the legislation of interest, as was the case in Louisiana, will be different than in a state in which the legislature is more powerful, as was the case in North Carolina; and (4) Coordination among advocacy organizations that have related policy goals strengthens total impact. In Louisiana, for example, one of the advocacy groups focused on obtaining coordination and cooperation among all groups supporting the legislation. This allowed each group in the coalition to focus on what it could do best and provided opportunities for working through any conflicts in policy goals among the advocacy organizations out of the public eye. Key findings with respect to methods and measures: (1) The Survey with Placebo (SwP) can detect meaningful differences in the perceived influence of advocacy groups and between the actual influence groups vs. the placebo organization; (2) Respondents to the SwP typically separate their own positions as supporters or opponents of the legislation from their ratings of influence. Overall, organizations on the winning side of a legislative battle are perceived by respondents to be more effective than those on the losing side; and (3) Critical Path Analysis (CPA) with advocacy group leaders and with those playing critical roles in the political process reveals significant information that cannot be gathered through the SwP. The expense and labor required to conduct the CPA makes it impractical to pursue on a regular basis, but interested parties may consider leveraging this method in sites where they are particularly interested in developing a better understanding of the advocacy environment and the specific strategies that advocates deploy. The Study of Effective Education Advocacy Survey is appended.

The Brookings Institution releases an annual Education Choice and Competition Index (ECCI) that chronicles how school choice is manifested in the nation's 100+ largest school districts. The ECCI scores and ranks districts on the degree to which families within the district's borders have access to: (1) maximum choice; (2) a choice process that maximizes the match between parental preference and school assignment; (3) funding and management processes that favor the growth of popular schools at the expense of unpopular schools; and (4) subsidies for the costs of choice for poor families, particularly for transportation. This report accompanies the fifth release of the ECCI. This report highlights some interesting findings and provides a commentary that focuses on the tension between the psychology of choice as it is experienced by parents, the design goals of centralized computer-based assignment mechanisms, and the politics of school choice. [For the 2014 report, see ED614748.]

The Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings releases an annual Education Choice and Competition Index (ECCI) that chronicles how school choice is manifested in the nation's 100+ largest school districts. The ECCI scores and ranks districts on the degree to which families within the district's borders have access to: (1) maximum choice; (2) a choice process that maximizes the match between parental preference and school assignment; (3) funding and management processes that favor the growth of popular schools at the expense of unpopular schools; and (4) subsidies for the costs of choice for poor families, particularly for transportation. This report accompanies the fourth release of the ECCI covering the 2013-2014 school year. This report highlights some interesting findings and provides a commentary that focuses on the need for both access to and quality of choice. [For the 2013 report, see ED614747.]

The evidence is clear: better teachers improve student outcomes, ranging from test scores to college attendance rates to career earnings. Federal policy has begun to catch up with these findings in its recent shift from an effort to ensure that all teachers have traditional credentials to policies intended to incentivize states to evaluate and retain teachers based on their classroom performance. But new federal policy can be slow to produce significant change on the ground. The Obama Administration has pushed the creation of a new generation of meaningful teacher evaluation systems at the state level through more than $4 billion in Race to the Top funding to 19 states and No Child Left Behind (NCLB) accountability waivers to 43 states. A majority of states have passed laws requiring the adoption of teacher evaluation systems that incorporate student achievement data, but only a handful had fully implemented new teacher evaluation systems as of the 2012-13 school year. As the majority of states continue to design and implement new evaluation systems, the time is right to ask how existing teacher evaluation systems are performing and in what practical ways they might be improved. This report helps to answer those questions by examining the actual design and performance of new teacher evaluation systems in four urban school districts that are at the forefront of the effort to meaningfully evaluate teachers. Overall, the authors' analysis leaves them optimistic that new evaluation systems meaningfully assess teacher performance. Despite substantial differences in how individual districts designed their systems, each is performing within a range of reliability and validity that is both consistent with respect to prior research and useful with respect to improving the prediction of teacher performance. With modest modifications, these systems, as well as those yet to be implemented, will better meet their goal of assuring students' access to high-quality teachers.