# U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

POLICY AND PROGRAM STUDIES SERVICE

REPORT HIGHLIGHTS

*Supplemental Educational Services and Student Achievement in Waiver
Districts:*

*Anchorage and Hillsborough*

**[Background]{.underline}:**

Under the *Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA)*, as
amended by the *No Child Left Behind Act of 2001* (*NCLB*), Title I
schools that do not make adequate yearly progress (AYP) for two
consecutive years are identified for school improvement. If an
identified Title I school does not make AYP while in that status and
thus enters the second year of school improvement status, its district
must offer students from low-income families in the school the
opportunity to receive free supplemental educational services, such as
tutoring, remediation or other academic enrichment that are provided in
addition to instruction provided during the school day. The district
must also offer supplemental educational services to students from
low-income families in schools that continue not to make AYP and are
identified for corrective action or restructuring. Parents of eligible
students may choose a provider from the state‑approved list and the
school district pays for the services. Many types of organizations are
eligible to apply to become state‑approved supplemental educational
service providers, including for‑profit agencies, not‑for‑profit groups,
faith‑based and community-based organizations, private schools, and
public schools and districts.

Under federal regulations, school districts that have been identified
for improvement or corrective action are not eligible to be supplemental
educational service providers. However, the U.S. Department of Education
has granted waivers to five such districts, on a pilot basis, to allow
those districts to provide supplemental educational services. Boston,
Massachusetts and Chicago, Illinois received waivers beginning in the
2005--06 school year; Hillsborough County, Florida and Anchorage, Alaska
received waivers beginning in the 2006--07 school year; and
Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina received a waiver beginning in the
2008--09 school year. These pilot districts are eligible to serve as
providers in exchange for expanding students' access to supplemental
educational services and providing student achievement data for an
evaluation to examine program effectiveness. The goals of this pilot
program are to help ensure that more eligible students receive
supplemental educational service, and to provide more accurate and
comprehensive information to the U.S. Department of Education on the
effectiveness of supplemental educational services in improving student
academic achievement.

This report examines the implementation of supplemental educational
services in two of the waiver districts, Anchorage and Hillsborough, in
2006--07, including issues relating to student participation,
achievement gains, and communication with parents. A future report will
examine the implementation of supplemental educational services in all
five waiver districts (Anchorage, Boston, Charlotte-Mecklenburg,
Chicago, and Hillsborough) through the 2008--09 school year.

The central evaluation question for this report is whether students
served by the Anchorage and Hillsborough County district providers show
achievement gains that are at least comparable to those of students
served by non‑district providers. This report also examines the effects
of supplemental educational services more generally by evaluating
whether, and to what extent, supplemental educational services
participants in these two districts show achievement gains relative to
students who do not participate. Finally, the report examines whether
student achievement gains vary by individual provider or by student
characteristics, such as race/ethnicity, limited English proficiency,
and special education status.

With respect to the analysis of student achievement, the analyses
presented here apply to a subset of students in each district---those in
tested grades only. In Anchorage, students in grades 3--9 took the
Alaska Standards Based Assessment (SBA) in 2004--05. In subsequent
years, 10th graders were tested as well. Prior to 2004--05 only students
in grades 3, 6, and 8 participated in standardized tests, and the test
administered was the Alaska Benchmark Exam[^1], not the SBA. In
Hillsborough, students in grades 1--12 participated in Florida's
Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) from 2002--03 through 2004--05. In
2005--06 and 2006--07 this test was administered to students in grades
2--12 and 3--12, respectively. Given these data, the achievement
analyses presented in this report cover 71 and 84 percent of all
students receiving supplemental educational services in Anchorage and
Hillsborough, respectively.

**[Key Findings]{.underline}:**

##### *Participation*

-   In Anchorage, the participation rate for supplemental educational
    services more than doubled from 5 percent in 2005--06 to 11 percent
    in 2006--07. There were 308 participants in 2006--07.

-   In Hillsborough, the participation rate for supplemental educational
    services increased from 10 percent in 2005--06 to 14 percent in
    2006--07. There were 6,172 participants in 2006--07.

-   Participants in supplemental educational services received an
    average of 28 and 22 hours of tutoring in Anchorage and Hillsborough
    during 2006--07, respectively.

##### *Student Achievement* 

-   In Anchorage, there was not a statistically significant difference
    in the academic achievement gains between participants and eligible
    non‑participants. However, the participant group was extremely small
    which makes it difficult to detect significant effects.

-   In Hillsborough, students receiving supplemental educational
    services experienced larger academic gains in mathematics---but not
    in reading---than eligible non‑participants. Participants improved
    their academic achievement by 0.05 standard deviations more than
    eligible non‑participants in mathematics.

-   In both districts, students served by non‑district providers showed,
    on average, larger gains than eligible non-participants in
    mathematics (but not in reading). Students served by the two
    district providers (Anchorage and Hillsborough) did not show
    achievement gains in either subject that were statistically
    distinguishable from those of eligible non-participants.

##### *District Communication with Parents*

-   Despite the use of phrases such as "free tutoring," both Anchorage
    and Hillsborough sent families notification materials that were
    difficult to understand due to use of jargon (such as quoting the
    law) and the high grade level at which the documents were written.

-   Both Anchorage and Hillsborough provided unbiased materials
    describing all supplemental educational services providers.

*This report is available on the U.S. Department of Education's Web site
at*

*www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/opepd/reports.htm#title.*

[^1]: The Benchmark and SBA tests have similar scale scores and
    proficiency markers. As explained later, scale scores were
    standardized within grade.