Are government efforts to boost the early learning of our children working? If so, do the benefits outweigh the costs? In 1999, RAND Education evaluated some of the most important and ambitious school reform efforts in the country, including California's massive K-3 class size reduction initiative.
Since 1996 California has invested $1 to $1.5 billion annually in reducing the average class size in first through third grades from 30 to 20 students. Receiving $650 (later raised to over $800) for every student in a class of 20 or fewer, schools have been jumping at the opportunity. But despite enthusiasm among educators, parents, and the public, worries have surfaced about the trade-offs being made to find enough space and teachers and about whether all students are benefiting equitably.
In Class Size Reduction in California: Early Evaluation Findings, 1996-1998,RAND researchers show that third-grade students in smaller classes do achieve slightly higher SAT-9 scores (a difference of less than .1 standard deviation). On the other hand, the program has caused a decline in teacher qualifications as districts statewide have had to employ nearly 24,000 new teachers.
The study also found that benefits and costs of the program have been unevenly distributed: Low-income, high-minority districts, overcrowded to begin with, have been slow to implement the program because of space limitations and have suffered the steepest decline in teacher qualifications.
RAND findings point to the need for some mid-course policy adjustments, including strengthening statewide efforts to bolster teaching, promote school construction, and provide incentives for good teachers to take and keep jobs at schools where they are most needed. Attention to these matters may help ensure that the persistent achievement gap for many of the state's poor and minority students will, as hoped, be narrowed by this reform.
In other related 1999 reform evaluations, RAND researchers have identified key determinants of the cost of class size reductions. Instructional costs of a national class size reduction policy, for example, can run anywhere from $2 billion to over $11 billion per year. This depends on how small classes must be, whether implementation is flexible, and whether the policy is targeted toward at-risk students. Policymakers will benefit from this information as they continue to make equitable and efficient improvements in the quality of education.
RAND Education also continues to evaluate the implementation and performance of New American Schools, one of the most important efforts at whole-school reform in the country. This assessment, involving over 100 schools nationwide, will continue until the end of school year 1999-2000.
The stakes are rising in the American system of civil justice. Hundreds of millions of dollars in liability payments as well as the international competitiveness of some of America's most influential corporations rest on the decisions of our nation's lawmakers. Not surprisingly, the work of RAND's Institute for Civil Justice (ICJ) on monitoring this system, analyzing procedures, and evaluating options for reform has gained national prominence.
Class action litigation is the highest-priority issue in the civil justice reform world. Long a matter of controversy, the roiling public debate has been about whether, when, and where damage class actions should be allowed. Those in favor of drastic change argue that bounty-hunting trial lawyers have increased the amount of litigation dramatically, imposing higher costs on business and greater burdens on the courts. Proponents of class actions contend that the suits are a necessary means of securing remedies for wronged consumers and mass tort victims while encouraging more responsible behavior on the part of corporate defendants.
RAND's forthcoming study, Class Action Dilemmas: Pursuing Public Goals for Private Gain,is the first large-scale objective study addressing the history of class action rules, the attempts to change them, and the massive litigation that has resulted. RAND analysts make recommendations for procedural change that would require federal judges to exercise more oversight in the settlement of these cases. "The single most important action that judges can take to support the public goals of class action litigation is to reward class action attorneys only for lawsuits that actually accomplish something of value to class members and society," the analysts declare.
An executive summary of the study was released in 1999 in the midst of intense political maneuvering on Capitol Hill. The work has been cited in both houses of Congress, and off-the-record briefings for the House and Senate have been requested on both sides of the aisle.
Another high-priority civil justice reform issue concerns aviation accident litigation. With commercial air travel becoming routine for millions of passengers, and the number of passenger miles flown expected to double over the next 15 years, the National Transpor-tation Safety Bureau (NTSB) has become a critical link in ensuring the safety of the traveling public in the United States and throughout the world. As the most important independent safety investigative authority in the world, the NTSB exerts enormous influence based on the independence and accuracy of its investigations.
In the wake of recent high-profile crashes and their lengthy investigations, critics have begun to question the appropriateness of NTSB operations, in particular the "party process." Historically a key component of the agency's procedures, the party process involves airlines, manufacturers, unions, the Federal Aviation Administration, and other key stakeholders in agency investigations. But when accidents often lead to lawsuits against these same parties, issues of conflict of interest arise.
Drawing on a diverse research team with expertise in law, defense, and aviation, the ICJ undertook the most comprehensive examination of NTSB operations in the agency's 30-year history. The RAND team found that the NTSB should include more sources of independent, analytical expertise, such as academia and federal laboratories, in the party process in order to improve the effectiveness and integrity of its work. In addition, researchers recommended that the agency acquire additional resources, modernize its investigative procedures, and reform its management practices. According to NTSB Chairman Jim Hall, "We have already begun the process of change and improvement they recommended to ensure that the Board continues to serve the American people in the best way possible."
To find out how the program has been faring, the California Department of Social Services contracted with RAND to conduct an independent evaluation. In 1999 RAND's Labor and Population Program released results from the first phase of a planned three-and-a-half-year study. Researchers highlighted several themes for further investigation, including understanding and dealing with recipient noncompliance, maintaining adequate sources of funding, and helping participants find and keep jobs that pay well. With the state's welfare reform effort still in its early stages, RAND's findings will play a valuable role in shaping the future of state welfare recipients.