The U.S. Department of Education today released an interim report on the state and local implementation of No Child Left Behind's public school choice and supplemental educational services options during the 2003-04 and 2004-05 school years.

The report found that the number of students participating in both options, especially supplemental educational services, has increased substantially. However, only a small proportion of eligible students took advantage of the options available to them. In the 2004-05 school year, one percent of the nearly 6.2 million eligible students participated in the school choice option and 17 percent of the 1.8 million eligible students participated in the supplemental educational services option.

According to the report, notable issues contributing to the low participation were that choice options were not always made available, particularly at the middle and high school levels, as well as problems communicating with parents. A parent survey conducted in a subsample of eight large urban districts found that only 27 percent of eligible parents said they had been notified about the school choice option and only 53 percent said they knew their child was eligible for supplemental services.

The study found that the quality of parent notification materials varied: some were easy to understand and presented the options favorably, while others were confusing, used technical language, or discouraged use of the options. Almost half of the districts (49 percent) notified parents about the school choice option after the start of the school year - and districts that notified parents earlier had higher participation rates.

Other key findings from the report include:

• In a sample of nine large urban districts, students participating in the Title I school choice option had similar prior achievement, on average, as all eligible students, indicating that the program did not simply "cream" the most advantaged students. For supplemental services, participating students had lower prior achievement than eligible students who did not participate, indicating that the program is reaching a more disadvantaged population.

• In the nine urban districts, African-American students had the highest participation rates in supplemental educational services; limited English proficient students and students with disabilities also had above-average participation rates. For school choice, the highest participation rates were for white and African-American students. Students who participated in school choice transferred from schools with below average achievement levels to schools with higher-than-average achievement. Students of all races chose schools that were more racially balanced

• Most districts required to offer Title I school choice and supplemental services reported that they did offer these options to eligible students; however, districts were more likely to provide these options at the elementary level than at the middle and high school levels.

• Parents surveyed in eight of the large urban districts reported satisfaction with the school choice and supplemental services options.

• Parents who chose to enroll their child in school choice or supplemental services most commonly indicated that the reason was to provide better educational opportunities for their child. For school choice, the most common reason was that parents thought the quality of teaching at the new school was better. For supplemental services, the most common reason was that the tutoring was offered in subjects where the child needed extra help. In addition, over half chose supplemental services because their child's teacher thought the child needed the extra help.

An important goal of No Child Left Behind is to provide additional educational options to parents of students in low-performing Title I schools, specifically the opportunities to move their child to a higher-performing school or enroll their child in free tutoring services. The report is part of an effort to examine the effects of the No Child Left Behind Act, and draws on the findings of two federally funded studies, the "National Longitudinal Study of No Child Left Behind" and the "Study of State Implementation of Accountability of Teacher Quality Under No Child Left Behind."

State and Local Implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act, Volume IV - Title I School Choice and Supplemental Education Services: Interim Report, is available at www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/opepd/ppss/reports.html#title. The study was conducted for the Department by the RAND Corporation, the American Institutes for Research, and the National Opinion Research Center.

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