The Department of Education provides billions of dollars in grants for programs to improve K-12 outcomes. Do they work?

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently released its report on the challenges of assessing grant programs serving K-12 students. Education faces challenges determining whether these programs work. Specifically, problems persist with:
Oversight. For example, some program grant files were missing descriptions of what grantees achieved.
Data quality. Education lacks assurance that some state-submitted data are accurate.
Capacity. A lack of qualified staff has impacted monitoring, and Education hasn’t updated hiring plans in years.
Study design. Measuring long-term outcomes can be difficult.
Click here to read the full report.