The Education Choice and Competition Index
The Education Choice and Competition Index (ECCI) is an annual guide to the conditions of K-12 school choice in the nation’s largest school districts. The ECCI examines variation in district-level choice based on objective scoring of thirteen categories of policy and practice. Results from the ECCI are available through an interactive web application. The intent of the ECCI is to create public awareness of the differences among districts in their support of school choice, provide a framework for efforts to examine the impact of choice and competition, and document changes over time in the policies and practices of school choice.
Initiated in 2011, the ECCI has become the principal resource for those wishing to explore differences in choice and competition in K-12 education systems across the U.S. Scroll down for access to each year's ECCI.
The Recovery School District in New Orleans once again ranked first on the 2014 ECCI. New York City also maintained its position in second place overall and first place among the 100 largest school districts.
Several top performing districts, New Orleans, NYC, Denver, and Newark, stood out for their use of a centralized computer-based algorithm to assign public high school students to schools in such a way as to maximize the match between student preferences and school assignment, conditional on any admission requirements exercised by the school.
Senator Lamar Alexander, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) delivered the keynote address at the release of the 2014 ECCI on February 4, 2015. Follow the link above to watch footage of the event.
As in 2012, the 2013 ECCI examined 107 school districts: the 100 largest districts in the U.S. in terms of student enrollment plus seven additional mid-sized districts that were of interest because of their choice and competition policies.
The Recovery School District in New Orleans was the highest scoring district on the 2013 ECCI. The correlation between 2013 and 2012 aggregate district scores was high, illustrating that districts demonstrate little year-to-year change in their commitment to school choice. There are exceptions, however. For example, Denver moved from 24th to 5th place due to its implementation of a unified application process for all its public schools including charters.
U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) presented the keynote address at the release of the 2013 ECCI on January 8, 2014. Follow the link above to watch archived footage of the event.
The 2012 ECCI examined 107 school districts: the 100 largest districts in the U.S. in terms of student enrollment plus seven additional mid-sized districts that were of interest because of their choice and competition policies.
The Recovery School District in New Orleans (RSD) was the highest scoring district on the 2012 ECCI. It was the first and only district to receive a grade of A on the ECCI for its choice and competition environment.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal presented the keynote address at the release of the 2012 ECCI on December 11, 2012. Follow the link above to watch archived footage of the event.
The 2011 Education Choice and Competition Index
The first iteration of the ECCI, in 2011, examined the 25 largest school districts in the United States.
New York City received the highest numeric score, with Chicago coming in second place. Both districts received a letter grade of "B."
Former New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein presented the keynote address at the release of the inaugural ECCI on November 30, 2011.
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