Giving Compass' Take:

• The U.S. Government Accountability Office found four primary challenges in assessing program performance in K-12 education and offers recommendations on how to address these concerns. 

• What can education funders do to help solve these challenges? 

• Read about what impactful education funding looks like. 

GAO identified four key challenges the Department of Education (Education) faces in assessing K-12 program performance. Ongoing efforts to address challenges may prove particularly important given the changing education landscape under the Every Student Succeeds Act.

Key Findings:

  • Oversight and monitoring. Weaknesses in Education's internal controls have hindered its oversight and monitoring of grantees and its assessments of K-12 program performance.
  • Data quality. Persistent quality issues with K-12 data that grantees submit to Education have limited Education's ability to use those data to assess performance.
  • Capacity. Education's ability to oversee and monitor grantees, collect and report quality data, and use performance assessment information in decision making is directly related to its capacity and organizational resources.
  • Methodological limitations. Education has faced methodological limitations assessing program performance, including difficulties assessing the benefits of flexible grant programs, isolating program impact, and measuring long-term outcomes.

Education plays a key role in supporting educational opportunities for K-12 students, including awarding grants and overseeing compliance with federal education laws. However, questions have been raised about how Education assesses program performance. Both GAO and Education's OIG have reported on various management and oversight issues related to Educations program performance. GAO was asked to review Education's K-12 program performance assessment activities and related barriers. This report describes challenges Education faces in assessing the performance of its K-12 programs, as well as steps it has taken to address them.

Read the full report on K-12 education challenges by Jacqueline M. Nowicki at U.S. Government Accountability Office