UROP Project

public schools, private schools, education, research, literature review

Research Mentor: Dr. Wajeeha Hazoor Bajwa, she/her/hers
Department, College, Affiliation: Office of Research, Education, Health, and Human Sciences
Contact Email: wb24a@fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor):
Research Assistant Supervisor Email:
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:

Looking for Research Assistants: Yes
Number of Research Assistants: 3
Relevant Majors: Open to all majors
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
Research Assistant Transportation Required: No, the project is remote
Remote or In-person: Fully Remote
Approximate Weekly Hours: 5 to 10 hours,
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link: Not participating in the Roundtable

Project Description

Educational privatization and school choice is highly contested. Whereas proponents of educational privatization argue that market-oriented solutions redress public sector shortcomings in quality and access to education for the masses, proponents of public education argue that private education comes at the expense of equity; that is, private providers exclude poorly performing students and students with disabilities to optimize performance in high-stakes testing.

In this context, this projects seeks to conduct a keyword search on major academic databases to extract school choice literature on the impacts and implications of public and private educations on test scores and access to education for vulnerable populations. The time-period of the analysis is 2010 to 2024.

This project will inform the ongoing debate on privatization in education and school choice and whether to determine which form of education is more effective in terms of increasing access and quality of education. This is a topic that holds increasing relevance in the passing of the Abidjan Principles in 2019 and the Right to Education acts. It will result in the publication of a journal article in which the GAs will be listed as co-authors.

Research Tasks: The GAs are expected to:
1) Conduct a keyword search on key academic databases.
2) Organize relevant journal articles according to themes aligning with the research questions.
3) Analyze and summarize relevant journal articles. The GAs are expected to note effect sizes in these summaries.


Skills that research assistant(s) may need: Recommended: Database search
Recommended: Journal article analysis
Recommended: Journal article summarization
Recommended: Analytical thinking and ability to draw connections between seemingly disparate concepts