More School Choice Facts CER
Home Page
Nine Lies About School Choice Press Release and School Choice Full Report
School Choice in the District of Columbia
School Choice in the Cleveland, Ohio
School Choice in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin
There is a growing body of scholarly research on school choice programs for low-income children. A recent Brookings Institution report characterizes the overall findings:
"Although controversial, research generally shows positive effects for students using vouchers to attend private schools."
"How Well Are American Students Learning?", The Brookings Institution, Brown Center Report on American Education, September 2001.
Ohio, Wisconsin and Florida each hired evaluators to review choice programs for low-income children and children at under-performing public schools in those states.
Ohio hired the Indiana University Center for Evaluation to study Cleveland's choice program. Kim Metcalf, Ph. D., is the lead researcher.
"[T]he limited, but statistically significant positive impact of the program on students' academic achievement [in Cleveland], particularly as they progress beyond the early primary grades, is consistent with work in Milwaukee, New York, Washington, D. C., and Dayton, Ohio."
"Evaluation of the Cleveland Scholarship Program," Indiana Center for Evaluation, September 2001.
"The most important reasons for applying to the scholarship program were educational quality and school safety. A belief that private schools offer a better education than public schools was rated as either very important or somewhat important by 96.4 percent of respondents. This is further substantiated by the 84.6 percent of respondents who indicated a belief that public schools provide 'low-quality education' and the 78 percent who reported a general 'dislike of Cleveland public schools.'"
Kim K. Metcalf, "Evaluation of the Cleveland Scholarship and Tutoring Program, 1996-1999," Unpublished Manuscript, Indiana University, 1999, p. 11.
Wisconsin hired University of Wisconsin Prof. John Witte to evaluate the Milwaukee program. In a book published last year, he observed:
"Choice can be a useful tool to aid families and educators in inner city and poor communities where education has been a struggle for several generations. . . If programs are devised correctly, they can provide meaningful educational choices to families that now do not have such choices. And it is not trivial that most people in America. . . already have such choices."
The Market Approach to Education -An Analysis of America's First Voucher Program, Princeton University Press, 2000.
Florida hired a research team directed by Florida State University to evaluate the impact of the A+ Opportunity Scholarship Program on public schools. Jay P. Greene, Ph. D., was the lead researcher.
"By offering vouchers to students at failing schools, the Florida A-Plus choice and accountability system was intended to motivate those schools to improve.... The results show that [low-performing] schools. . . achieved test score gains more than twice as large as those achieved by other schools. . . [T]he performance of students on academic tests improves when public schools are faced with the prospect that their students will receive vouchers."
"An Evaluation of the Florida A-Plus Accountability and School Choice Program," Florida State University, The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, and Harvard University Program on Education Policy and Governance, February, 2001.
"Vouchers have become popular because parents think they improve educational standards. They may be right. Harvard University's Program on Education Policy and Governance found that, after two years, pupils at Cleveland's private schools performed seven percentage points higher than the national average in reading and 15 points higher in math. Harvard's study of the Milwaukee schools found that, after four years, pupils in voucher schools had math scores 11 percentage points higher than their unlucky public contemporaries, and six points higher in reading."
"Sorting Out Vouchers," The Economist, September 4, 1999, p. 33.
The Harvard University Program on Education Policy and Governance (PEPG) has conducted several reviews of Cleveland's scholarship program. Its most recent report says the Cleveland program "has won a strong endorsement from the low-income families participating in it. Parents of voucher recipients are more likely to be 'very satisfied' with nearly every aspect of the schools they attend than are parents of students in the Cleveland public schools. Test scores in math and reading have risen in. . . the two schools newly established in response to the [program]. . . "
"An Evaluation of the Cleveland Voucher Program After Two Years," June 1999, available at www.ksg.harvard.edu/pepg/.
A 1996 Harvard University study of Milwaukee's school voucher program found significant academic gains for economically disadvantaged youngsters who use school vouchers, narrowing the test score gap between white and minority students. The report demonstrates that if similar success could be achieved for all minority students nationwide, it could close the gap separating white and minority test scores by one-third to more than one-half. The study compared students in Milwaukee's choice program with others who, under random selection, applied but were not awarded vouchers. The authors found that math scores of choice students were 5 and 12 percent higher for third- and fourth-year school choice participants, respectively. Reading scores of choice students in the third and fourth years were, on average, 3 and 5 percent higher, respectively.
Under Extreme Duress, School Choice Success, by Paul E. Peterson and Chad Noyes, February 1996
Princeton University economist Cecilia Rouse, who analyzed test scores of students in the Milwaukee program, reported that "being selected to participate in the [Milwaukee' choice program appears to have increased the math achievement of low-income, minority students by 1.5-2.3 percentile points per year (emphasis added)."
"Private School Vouchers and Student Achievement: An Evaluation of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program," Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 1998.
Scholars at the University of Texas-Austin (Jay P. Greene) and Harvard University (Jiangtao Du and Paul Peterson) found statistically significant gains in math and reading scores for students in the Milwaukee program three years.
"Effectiveness of School Choice: The Milwaukee Experiment," Education and Urban Society, February 1999.
Harvard economist Caroline M. Hoxby investigated the impact on public schools of vouchers in Milwaukee. She concluded: "Overall, an evaluation of Milwaukee suggests that public schools have a strong, positive response to competition from vouchers. . . .[S]chools that faced the most potential competition from vouchers had the best productivity response."
"School Choice and School Productivity (Or, Could School Choice be a Tide that Lifts All Boats?)," Harvard University, forthcoming, in Education Next, Winter 2001.
The Urban League of Greater Miami and others hired education researcher Carol Innerst to identify whether Florida schools took steps to avoid "failing" designations. Based on documents from schools throughout Florida, she said the Florida choice program "instilled in the public schools a sense of urgency and zeal for reform not seen in the past, when a school's failure was rewarded only with more money. . . ."
"Competing to Win: How Florida's A+ Plan Has Triggered Public School Reform," Urban League of Greater Miami, Collins Center for Public Policy, Floridians for School Choice, James Madison Institute, Center for Education Reform, April 2000.
Privately financed K-12 scholarship programs exist in many cities. Most benefit families with limited incomes. Scholarly journals have published studies of programs in four different cities, where researchers used high-quality random assignment methods to measure changes in academic achievement due to vouchers.
Researchers from the University of Wisconsin, Harvard University and Georgetown University evaluated programs in New York City, Washington, D. C., and Dayton, OH.
"[T]he average, overall test-score performance of African American students who switched from public to private schools was, after one year, 3.3 NPR [national percentile ranking] points higher and, after two years, 6.3 NPR points higher. . . The school voucher intervention, after two years, erases about one-third of" the difference in black and white test scores. "No. . . positive or negative [effects] were observed for students from other ethnic groups who switched from public to private schools."
"Test-Score Effects of School Vouchers in Dayton, Ohio, New York City, and Washington, D. C.: Evidence from Randomized Field Trials," Harvard University Program on Education Policy and Governance, August 2000. A version was published in Education Matters, Summer 2001 (www.Educationnext.org). Another version is forthcoming in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management.
The program in Charlotte, NC, was evaluated by The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.
"[P]roviding low-income families with scholarships has significant benefits. . . . This finding is consistent with the results from similar evaluations. . . in New York, Washington, D. C., and Dayton, Ohio as well as the results of evaluations of publicly funded school choice programs in Milwaukee and Cleveland. Receiving a scholarship to attend private school improves scores on standardized math tests by between 5.9 and 6.2 [NPR] points and. . . on standardized reading tests by between 5.4 and 7.7 [NPR] points. . . ."
"The Effect of School Choice: An Evaluation of the Charlotte Children's Scholarship Fund Program," The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, August 2000.
"If student test scores continue to rise at the same rate, minority students in the school choice program will close the test-score gap with white students [from similar economic backgrounds] within five years."
Paul Peterson, "Test Scores Higher for Students in New York City Voucher Program," Program on Education Policy and Governance 1998-1999 Annual Report, Harvard University, p. 10.
"Fifty-five percent of the scholarship users reported that their child had at least an hour of homework a day, whereas only 36 percent of the control-group parents reported this much homework. Private school parents were also less likely to say homework was too easy."
Paul E. Peterson, David Myers and William G. Howell, "An Evaluation of the New York City: School Choice Scholarships Program: The First Year," Program on Education Policy and Governance, Harvard University, October 1998, p. 17.
"After one year, students who received a scholarship scored higher in math and reading tests. Overall, the differences between all those in grades two through five who used their scholarships to attend a private school and the control group of students were small - around two percentile points in both subjects. However sizable differences were observed among those students who were in the fourth and fifth grades - four percentile points in reading and six points in math."
Paul E. Peterson, David Myers and William G. Howell, "An Evaluation of the New York City School Choice Scholarship Program: The First Year," Program on Education Policy and Governance, Harvard University, October 1998, p. 8.
"More than one half of the scholarship parents were very satisfied with the academic quality of the school, while just one-sixth of the control group were."
Paul E. Peterson, David Myers and William G. Howell, "An Evaluation of the New York City: School Choice Scholarships Program: The First Year," Program on Education Policy and Governance, Harvard University, October 1998, p. 20.
"The test score results from [the privately-funded programs in Washington, D.C., Dayton, and New York] are again generally positive. After one year of participation in the program, choice students in grades 2 through 5 in New York benefited by about 2 NPR in math and reading. Older students, in grades 4 and 5, gained four points in reading and six points in math. In D.C. African-American students in grades 2 through 5 gained 6.8 NPR in reading, but students in grades 6 though 8 lost 8.2 NPR in math. In Dayton African-American students gained 6.8 NPR in math but their gain in reading fell short of statistical significance, probably due to a modest sized sample."
Jay P. Greene, "A Survey of Results from Voucher Experiments: Where We Are and What We Know," Prepared for the Conference on Charter Schools, Vouchers, and Public Education, Sponsored by the Program on Education Policy and Governance, Harvard University, and the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, March 8-10, 2000, pg. 11.
Note: A recent General Accounting Office report summarized a selected set of findings found in a limited group of studies. The GAO acknowledged the narrow scope of its report, which omits information about recent studies, including several cited above. (" School Vouchers -- Publicly Funded Programs in Cleveland and Milwaukee," GAO-01-914, August 2001.)
School Choice Facts
compiled by
The Institute For Justice
and
Marquette University, Institute for the
Transformation of Learning, Office of Research
and
Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation