Cierniak et al 2015 Statewide Vouchers CEEP EPB

education policy analysis archives, 2002

education policy analysis archives, 2001

This report re-analyzes test score data from Florida public schools. In response to a recent report from the Manhattan Institute, it offers a different perspective and an alternative explanation for the pattern of test score improvements among low scoring schools in Florida.

2002

mong the many reforms proposed for K-12 education are changes in governance that would increase the power of parents to choose schools and thereby make the education system function more like a market. Within this set of reforms, which also includes offering greater choice among public schools and the opportunity to establish public "charter" schools, school voucher programs are particularly controversial because they would permit parents to use public funds to secure education not only at public schools, but also at private schools. Proponents and opponents disagree about the effects of voucher programs on student achievement, on the social and racial segregation of students and on disadvantaged students. In addition, they differ on the importance of maintaining the separation between religious private schools and the state. School voucher programs currently exist only on a small scale in the United States. The main publicly funded voucher programs are in Milwaukee, Cleveland and Florida. In addition, small privately funded programs provide vouchers for lowand moderate-income students in cities such as New York City, Dayton, Ohio, and Washington, D.C. Another privately funded program, the Children's Scholarship Fund, operates at the national level. Recent studies based primarily on U.S. evidence typically conclude that the data are insuf cient to draw clear conclusions about the net effects of vouchers on academic achievement, access to schools, racial integration and civic education (for example,

2003

Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 1998

2000

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2008

A Friedman Foundation report attempts to find empirical support for the contention that competition from private schools, through voucher programs, improves the effectiveness of public schools. In the first year of Ohio's new Ed-Choice voucher program, the report claims to have found substantial academic gains at public schools exposed to the possibility of losing students to vouchers. Despite being presented as scientifically rigorous, the report suffers from serious methodological shortcomings. The analysis uses weak variables and an incorrect approach to measuring academic gains and tries to make claims based on cherrypicking uneven results. Moreover, even accepting the study's analysis, it produces a finding very much at odds with the author's intent: that vouchers are not likely to close the achievement gap between high-and low-performing schools.

Review of Educational Research, 2000

Education and the Public Interest Center, 2008

A Friedman Foundation report attempts to find empirical support for the contention that competition from private schools, through voucher programs, improves the effectiveness of public schools. In the first year of Ohio's new Ed-Choice voucher program, the report claims to have found substantial academic gains at public schools exposed to the possibility of losing students to vouchers. Despite being presented as scientifically rigorous, the report suffers from serious methodological shortcomings. The analysis uses weak variables and an incorrect approach to measuring academic gains and tries to make claims based on cherrypicking uneven results. Moreover, even accepting the study's analysis, it produces a finding very much at odds with the author's intent: that vouchers are not likely to close the achievement gap between high-and low-performing schools.