School Vouchers and Student Outcomes: Experimental Evidence from Washington, DC

Abstract

School vouchers are the most contentious form of parental school choice. Vouchers provide government funds that parents can use to send their children to private schools of their choice. Here we examine the empirical question of whether or not a school voucher program in Washington, DC, affected achievement or the rate of high school graduation for participating students. The District of Columbia Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) has operated in the nation's capital since 2004, funded by a federal government appropriation. Because the program was oversubscribed in its early years of operation, and vouchers were awarded by lottery, we were able to use the “gold standard” evaluation method of a randomized experiment to determine what impacts the OSP had on student outcomes. Our analysis revealed compelling evidence that the DC voucher program had a positive impact on high school graduation rates, suggestive evidence that the program increased reading achievement, and no evidence that it affected math achievement. We discuss the implications of these findings in light of recent policy developments including the reauthorization of the OSP and the enactment or expansion of more than a dozen school voucher or voucher‐type programs throughout the United States in 2011 and 2012.

Parental preferences in the choice for a specialty school

“…Research shows that families that use scholarships to attend private schools list academic quality on the top (Cohn, 1997). Scholarship programs allow qualified parents to use public funds to cover the cost of tuition of a private school and are targeted to a highly disadvantaged population of students (Wolf, 2008;Wolf et al, 2013).…”

Distributional Analysis in Educational Evaluation: A Case Study from the New York City Voucher Program

“…Voucher programs implemented in other contexts yield somewhat more mixed results. Evaluations of voucher offers in Charlotte, NC (Cowen 2008; Greene 2001), Milwaukee, WI (Rouse 1998), Washington, DC (Howell et al 2002; Wolf et al 2013), and Chile (Lara et al 2011) provide evidence of modest positive average effects on student achievement. (Cowen 2012 provides a comprehensive review of the existing literature on voucher program achievement effects.…”

The peculiar status ofDemocracy and Education

“…Here are some of the recent publications in which D&E was cited: 'Practical wisdom: A qualitative study of the care and management of non-invasive ventilation patients by experienced intensive care nurses' (Sørensen, Frederiksen, Grøfte, & Lomborg, 2013), 'School vouchers and student outcomes: Experimental evidence from Washington, DC' (Wolf et al, 2013), 'Approaches to learning information literacy: A phenomenographic study' (Diehm & Lupton, 2012), 'Songs of the caged birds: Literacy and learning with incarcerated youth' (Williamson, Mercurio, & Walker, 2013) and 'Effects of manual/pedal movement, tempo, and gender on accuracy of steady beat in kindergarten students' (Rose, Fisher, & Shewmaker, 2012). Now, I do not wish to suggest that Dewey has nothing to say to the scholars who authored these publications-any more than I would say that they have nothing to gain from Plato, Shakespeare or Mozart-but I do wonder how much Dewey can contribute specifically to these sorts of scholarly research.…”