School Choice Works!
Title: Not As Good As You Think: Why the Middle Class Needs School Choice
Authors: Rachel Chaney, Lance T. Izumi, J.D., Vickie E. Murray, Ph.D
Affiliation: The Pacific Research Institiute
Publication Date: October 2, 2007
Description:
The Pacific Research Institute has released a book authored by three prominent educators which dispels the once “sacred” belief that more affluent communities provides better schools with a higher education proficiency. The Institute states that their new publication is “a ground-breaking book on the performance of students in middle-class public schools throughout California.... The authors shatter the myth that upscale communities naturally have good schools. The study abounds with localized data. But all the data point to one broad conclusion — that many public schools, even in affluent areas, are failing to prepare California students for higher education.”
Title: 2007 Annual Survey of America's Charter Schools
Authors: CER, Alison Consoletti, Jeanne Allen
Affiliation: Center for Education Reform
Publication Date: April 2007
Description:
While education reformers have enjoyed remarkable success against education bureaucracies, overwhelming political and economic power continues to lie in the hands of those who argue on behalf of the status quo in public education. The Center for Education Reform (CER) believes that offering parents a range of educational choices for their children is the only way to help improve conventional public schools. School choice and competition force schools to continually examine their curricula and improve their education services and overall educational delivery to give children a chance for improved academic achievement. Choice re-asserts the rights of the parent and the best interests of the child over the convenience of the system, infuses accountability and quality into the system, and provides educational opportunity where none existed before.
Title: The High Cost of Failing to Reform Public Education in Texas
Authors: Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation, National Center for Policy Analysis and the Hispanic Council for Reform and Education Options.
Publication Date: February 2007
Description:
In Texas, only 67 percent of students graduate from high school and some large urban districts have graduation rates of 50 percent or less. As a result, the state spends more on dropouts each year after they leave school than it spent when they were in school.
Title: The Education Gap: Vouchers and Urban Schools
Authors: William G. Howell, Paul E. Peterson
Affiliation: National Center on School Choice
Publication Date: 2006
Description: The voucher debate has been both intense and ideologically polarizing, in good part because so little is known about how voucher programs operate in practice. In The Education Gap, William Howell and Paul Peterson report new findings drawn from the most comprehensive study on vouchers conducted to date.
Title: Special Edition on Contemporary School Choice Research
Authors: Kenneth K. Wong, Herbert J. Walberg
Affiliation: National Center on School Choice
Publication Date: 2006
Description: This special edition of the Peabody Journal of Education features the most recent scholarly research on the provision of school choice in the United States. In coordination with the National Center on School Choice, Guest Editors Kenneth K. Wong and Herbert J. Walberg assembled a multidisciplinary team of social scientists, education scholars, and practitioners to share their empirical conclusions and critical perspectives on the condition of school choice in policy and practice.
Title: ABCs of School Choice, 2005-2006 Edition
Authors: The Milton and Rose D. Freidman Foundation
Affiliation: The Milton and Rose D. Freidman Foundation
Publication Date: 2005-2006
Description: The Friedman Foundation's highly useful book outlining the basics of school choice: what choice options exist, where are they being used, and more.
Title: School Choice: A Reform That Works
Authors: Robert C. Enlow, Matt Ladner, Ph.D
Affiliation: American Legislative Exchange Council
Publication Date: January 2005
Description:
Seven scientifically valid random-assignment analyses have been conducted on school vouchers. All seven studies find that vouchers work.
Title: Competition Passes the TestAuthors: Jay P. Greene and Marcus A. Winters
Affiliation: Manhattan Institute
Publication: Education Next
Publication Date: Summer 2004
Description: This study finds that failing public schools in Florida facing the threat of vouchers produced significantly greater year-to-year test score gains than other Florida public schools. Schools whose students were already being offered vouchers made even greater gains – they outscored other Florida schools by 15 points.
Title: Closing the Gap
Authors: Rajashri Chakrabarti
Affiliation: Cornell University
Publication: Education Next
Publication Date: Summer 2004
Description:This study finds that Florida's public school accountability program did not spur low-performing schools to improve until it introduced the threat of competition from vouchers; after the voucher threat was introduced, low-performing public schools began making considerable academic gains relative to other Florida public schools.
Title: Rising TideAuthors: Caroline Hoxby
Affiliation: Harvard University
Publication: Education Next
Publication Date: Winter 2001
Description: This study finds that Milwaukee public schools subject to competition from vouchers made greater academic gains than similar public schools not facing competition and schools exposed to a greater level of school choice made greater gains than schools less exposed to school choice. Schools where a high level of students were eligible for school choice made annual gains greater than those of the control group by 3 percentile points per year in math, 5 points per year in science, 3 points per year in language, and 3 points per year in social studies. These are annual gains accumulated over time.
Title: Rising to the Challenge: The Effect of School Choice on Public Schools in Milwaukee and San AntonioAuthors: Jay P. Greene and Greg Forster
Affiliation: Manhattan Institute
Publication: Manhattan Institute
Publication Date: October 2002
Description: This study finds that public schools in Milwaukee and San Antonio improved when faced with competition from school choice programs. In Milwaukee, year-to-year changes in 4th grade test scores were much higher in schools where more students were eligible for vouchers, such that a school with 100 percent student eligibility could be expected to improve 15 points more in four years than a similar school with only 50 percent student eligibility.
Title: The Efficacy of Choice Threats within School Accountability Systems: Results from Legislatively Induced Experiements
Authors: Martin R. West and Paul E. Peterson
Affiliation: Harvard University
Publication: Royal Economic Society Annual Meeting
Publication Date: March 23, 2005
Description: This study finds that failing public schools in Florida facing the threat of vouchers produced significantly greater year-to-year test gains than other Florida public schools.
Title: School Choice in Milwaukee: A Randomized ExperimentAuthors: Jay P. Greene, Paul E. Peterson and Jiangtao Du
Affiliation: Harvard University and University of Texas at Austin
Publication: Brookings Institution
Publication Date: 1998
Description:
This random-assignment study compares Milwaukee students who used a voucher to attend private schools with comparable students in public schools who did not receive a voucher because they lost a random lottery. After four years in the program, the voucher students produced reading test score’s 6 percentiles points higher than the control group and math scores 11 percentiles points higher. The study also finds big gains in parental satisfaction from vouchers.
Title: Vouchers in CharlotteAuthors: Jay P. Greene
Affiliation: Manhattan Institute
Publication: Education Next
Publication Date: Summer 2001
Description: This random-assignment study compares Charlotte students who used a privately funded voucher to attend private schools with comparable students in public schools who did not receive a voucher because they lost a random lottery. After one year in the program, the voucher students produced combined reading and math test scores six percentile points higher than the control group.
Title: A Case Study of School Choice: Vouchers in New York CityAuthors: John Barnard, Constantine E. Frangakis, Jennifer L. Hill and Donald B. Rubin
Affiliation: Harvard University, Columbia University Johns Hopkins and deCODE Genetics
Publication: Journal of the American Statistical Association
Publication Date: June 2003
Description: This random-assignment study compares New York City students who used privately funded vouchers to attend private schools with comparable students in public schools who did not receive a voucher because they were not chosen in a random lottery. After one year in the program, the voucher students produced math test scores 5 percentile points higher than the control group.
Seven scientifically valid analyses have been conducted on racial segreation in voucher program. All seven find that private schools are less segregated than public schools.
Title: Segregation Levels in Milwaukee Public Schools and Milwaukee Voucher ProgramAuthors: Greg Forster
Affiliation: Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation
Publication: Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation
Publication Date: August 2006
Description:
This study compares segregation levels in Milwaukee public schools to that of private schools participating in Milwaukee voucher program. Using a segregation index that measures the difference between the percent of students in a school who are white and the percentage of school-age children in the greater metro area who are White, it finds that segregation is 13 points higher in Milwaukee public schools than in voucher-participating private schools.
Title: An Evaluation of the Effects of D.C's Voucher Program on Public School Achievement and Racial Integration After One Year Authors: Jay P. Greene and Marcus A. Winters
Affiliation: University of Arkansas, Manhattan Institute
Publication: Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation
Publication Date: January 2006
Description:
The study finds that private schools participating in the D.C. voucher program are less segregated than D.C. public schools. In public schools, the percentage of students who are White differs from the White population of the DC Metro Area by an average of 40 points. In contrast, there is only a 34 point difference between private schools participating in the voucher program and the general population. This report also finds that 85 percent of public school students attend racially homogeneous schools (more than 90 percent white or 90 percent minority), compared to 47 percent of students in participating private schools.
Title: An Evaluation of the Horizon Scholarship Program in the Edgewood Independent School District, San Antonio, Texas: The First Year Authors: Paul E. Peterson, David Myers, and William G. Howell
Affiliation: Mathematica Policy Research and the Program on Education Policy and Governance Harvard University
Publication: Harvard University
Publication Date: September 1999
Description:
In the past decade, much more has become known about the impacts of school vouchers on low-income families and their children. Ten years ago, the only available information came from an experimental public-school choice program attempted in Alum Rock, California during the 1960s. However, beginning in 1990, data were collected on voucher programs in many cities, including Milwaukee, Cleveland, Indianapolis, San Antonio, New York City, Washington, and Dayton, Ohio. Initially, many of these studies were limited by the quality of the data or the research procedures employed. This report provides an evaluation of the school choice program in San Antonio.
