Milwaukee School Choice: Study Shows Positive Effects

UPDATE, March 30, 2011: Voucher testing data takes a new twist: Voucher, MPS kids on par, study finds

A day after the release of state test scores showed voucher-school students in Milwaukee achieving lower levels of reading and math proficiency than students in Milwaukee Public Schools, new data from researchers studying the voucher program's results over multiple years shows those students are doing about the same as MPS students, not worse.

The contradictory report is part of the latest installment of data from a group of researchers at the University of Arkansas who have been tracking a sample of Milwaukee voucher students matched to a set of MPS peers since 2005-'06.

After looking at achievement results on state tests over three years for those matched samples of students, the researchers' data continues to show little difference in academic achievement between both sectors in 2009.

...Patrick J. Wolf, the lead researcher on the latest voucher-school study results, said the type of studies he's involved in don't always produce clear answers because they can be like Rorschach tests: People see different arguments in the same basic set of facts

"If voucher school students aren't doing dramatically better than public school students, some people view the program as a failure," Wolf said. "But some people can look at the same results and say that's success, you've expanded choice and opportunity and there's no harm caused by it.

"Then you look at finances, and the fact that vouchers cost less than half the amount of money spent per student in public schools (in Milwaukee)."

Summary of findings

According to the fourth-year results of the five-year voucher school evaluation, Wolf and other researchers found:

• No meaningful differences over three years in student achievement growth in either math or reading between a matched set of voucher and MPS students. The first year was used as a baseline for student test scores.

• A sample of ninth-graders in the voucher program had slightly higher rates of graduation and enrollment in a four-year college than at matched sample of MPS ninth-graders. Some of the attainment benefit in voucher schools appears to be due to family background, such as mothers with higher levels of education.

• Independent charter schools in Milwaukee - public schools that are nonunion and authorized to operate by non-MPS entities - outperformed MPS students in both reading and math after three years, after controlling for baseline achievement and other student characteristics.

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Read "A Win-Win Solution, The Empirical Evidence on School Vouchers."

From the MacIver Institute:

A recently updated study examined every piece of empirical research conducted on the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program – and found nothing but positive results for the city’s schools and students. These improvements weren’t just tied to students in the MPCP alone, either.

The study, conducted by Dr. Greg Forster, a Senior Fellow with the Foundation for Educational Choice, examined empirical research on school voucher programs across the country, ranging from Maine and Vermont’s Town Tuitioning programs to Florida’s since-overturned A+ voucher system. It uncovered 22 empirical studies and found that 21 of the 22 pieces of research found positive effects in public schools that were exposed to school choice programs. The 22nd study, which focused on Washington D.C.’s Opportunity Scholarship Program, found no visible effect on the district’s public schools from the existence of choice.

According to Forster, six empirical studies have been conducted to examine the effects that the MPCP has had on public schools in Milwaukee. All six studies, which include work from Harvard University, Stanford University, the Federal Reserve Bank, and other organizations, found a positive result from the voucher program. Their common thread was a modest, but significant, improvement in the city’s public schools due to the exposure to the voucher program.

...A trend between all six studies emerged – the more eligible students for vouchers in a neighborhood school’s local area, the more likely these public schools were to post educational gains compared to other public institutions.

These studies suggest that greater exposure to competition via vouchers spurs improvement in public schools in Milwaukee. Classrooms that are faced with more children potentially leaving for different schools have showcased better educational gains than those in the city with less of a threat of losing students. While these results don’t reflect a panacea for the city’s educational problems, they do reflect modest improvements from a program that is relatively small in scale.

...When held up to the gold standard of research methods, the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program holds weight as a positive influence on student outcomes. Students in and out of the program benefit, especially when neighboring public schools make strides in the face of potentially losing students. The program allows the state’s largest city to improve education – albeit modestly – while providing an array of learning opportunities at a lower cost than traditional public schools.

Of course, the program isn’t perfect, and it isn’t a cure-all. But it does help students, and Forster’s research shows that this effect isn’t limited to just the kids that leave MPS. Despite its flaws, the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program is presenting a win/win situation for students in Brew City.

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More on school choice:

Obama's Empty Education Rhetoric to Hispanics