We examine the characteristics of schools preferred by parents in New Orleans, Louisiana, where a "portfolio" of school choices is available. This tests the conditions under which school choice induces healthy competition between public and private schools through the threat of student exit. Using unique data from parent applications to…

In this article, we focus on a statewide system of interdistrict open enrollment in Michigan, known as Schools of Choice. Our previous work indicated that students who take advantage of this program are disproportionately lower performing on state exams, come from lower-income families, and are more likely to be minority students. We estimated…

In this paper we explore the relationship between students' residential location and participation in Milwaukee's large, widely available private school voucher program. We are interested in one overarching question: do voucher schools disproportionately draw students from better public schools and city neighborhoods, or do they draw students most…

In this article I review the use of randomized field trials to evaluate school voucher interventions. I argue that although estimates of the effect of the voucher offer on achievement are unbiased in these trials, more specific interpretations such as the effect of attending private school may be difficult to obtain. I discuss several evaluation…

We examine what factors predict why some parents enroll their children in voucher schools while other parents with similar types of children and from similar neighborhoods do not. Furthermore, we investigate how aware parents are of their educational options, where they get their information, and what school characteristics they deem the most…

This article provides provide a new, systematic profile of more than 18,000 homeless students in Michigan, utilizing rich administrative data from all test-taking students in Grades 3-9 during three academic years. These data are part of a larger study of school choice and student mobility in that state. Homelessness is a condition found…

This article considers the impact of a high-stakes testing and reporting requirement on students using publicly funded vouchers to attend private schools. We describe how such a policy was implemented during the course of a previously authorized multi-year evaluation of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, which provided us with data on voucher…

In recent years, the number of charter schools in Florida has doubled. We examine five years of data on students moving into these schools from the traditional public sector. We consider student attributes and the school and district contexts that they are leaving. The better students are performing relative to their peers, the less likely they…

Few school choice evaluations consider students who leave such programs, and fewer still consider the effects of leaving these programs as policy-relevant outcomes. Using a representative sample of students from the citywide voucher program in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, we analyze more than 1,000 students who leave the program during a 4-year period.…

In this report the authors continue the examination of high school graduation and post-secondary enrollment in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP). They consider students enrolled in the MPCP in either 8th or 9th grade in 2006, and a comparison sample of students enrolled in the Milwaukee Public Schools. They find that, as of September…

In this report the authors examine high school completion and postsecondary enrollment (a.k.a. "educational attainment") of the cohort of 9th grade students who were in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) at the beginning of their state-mandated evaluation of the MPCP in 2006. After tracking the MPCP 9th graders following the…

This is the fourth-year report in a five-year evaluation of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP). This report features analyses of student achievement growth three years after the authors carefully assembled longitudinal study panels of MPCP and Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) students in 2006-07. The general purposes of the evaluation are…

This article contributes to research concerning the determinants of student mobility between public and private schools. The authors analyze a unique set of data collected as part of a new evaluation of Milwaukee's citywide voucher program. The authors find several important patterns. Students who switch from the private to the public sector were…

Charter school reforms are predicated on the existence of motivated groups or individuals that create these public schools of choice. Rhetoric concerning charter schools largely takes for granted the supply side and assumes that market forces will compel educational entrepreneurs to open schools. We argue that the motivations of charter school…

This is the third-year report in a five-year evaluation of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP). The MPCP, which began in 1990, provides government-funded vouchers for low-income children to attend private schools in the City of Milwaukee. The general purposes of the evaluation are to analyze the effectiveness of the MPCP in terms of…