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 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 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…

In this report the authors analyze the movement of students to and from the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) and Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS). They also analyze student mobility between schools within each sector. The analysis rests on two separate sets of data: the administrative records the authors have collected as part of their…

This report focuses on the initial design, implementation and baseline results of the five-year Longitudinal Educational Growth Study (LEGS) of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) being conducted by the School Choice Demonstration Project (SCDP). The LEGS will be the first evaluation of the participant effects of the MPCP using…

This report focuses on the initial design, implementation and baseline results of the five-year Longitudinal Educational Growth Study (LEGS) of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) being conducted by the School Choice Demonstration Project (SCDP). The LEGS will be the first evaluation of the participant effects of the MPCP using…

This report describes the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program and its 4-year outcomes. The program is a targeted private-school subsidy program that provides state aid to member schools in lieu of tuition. Students must come from households with income 1.75 times the poverty line or less, and eligible schools must have no religious affiliations.…

Parents and private schools are generally satisfied with Milwaukee's voucher program. Four results are fairly negative: loss of active parents from public schools; student attrition from private schools; closure of four private schools; and lower achievement-test scores. Also, proponents are using dubious findings to support unwarranted program…