School voucher programs are scholarship initiatives -- frequently government funded or incentivized -- that pay for students to attend private schools of their choice. This study is the first formal meta-analytic consolidation of the evidence from all randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating the student-level math and reading test score…

Virtual charter schools provide full-time, tuition-free K-12 education through internet-based instruction. Although virtual schools offer a personalized learning experience, most research suggests these schools are negatively associated with achievement. Few studies account for differential rates of student mobility, which may produce biased…

In 2015-16, the United States spent over $660 billion on its public education system in hopes of providing children with greater opportunities to excel academically and to improve their life trajectories. While public education dollars have risen at a relatively fast pace historically, future challenges, including underfunded pension liabilities,…

The objective of this meta-analysis is to rigorously assess the participant effects of private school vouchers, or in other words, to estimate the average academic impacts that the offer (or use) of a voucher has on a student. This review adds to the literature by being the first to systematically review all Randomized Control Trials (RCTs) in an…

This is the first national study of the productivity of public charter schools relative to district schools. This report is a follow up to the charter school revenue study, "Charter School Funding: Inequity Expands" (see ED581409) in April 2014 by the School Choice Demonstration Project at the University of Arkansas. While the revenue…

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…

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…

The general purpose of this five-year evaluation is to assess the effectiveness of Milwaukee's independent charter schools in promoting student achievement growth. Independent charter schools are authorized by nonschool-district entities and are considered "independent" because they are not a part of the Milwaukee Public School District…

The general purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness of Milwaukee's independent charter schools in promoting student achievement growth. Independent charter schools are authorized by non-school district entities and are considered "independent" because they are not a part of the Milwaukee Public School District (MPS).…

This report is the fourth in a series of annual reports produced by the School Choice Demonstration Project (SCDP) that provides descriptive information about the schools participating in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP). A total of 115 schools participated in the MPCP for the entire 2009-10 academic year, with 20,899 students enrolled…

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…

The purpose of this report is to provide descriptive data regarding the test scores of Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) students in grades 4, 8 and 10 in reading, math and science, as reported to the School Choice Demonstration Project 2009-2010. The tables, graphs, and histograms presented in this report provide a snapshot of these…

The general purpose of this evaluation is to assess the effectiveness of independent charter schools in promoting two desirable student outcomes: student achievement growth and educational attainment. Independent charter schools are authorized by non-district entities and are considered "independent" because they are not a part of the…

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…

This report contains a summary of the findings from the various topical reports that comprise the author's comprehensive longitudinal study. As a summary, it does not include extensive details regarding the study samples and scientific methodologies employed in those topical studies. The research revealed a pattern of school choice results that…