ERIC Number: EJ861074
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2009
Pages: 9
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1539-9664
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Lost Opportunities
Wolf, Patrick J.
Education Next, v9 n4 p48-56 Fall 2009
School vouchers provide funds to parents to enable them to enroll their children in private schools and, as a result, are one of the most controversial education reforms in the United States. Among the many points of contention is whether voucher programs in fact improve student achievement. Most evaluations of such programs have found at least some positive achievement effects, but not always for all types of participants and not always in both reading and math. This pattern of results has so far failed to generate a scholarly consensus regarding the beneficial effects of school vouchers on student achievement. The policy and academic communities seek more definitive guidance. The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) released the third-year impact evaluation of the Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) in April 2009. The results showed that students who participated in the program performed at significantly higher levels in reading than the students in an experimental control group. In this article, the author presents the study findings and his own interpretation of what they mean.
Descriptors: Academic Achievement, Educational Change, Educational Vouchers, Educational Assessment, Educational Indicators, School Choice, Educational Policy, Policy Analysis, Achievement Gains, Excellence in Education, School Restructuring, Comparative Testing
Hoover Institution. Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-6010. Tel: 800-935-2882; Fax: 650-723-8626; e-mail: educationnext@hoover.stanford.edu; Web site: http://www.hoover.org/publications/ednext
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Opinion Papers; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Adult Education; Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United States
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A