The United States has slid into educational mediocrity when compared to international peers which threatens Americans' ability to adapt in an evolving economy, be productive and content at work, put down deep roots in their communities, and help their nation continue to lead on the world stage. That decline has especially harsh consequences for…

Public school choice has become a common feature in American school districts. Any potential benefits that could be derived from these policies depend heavily on the ability of parents and students to make informed and educated decisions about their school options. We examined the readability and complexity of school-choice guides across a sample…

Since 1990, the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) has enabled low and middle-income parents to attend private Milwaukee schools at state expense. In 2010, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction released, for the first time, results of newly required state standardized tests for students using the MPCP. This article uses an original…

Milwaukee's Parental Choice Program (MPCP) includes 110 schools today, having experienced both exits and entrants from its roster of 111 schools in the past decade. According to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI), fall 2013 voucher enrollment was 25,820 students, about double the 13,268 enrolled in 2003-2004. Thus, while the…

For the first time since its 1998 expansion to include religious schools, enrollment in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) did not grow in the 2010-2011 school year. Currently, 20,996 private school students receive taxpayer-funded tuition vouchers (of $6,442 per pupil), a decrease of 66 students over last year. Chart 1 shows program…

Special education and parental school choice are two of the most controversial issues in K-12 education in the United States. In certain places, especially Milwaukee, Wisconsin, those two sensitive education concerns intersect in ways that prompt regular interest on the part of policy makers, advocates, the media, and the public at large. In this…

The School Choice Demonstration Project has published a series of reports written in the fifth and final year of its evaluation of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP). This review is of "Report #29," a five-year longitudinal growth study, which found that a sample of elementary and middle school MPCP students outperformed a…

This brochure provides charted reference information for Milwaukee Voucher Schools for the 2009-2010 school year. Schools are grouped by grade level. The following is included: Name, Address, Telephone, Grades; Religion/Denomination; Enrollment; Choice Student Enrollment; Number of Teachers; School Hours; Before/After School Programs;…

Between the 2008-09 and 2009-10 school years, fewer new schools joined the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) than ever before. In addition, 14 MPCP schools closed and another three schools merged--the most year-over-year closures the program has seen. In this 12th edition of the Public Policy Forum's annual census of MPCP schools, the…

The study examined whether students who use a voucher to attend private school have greater mathematics and reading achievement than students who attend public schools. The study analyzed data on more than 2,200 elementary and middle school students from public and private schools in Milwaukee. Academic achievement was measured using the Wisconsin…

Background/Context: The lack of court-ordered support for race-based policies that maintain and create integrated schools has forced communities of color to seek other avenues to obtain equitable education, such as school choice. Individual states and the federal government, as seen in grant provisions through the American Reinvestment and…

This is the final report in a five-year evaluation of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP). This report features analyses of student achievement growth four years after the authors carefully assembled longitudinal study panels of MPCP and Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) students in 2006-07. The MPCP, which began in 1990, provides…

This paper presents an updated WWC (What Works Clearinghouse) Quick Review of the Report "The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program Longitudinal Educational Growth Study Third Year Report". The study examined whether students in Milwaukee who use a voucher to attend private school have greater mathematics and reading achievement than…

The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) is the nation's oldest and largest urban school choice program, offering private-school scholarships to low-income students in the city of Milwaukee since 1990. In the early years of the program, voucher schools were not required to test their students, though many of them did so using nationally normed…

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…