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This report surveys the empirical research on school choice. It provides a thorough overview of what the research has found on five key topics: (1) Academic outcomes of choice participants; (2) Academic outcomes of public schools; (3) Fiscal impact on taxpayers; (4) Racial segregation in schools; and (5) Civic values and practices. The evidence points clearly in one direction. Opponents frequently claim school choice does not benefit participants, hurts public schools, costs taxpayers, facilitates segregation, and even undermines democracy. However, the empirical evidence consistently shows that choice improves academic outcomes for participants and public schools, saves taxpayer money, moves students into more integrated classrooms, and strengthens the shared civic values and practices essential to American democracy. These results are not difficult to explain. School choice improves academic outcomes by allowing students to find the schools that best match their needs, and by introducing healthy competition that keeps schools mission-focused. It saves money by eliminating administrative bloat and rewarding good stewardship of resources. It breaks down the barriers of residential segregation, drawing students together from diverse communities. And it strengthens democracy by accommodating diversity, de-politicizing the curriculum, and allowing schools the freedom to sustain the strong institutional cultures that are necessary to cultivate democratic virtues such as honesty, diligence, achievement, responsibility, service to others, civic participation, and respect for the rights of others. The size of the benefit provided by existing school choice programs is sometimes large, but is usually more modest. This is not surprising because the programs themselves are modest--curtailed by strict limits on the students they can serve, the resources they provide, and the freedom to innovate. Only a universal school choice program, accessible to all students, can deliver the kind of dramatic improvement American schools desperately need in all five of these important areas. (Contains 5 tables and 56 notes.)

This study uses descriptive data from the U.S. Department of Education to examine the composition of the private school sector in localities with sizeable school choice programs. If existing school choice programs are attracting educational entrepreneurs and unlocking the potential of new school models, the authors should expect to see significant changes in the sector's composition. While the available data do not allow the authors to examine every aspect of schooling, the founding of new school models ought to produce visible changes in school types, school sizes, and other visible metrics. However, the data examined here provide little evidence that existing school choice programs are transforming the structure of private schools. In its current form, school choice does not appear to be having an impact that is sufficiently large enough to produce visible transformation of the private school sector. Existing choice programs transfer students from marginally less effective public schools to marginally more effective private schools, but they do not seem to drive more ambitious school reforms. It appears that universal choice programs are needed before an alliance between school choice and the greenfield school revolution can emerge. (Contains 9 figures, 9 tables, and 23 notes.)

This report collects the results of all available empirical studies using the best available scientific methods to measure how school vouchers affect academic outcomes for participants, and all available studies on how vouchers affect outcomes in public schools. Contrary to the widespread claim that vouchers do not benefit participants and hurt public schools, the empirical evidence consistently shows that vouchers improve outcomes for both participants and public schools. In addition to helping the participants by giving them more options, there are a variety of explanations for why vouchers might improve public schools as well. The most important is that competition from vouchers introduces healthy incentives for public schools to improve. Key findings include: (1) Ten empirical studies have used random assignment, the gold standard of social science, to examine how vouchers affect participants. Nine studies find that vouchers improve student outcomes, six that all students benefit and three that some benefit and some are not affected. One study finds no visible impact. None of these studies finds a negative impact; (2) Nineteen empirical studies have examined how vouchers affect outcomes in public schools. Of these studies, 18 find that vouchers improved public schools and one finds no visible impact. No empirical studies find that vouchers harm public schools; (3) Every empirical study ever conducted in Milwaukee, Florida, Ohio, Texas, Maine and Vermont finds that voucher programs in those places improved public schools; (4) Only one study, conducted in Washington D.C., found no visible impact from vouchers. This is not surprising, since the D.C. voucher program is the only one designed to shield public schools from the impact of competition. Thus, the D.C. study does not detract from the research consensus in favor of a positive effect from voucher competition; and (5) The benefits provided by existing voucher programs are sometimes large, but are usually more modest in size. This is not surprising since the programs themselves are modest--curtailed by strict limits on the students they can serve, the resources they provide, and the freedom to innovate. Only a universal voucher program could deliver the kind of dramatic improvement our public schools so desperately need. (Contains 4 tables and 48 notes.) [This is an updated version of the original paper, "A Win-Win Solution: The Empirical Evidence on How Vouchers Affect Public Schools. School Choice Issues in Depth", published in February 2009. To access this report, see ED508324.

This report collects the results of all available empirical studies on how vouchers affect academic achievement in public schools. Contrary to the widespread claim that vouchers hurt public schools, it finds that the empirical evidence consistently supports the conclusion that vouchers improve public schools. No empirical study has ever found that vouchers had a negative impact on public schools. There are a variety of explanations for why vouchers might improve public schools, the most important being that competition from vouchers introduces healthy incentives for public schools to improve. The report also considers several alternative explanations, besides the vouchers themselves, that might explain why public schools improve where vouchers are offered to their students. It concludes that none of these alternatives is consistent with the available evidence. Where these claims have been directly tested, the evidence has not supported them. The only consistent explanation that accounts for all the data is that vouchers improve public schools. (Contains 25 endnotes.)

This is the first empirical study to examine the effects of Ohio's EdChoice voucher program. Using publicly available data, it measures the program's effect on academic outcomes in public schools where students are eligible for vouchers. The EdChoice program offers vouchers to students who are assigned to chronically underperforming public schools. Students can use these vouchers to attend private schools of their choice. One of the purposes of voucher programs such as EdChoice is to improve academic outcomes at public schools by allowing students to ind the schools that are best suited to them and by introducing competitive incentives. However, opponents often claim that voucher programs harm public schools. This study finds that the EdChoice program produced academic improvements in voucher-eligible public schools. It tracks the year-to-year change in test scores within each school from one grade level to the next grade level (e.g. the difference between third-grade scores in 2005-06 and fourth-grade scores in 2006-07). It uses regression analysis to compare the academic growth of voucher-eligible schools with that of other Ohio schools, controlling for demographic variables and for the presence of charter schools. The analyses were then repeated using only schools in districts designated by the state as "major urban--very high poverty"; this second round of analysis compares voucher-eligible schools in very poor urban districts to other schools in very poor urban districts, helping reduce the possibility that results may be tainted by a statistical phenomenon known as "regression to the mean." Due to the restrictions of available data, the study is unable to include high schools. (Contains 3 tables and 13 endnotes.) [This study was released jointly by the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, Agudath Israel of America, Alliance for School Choice, Black Alliance for Educational Options, Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions, Children's Scholarship Fund Cincinnati, Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options, Northwest Ohio Scholarship Fund, Inc., School Choice Ohio, and Thomas B. Fordham Institute.]

The impact of Florida's "A+" accountability program, which until 2006 included a voucher program for chronically failing schools, on public school performance has been extensively studied. The results have consistently shown a positive effect on academic outcomes in Florida public schools. However, no empirical research has been done on the impact of the program after 2002-03, the first year in which a substantial number of students were eligible for vouchers. This narrow focus has left the public with an incomplete picture of the true role of vouchers in producing the public school improvements associated with the A+ program. This empirical study is the first to analyze the effects of vouchers in the A+ program after 2002-03. It includes a separate analysis for each year from 2001-02 to 2006-07. Thus, it is the first study to analyze how the program's effects were changed by the court-ordered removal of vouchers in January 2006. Moreover, it uses superior-quality data that track the progress of individual students over time, which have not been available to the general public until recently. The study finds that vouchers were a key element driving improvements in public schools from the A+ program. At every step, the academic performance of failing public schools in Florida responded to changes in the status of vouchers in the A+ program. While Florida is still experiencing improvements in student performance, the removal of vouchers from the program reduced the magnitude of these improvements. (Contains 3 figures, 1 table, and 13 endnotes.) [This study was released by the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, the Foundation for Excellence in Education and The James Madison Institute.]

This study presents new findings comparing public and private high schools using top-quality data from the Education Longitudinal Study (ELS), a long-term research project sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. The ELS project tracks individual data on thousands of students, allowing researchers to conduct much better analyses than are possible with school-level data. This study also reviews the large body of previous empirical research on private schools and school choice programs. The ELS data show that students in private schools made better academic gains than students in public schools, even after controlling for race, income, parental education and family composition. (Contains 10 tables and 28 endnotes.)

This report collects the results of all available studies using valid empirical methods to compare segregation in public and private schools, both in general and in the context of school voucher programs. Examining the widespread claims that private schools have high segregation levels and vouchers will lead to greater segregation, this report finds that both assertions are empirically unsupportable. The existing empirical research indicates that segregation levels in private schools are not substantially different from those in public schools when examined at the school level; that private schools are actually less segregated than public schools when examined at the classroom level; and that private schools participating in voucher programs in Milwaukee, Cleveland and Washington D.C. are much less segregated than public schools. While these findings are descriptive rather than causal, they are sufficient to show that the claims made by opponents of voucher programs are without any empirical foundation. (Contains 23 endnotes.)

Examining the widespread claims that private schools have high segregation levels and vouchers will lead to greater segregation, this study finds that both assertions are empirically unsupportable. Private schools participating in Cleveland's voucher program are much less segregated than Cleveland's public schools. This means that students using the voucher program are gaining access to a more integrated school experience. The study also examines segregation levels nationwide and finds no substantial difference between public and private schools. While these findings are descriptive rather than causal, they are sufficient to show that the claims made by opponents of voucher programs are without any empirical foundation. Private schools participating in Cleveland's voucher program were 18 points less segregated than Cleveland public schools on the segregation index, which compares the racial composition of schools to the racial composition of school-age children in the greater metropolitan area. In the nation's 100 largest metro areas, the difference between segregation levels in public and private schools is trivial--less than two points on the segregation index. (Contains 2 tables and 30 endnotes.) [This study was released jointly by the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation and The Buckeye Institute.]

This study compares segregation levels in Milwaukee public schools and in private schools participating in the Milwaukee voucher program. Using a segregation index that measures the difference between the percent of students in a school who are white and the percentage of school-age children in the greater metro area who are white, it finds that segregation is 13 points higher in Milwaukee public schools than in voucher-participating private schools. To put this finding in perspective, in a city whose school-age population was 50 percent white, a school that was 60 percent white and a school that was 73 percent white would differ by 13 points on the segregation index. (Contains 2 tables and 30 endnotes.)

Charter schools--public schools that are exempt from many of the procedural regulations that apply to regular public schools--are a widespread but poorly-studied form of education reform. With nearly 2,700 charter schools now educating more than 684,000 children nationwide, policymakers and parents need to know how the education charter schools provide compares to that provided by regular public schools. Assessing the academic performance of charter schools is difficult, because many charter schools are targeted toward specific populations such as at-risk students, disabled students, and juvenile delinquents. This makes it very challenging for researchers to draw a fair comparison--comparing targeted charter schools to regular public schools is like comparing apples and zebras. As a result, there are very few reliable research findings on the academic quality of charter schools as compared to regular public schools. This is the first national empirical study of charter schools that compares apples to apples--that is, test scores at charter schools and regular public schools serving similar student populations. By comparing "untargeted" charter schools serving the general population to their closest neighboring regular public schools, we can draw a fair comparison and get an accurate picture of how well charter schools are performing. Measuring test score improvements in eleven states over a one-year period, this study finds that charter schools serving the general student population outperformed nearby regular public schools on math tests by 0.08 standard deviations, equivalent to a benefit of 3 percentile points for a student starting at the 50th percentile. These charter schools also outperformed nearby regular public schools on reading tests by 0.04 standard deviations, equal to a benefit of 2 percentile points for a student starting at the 50th percentile. The study's strongest results came in Florida and Texas. In Texas, charter schools achieved year-to-year math score improvements 0.18 standard deviations higher than those of comparable regular public schools, and reading score improvements 0.19 standard deviations higher. These benefits are equivalent to 7 and 8 percentile points, respectively, from the 50th percentile. Florida charter schools achieved year-to-year math and reading score improvements that were each 0.15 standard deviations greater than those of nearby regular public schools, equivalent to a gain of 6 percentile points for a student starting at the 50th percentile. (Contains 2 tables and 6 endnotes.)

Students who fail to graduate high school prepared to attend a four-year college are much less likely to gain full access to our country's economic, political, and social opportunities. In this study, the authors estimate the percentage of students in the public high school class of 2001 who actually possess the minimum qualifications for applying to four-year colleges. Estimates are broken down by racial and ethnic group, as well as by region and state. To be "college ready," students must pass three crucial hurdles: they must graduate from high school, they must have taken certain courses in high school that colleges require for the acquisition of necessary skills, and they must demonstrate basic literacy skills. Nationally, only 32% of students in the Class of 2001 were found to be college ready, with significantly lower rates for black and Hispanic students. This suggests that the main reason these groups are underrepresented in college admissions is that they are not acquiring college-ready skills in the K-12 system, rather than inadequate financial aid or affirmative action policies. Reform of the K-12 education system is essential to improving college access for these groups. The following tables are appended: (1) High School Graduation Rate by State and Race; (2) Ranking of States by High School Graduation Rate; (3) Ranking of States by White High School Graduation Rate; (4) Ranking of States by Black High School Graduation Rate; (5) Ranking of States by Hispanic High School Graduation Rate; (6) Ranking of States by Asian High School Graduation Rate; (7) Ranking of States by American Indian High School Graduation Rate; (8) Proportion of All Students Who Graduate with College-Ready Transcripts; (9) College Readiness Rate; and (10) Comparison of Overall, College-Ready, and College-Entering Populations in 2000. (Contains 10 tables and 12 endnotes.)

Despite the fact that charter schools serve over 684,000 children nationwide, they remain a poorly studied form of education reform. This is primarily because many charter schools serve targeted populations such as at-risk, disabled, or delinquent students, which makes it very difficult for researchers to draw a fair comparison between charter schools and regular public schools. This study is the first national study to compare "apples to apples," i.e. charter schools and public schools serving similar general student populations. The study's analysis finds that nationally over a one-year period these charter schools outperformed nearby public schools on math tests by the equivalent of 3 percentile points for a student starting at the 50th percentile. They also found that charter schools outperformed nearby public schools on reading tests by the equivalent of 2 percentile points from the 50th percentile. (Contains 2 tables and 6 endnotes.)

This paper reports on an evaluation of Florida's McKay Scholarship Program for Students with Disabilities, which makes a school voucher available to any special education student. The program currently serves 9,202 students out of 375,000 eligible special education students. Based on two telephone surveys (one of parents currently using a McKay voucher and the other of parents who previously used a voucher but no longer do) the study found that parents in both groups are much more satisfied with their experiences in private McKay schools than in the public schools. Highlights include: 92.7% of current McKay participants are very satisfied with their schools; participants saw class size drop from an average of 25 students to 13 students per class; participating students were victimized far less by other students because of their disabilities; more than 70% of parents report paying either nothing or less than $1,000 per year above the voucher; and 90% of parents who have left the program believe the program should continue. The report details the study's method and reports results concerning parental satisfaction, class size, services provided, Individual Education Plans, behavior problems, problems with other students, tuition and fees above the scholarship, demographics, difficulty finding an acceptable school, transportation, and whether the McKay Program should continue. Detailed results and the survey questionnaire are appended. (Contains 20 references.) (DB)

Many states have implemented high-stakes testing since the enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Yet the question remains whether high-stakes tests effectively measure student proficiency. This report describes a study that compared results on high-stakes tests with results on other standardized tests not used for accountability purposes and thus considered low-stakes tests. Data for the comparisons were gathered from test scores from 5,587 schools in 9 school systems in 8 states. Scores were compared on each test given in the same subject in the same school year. When possible, the results of high-stakes and low-stakes tests given at the same grade levels were also compared. For all the school systems examined in the study, high correlations between score levels on high-stakes and low-stakes tests were found. Also found were some high correlations for year-to-year gains in scores on high-stakes and low-stakes tests. But the correlations of score gains were not as consistently high, and in some places were quite low. The report concludes that stakes of the tests do not distort information about the general level at which students are performing. (Contains 10 tables and 23 references.) (WFA)

This study examined the effects on special education enrollment of state funding systems and high stakes testing. The study evaluated special and general education enrollment for each of the school years 1991-92 through 2000-01. Data were also collected on high stakes testing in each state and on funding systems, including the common bounty system under which schools receive state funding based on the size of their special education funding, thus rewarding schools for placing students in special education unnecessarily. The study found that state funding systems have a dramatic effect on special education enrollment rate. It estimates that, in states with the traditional bounty system, over the last decade the rate of special education enrollment grew 1.24 percentage points more than it would have if these states had lump-sum funding systems. The traditional bounty system accounts for 62% of these states total increase in special education funding and approximately 390,000 extra students placed in special education. In contrast, high stakes testing appeared to have no significant effect on special education enrollment. Suggestions for addressing this problem include federal funding of private school scholarships for students with disabilities, portability of federal funding by parents of such students, and giving higher financial priority to disabilities with objective diagnostic standards. (Contains 19 references.) (DB)

A considerable body of research exists on whether students who attend private school with a voucher benefit academically. Whether public schools improve in response to the challenge of voucher programs, however, has been less thoroughly studied. This study provides new evidence on how public schools fare when faced with the challenge of school choice. School districts in Edgewood, Texas, and in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that have school voucher programs were selected to investigate the effects of school choice on traditional public schools in those same districts. Student test scores in public schools exposed to competition by nearby charter and private schools were compared against control-group public schools to reduce demographic and economic influences on the data. Results show that public schools near charter and private schools respond to competition by improving educational services. In Texas, the Edgewood School District did as well as or better than 85 percent of the Texas school districts. In Milwaukee, significant improvements were found in public-school test scores because of competition from charter and private schools. Further study is needed to bolster research on how school choice affects the quality of educational services provided by public schools. (Contains 11 references.) (RT)