Vouchers do not Improve Student Achievement

The truth behind vouchers:

The true measure of any education reform " including vouchers "is whether it improves student achievement. Research now indicates vouchers fail to improve student achievement. Here is a summary:

African American students in New York

  • In August 2000, Paul E. Peterson of Harvard University released findings claiming private vouchers had improved achievement for African-American students in New York.
  • Voucher supporters cited them as proof that vouchers are the answer for minority children.
  • In September 2000, the company that gathered research for the study - Mathematica Policy Research of Princeton, NJ - took the unusual step of revising Peterson's claims, saying his findings were "exaggerated" and that they showed "no significant difference in test scores" between voucher students and the control group.
  • In April 2003, noted Princeton economist Dr. Alan B. Krueger released a new analysis of Peterson's data. Krueger concluded Peterson?s findings were inconclusive at best. "We would counsel caution in concluding that vouchers raised achievement for African-American students in New York City," he wrote.
  • Peterson has been at the center of controversy for years. He receives funding from the right-wing, Bradley Foundation of Milwaukee, which supports voucher activity in New Jersey.

The Milwaukee voucher program

  • Starting in 1990, Dr. John Witte of the University of Wisconsin was hired by the state to do annual evaluations of the Milwaukee voucher program. When Witte found no significant difference in achievement between voucher and non-voucher students, the Wisconsin Legislature discontinued funding for future studies.
  • In 1995, the Legislature eliminated funding for collecting student achievement data in voucher schools, so there is no longer a basis for comparing them to public schools.
  • The official state study of the Milwaukee voucher program in 1996 found no appreciable gains by voucher students in reading and math. Peterson re-analyzed the data, and he miraculously found "statistically significant" gains for voucher students.
  • His findings were immediately disputed by the research community, since he ignored key factors like the Milwaukee program's high attrition rate. Even the ardently pro-voucher Wall Street Journal wrote that Peterson was "loose with his claims" in an Oct. 11, 1996 article.

The Cleveland voucher program

  • The most recent official state study of the Cleveland voucher program - released in March 2003 by Dr. Kim Metcalf of Indiana University found "no consistent, significant differences in achievement between scholarship [voucher] and public school students by the end of third grade."
  • Dr. Metcalf's findings spanned reading, language arts, math, social studies, and science.

NJEA Voucher Task Force, August 2003