ERIC Number: ED530438
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2008-Sep-8
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Review of "Promising Start: An Empirical Analysis of How EdChoice Vouchers Affect Ohio Public Schools"
Lubienski, Christopher
Education and the Public Interest Center
A Friedman Foundation report attempts to find empirical support for the contention that competition from private schools, through voucher programs, improves the effectiveness of public schools. In the first year of Ohio's new EdChoice voucher program, the report claims to have found substantial academic gains at public schools exposed to the possibility of losing students to vouchers. Despite being presented as scientifically rigorous, the report suffers from serious methodological shortcomings. The analysis uses weak variables and an incorrect approach to measuring academic gains and tries to make claims based on cherry-picking uneven results. Moreover, even accepting the study's analysis, it produces a finding very much at odds with the author's intent: that vouchers are not likely to close the achievement gap between high- and low-performing schools. (Contains 39 notes.) [This paper reviews the following document: "Promising Start: An Empirical Analysis of How EdChoice Vouchers Affect Ohio Public Schools. School Choice Issues in the State" (ED508477).]
Descriptors: Achievement Gap, Public Schools, Private Schools, School Choice, Educational Vouchers, Achievement Gains, Predictor Variables, Educational Finance, State Programs, Elementary Schools, Charter Schools, Minority Group Students, Academic Achievement, Educational Policy, Program Evaluation, Program Effectiveness, Outcome Measures, Policy Analysis, Competition, Commercialization, Outcomes of Education, Research Problems, Statistical Bias, Statistical Analysis, Evaluation Problems
Education and the Public Interest Center. School of Education, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309. Tel: 303-447-EPIC; Fax: 303-492-7090; e-mail: epic@colorado.edu; Web site: http://www.colorado.edu/education/centersoutreach/epic.html
Publication Type: Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Elementary Education; Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice
Authoring Institution: University of Colorado at Boulder, Education and the Public Interest Center; Arizona State University, Education Policy Research Unit
Identifiers - Location: Ohio; Wisconsin
Identifiers - Laws, Policies, & Programs: No Child Left Behind Act 2001
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A