School Choice Scholarships Program

OVERVIEW

The School Choice Scholarships Program provided 1,300 school vouchers to low-income families in grades K-4. Vouchers were $1,400 per year and families could use them for up to four years at a religious or secular private school. Participants in the programs were not required to use the vouchers. Results of an evaluation found no overall impacts on parental involvement in school, drug use, or test scores on an assessment of reading and math. However, some subgroup differences were found, with positive impacts found for African American students.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Target population: Elementary school students in low-income families.

Low-income children were offered school vouchers. Vouchers were $1,400 per year and families were eligible to use them for up to four years. Vouchers could be applied towards the cost of attending a private school (religious or secular).

EVALUATION(S) OF PROGRAM

Mayer, D.P., Peterson, P.E., Myers, D.E., Tuttle, C.C., & Howell, W.G. (2002). School choice in New York City: An evaluation of the School Choice Scholarships Program. Princeton, NJ: Mathematica Policy Research.

Evaluated population: 1,960 children in low-income families attending New York City Public schools. Families were randomly selected to participate in the evaluation from the 20,000 applications to participate in the program.

Approach: The 1,960 children were randomly assigned to an experimental or control group. After random assignment, 1,000 families were assigned to a experimental group who were offered vouchers, and 960 families were assigned to a control group.  Children were given a pre-test (in 1997) of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) in reading and mathematics before random assignment and the following three years at follow-ups (in 1998, 1999, and 2000). Parents were also interviewed at the same time.

Results: The results presented here are based on all children. While not all children who were offered vouchers used them, analyses properly employ an intent-to-treat approach and accordingly all children who were offered vouchers in the experimental group are examined. 78% of the children in the experimental group attended private schools compared with 12% of the children in the control group. With regard to the experimental group, there were no differences between children who used vouchers compared with those which did not on initial scores on the ITBS. However, there were differences on several dimensions including maternal level of education, family income, and race (e.g., African American children were more likely to use the voucher).

With regard to parental involvement, results indicated that parental involvement in the children’s education did not differ between the control and experimental group. Likewise, the groups did not differ on friends’ drug and alcohol use.  

With regard to test performance, experimental and control children did not differ on measures of reading or math. However, when examining only African American and Latino students, differences emerged among the African American sample. African American children who received the voucher offer scored higher on measures of reading and math. Interestingly, similar results emerged when comparing children who used vouchers to the control group.

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

Curriculum materials available for purchase at: Not available

References:

Mayer, D.P., Peterson, P.E., Myers, D.E., Tuttle, C.C., & Howell, W.G. (2002). School choice in New York City: An evaluation of the School Choice Scholarships Program. Princeton, NJ: Mathematica Policy Research.

Program categorized in this guide according to the following:

Evaluated participant ages: Low-income children in New York city public schools

Program components: School-based

Measured outcomes: Physical health; Education

Program information last updated on 4/8/07