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A pretty good payoff
The Milwaukee school choice program is one of the oldest school choice programs in the US and, as such, has been much studied. It provides low-income students with vouchers to attend the private school of their choice and, at present, more than 25% of its students are taking advantage of this option. Other studies have looked at academic achievement, finding that voucher students do generally better than non-voucher students with similar backgrounds.
This new University of Minnesota study compares the graduation rates of voucher students and non-voucher students, finding that the graduation rate of voucher students is about 18% higher. If the non-voucher students had done as well, an estimated 4,000 more students would have graduated from high school between 2003 and 2009 - changing most of their lives for the better.
Nice study, and methodology that does not make sweeping conclusions. I bet when the new study on casual factors come out, it might be a surprise to many, that the usual factors cited are not the most important factors.
“Whether the higher MPCP graduation rates are causal in nature — that is, whether these higher graduation rates are due to something real that is going on in MPCP schools — is a question that can only be addressed using a stronger research design. In this regard, we eagerly await further results of the SCDP longitudinal study being conducted at the University of Arkansas. This project, which involves matched pairs of students in MPS and MPCP schools — will help address this question of causality.”