The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program Longitudinal Educational Growth Study Third Year Report

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The study examined whether students in Milwaukee who use a voucher to attend private school have greater mathematics and reading achievement than students who attend public schools.

Designed to cover the full cost of attending one of its participating schools, the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program gives government-funded vouchers of up to $6,607 to low-income students to attend the secular or religious private schools of their choice.

It currently provides vouchers to approximately 20,000 students in Milwaukee and is the largest and oldest publicly funded voucher program in the United States.

Academic achievement was measured using the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examinations in math and reading, the same standardized tests that are administered through Wisconsin’s accountability program.

In fall 2006, the study’s authors matched a sample of 1,926 voucher participants in grades 3–8 with comparison students from Milwaukee Public Schools, resulting in an initial sample of 3,852 matched students.3 This report analyzed the fall 2008 math and reading scores of about 2,230 of these matched students.

Analyses controlled for student demographic characteristics and student test scores from before the study’s first year. The study was not designed to ascertain the full impact of the voucher program; instead, it analyzes effects of the program over a two-year period.

The authors found no significant differences between math and reading achievement of students who used a voucher to attend private school and comparison students from Milwaukee Public Schools.

Strengths: Voucher participants were matched with comparison students in the Milwaukee Public Schools on a number of observable characteristics, including baseline test scores and demographics, using a sophisticated matching procedure.

Cautions: Although the study matched students based on several observable characteristics, it is possible that there were other differences between the two groups that were not accounted for in the analysis; these differences could have influenced student achievement.