DC private school voucher program: negative impacts on math achievement

Impacts of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program After Two Years

A new report finds that the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP), the nation’s only federally-funded private school voucher program, had negative impacts on math achievement after two years but positively affected  parents’ and students’ views of their schools’ safety.

The Institute of Education Sciences released a report today (May 23rd) entitled: Evaluation of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program: Impacts After Two Years. The report, from the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE), assesses the program’s effects on test scores and other outcomes measured two years after about 1,800 eligible applicants entered lotteries in 2012, 2013, or 2014 to determine who received a private school scholarship.

Key findings include:

• The OSP had a negative impact on mathematics achievement after two years. Math scores were lower for students who were offered or used OSP scholarships, compared to students that applied for but were not offered scholarships. There were no statistically significant impacts on reading scores. This pattern of findings was consistent when looking at students that applied from low-performing schools (i.e., those prioritized by the federal act establishing the scholarship program).
• The program did not have an impact on parents’ or students’ general satisfaction with the school the child attended two years after applying to the program. The percent of parents giving their child’s school a grade of A or B was not statistically different when comparing parents of students who were offered or used OSP scholarships with the parents of students not selected for the scholarship offer. There were also no statistically significant differences when looking at student satisfaction with schools.
• The program had a positive impact on both parents’ and students’ perceptions of school safety after two years. Parents of students who were offered or used OSP scholarships were more likely to indicate that their child’s school was “very safe,” compared with the parents of students not selected for the scholarship offer. Students were also more likely to report that their school was “very safe” if they were offered or used a scholarship.
• The OSP did not have an impact on parent involvement in education at school or at home.