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The A+OSP had an important statewide impact.- Florida State University, Harvard University, and The Manhattan Institute released a state-sponsored, evaluation of the A+ scholarship program that demonstrated the positive effects of the voucher program on the state’s public schools. The report declared: “ The Florida A-Plus Program is a school accountability system with teeth…. The evidence … suggests that the A-Plus Program has been successful at motivating failing schools to improve their academic performance. In addition, the evidence … suggests that we should have confidence that the improvement in academic achievement is a real improvement and not merely a manipulation of the state’s testing and grading system.”
The report concluded:
“[The results show that schools receiving a failing grade from the state in 1999 and whose students would have been offered tuition vouchers if they failed a second time achieved test score gains more than twice as large as those achieved by other schools. While schools with lower previous FCAT [Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test] scores across all state-assigned grades improved their test scores, schools with failing grades that faced the prospect of vouchers exhibited especially large gains. This report shows that the performance of students on academic tests improves when public schools are faced with the prospect that their students will receive vouchers.”
Jay Greene,“An Evaluation of the Florida A-Plus Accountability and School Choice Program,” Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, February 15, 2001.
- In August 2003, Greene released a follow-up study, confirming his earlier findings that Florida public schools faced with the threat of vouchers did improve in the face of competition. This study identified five categories of low-performing schools based on the degree of threat each school faced from voucher competition and examined test score improvements on the state's test, as well as a nationally respected standardized test. The study found:
"Florida's low-performing schools are improving in direct proportion to the challenge they face from voucher competition. These improvements are real, not the result of test gaming, demographic shifts, or the statistical phenomenon of 'regression to the mean.'"
Jay P. Greene and Marcus A. Winters, "When Schools Compete: The Effects of Vouchers on Florida Public School Achievement," Manhattan Institute, August 2003.
- In the first district with schools where students became eligible for vouchers, its board chair said:
“Before the passage of Gov. Bush’s A+ Education plan … many people had never heard of Spencer Bibbs or A.A. Dixon elementary schools … To hear many people tell it, the A+ plan was going to leave our public schools in crumbling ruins. Some teachers and administrators called the program “dangerous” and “destructive,” worrying that allowing students to leave failing schools would condemn those schools to continued failure. But they were wrong.
“…the Escambia County School District responded to the threat of competition. Extended reading, math and writing time blocks were instituted at Bibbs and Dixon. Students were offered after-school and Saturday tutoring. A major effort was launched to reduce student absenteeism. And, the community became involved through mentoring and volunteer programs to assist teachers in working with children to increase their performance.
“With the recent return of this year’s FCAT scores and new school grades, Escambia County schools have shown nothing but improvement across the board. Last year, nine of our county’s schools were given a failing grade by the state. We should be particularly proud that all of them have improved their scores this year … The opportunity scholarship program uses the most persuasive tool we have as an incentive to get schools to perform - money.”
Cary Stidham, “Gov. Bush’s A+ plan proves to be winner for schools,” Pensacola News Journal, September 5, 2000.
- Seventy-eight Florida schools were on the verge of a second “failing” designation for 2000-01, which would have made tens of thousands of additional students eligible for the A+OSP. Following widespread efforts to avoid that designation, Florida’s Education Commissioner announced after the 1999-2000 school year that test scores in all 78 schools had improved enough to avoid the “F” grade.
George Clowes, “Voucher Threat Improves Florida Public Schools,” School Reform News, August 2000, Vol. 4, No. 8.
- The Urban League of Greater Miami hired education writer Carol Innerst to document what steps failing schools took to avoid failing designations. After reviewing documents provided by schools throughout Florida, she said that the A+OSP “has instilled in the public schools a sense of urgency and zeal for reform not seen in the past, when a school's failure was rewarded only with more money that reinforced failure.” As one of many examples, she cited Hillsborough County’s Superintendent of Schools, who vowed to take a 5% pay cut - $8,250 - if any school in his jurisdiction received an “F” grade.
Carol Innerst, “Competing to Win: How Florida’s A+ Plan Has Triggered Public School Reform,” published by The Urban League of Greater Miami and others, 2000.
- In May 2001, the state released a new round of achievement test results. According to The Miami Herald, “no public school in Florida received a failing mark on the annual School Accountability Report for the first time since the state began issuing grades three years ago…. The absence of any F’s is significant. It means Gov. Jeb Bush’s controversial voucher program cannot expand beyond two pilot elementary schools in Pensacola.” This is good news to Florida Education Commissioner Charlie Christ, who said, “Things continue to improve. Accountability continues to work. Florida’s children continue to win.”
Nicole White and Tim Henderson, “Florida schools boast improved test scores,” The Miami Herald, May 31, 2001.
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