School Choice Facts

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Evaluations and Research

UPDATE

The 2006 school choice compromise mandates a five year longitudinal study of the MPCP to begin in the the 2006-2007 school year. Click here to learn more about the study.

The state of Wisconsin has issued seven evaluations of the MPCP. Five came from John Witte (1990-1995). The other two were issued by the Legislative Audit Bureau (1995 and 2000). In addition to these state evaluations, research teams at Harvard University and Princeton University have conducted secondary analyses of Witte’s data.

The Harvard team found statistically significant math and reading test score gains for students in the MPCP.

Jay Greene, Paul Peterson, and Jiangtao Du,

“Effectiveness of School Choice: The Milwaukee Experiment,” Education and Urban Society, February 1999.

The Princeton study found math gains similar to that identified by the Harvard research. The Princeton study did not find reading gains.

See Joe Williams, “Choice Helps Children, Study Says,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, October 16, 1997; and Cecilia Rouse, “Private School Vouchers and Student Achievement: An Evaluation of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 113, No. 2, 1998.

Witte did not find gains, saying, “…[T]here is no substantial difference over the life of the program between the Choice and MPS students … On a positive note, estimates for the overall samples, while always below national norms, do not substantially decline as the students enter higher grades. This is not the normal pattern in that usually inner-city student average scores decline relative to national norms in higher grades.”

Witte, et al., “Fifth Year Report: Milwaukee Parental Choice Program,” Department of Political Science and Robert M. La Follette Institute of Public Affairs, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1995.

In addition to these evaluations, a Harvard study, released this year by noted economist Caroline Hoxby, demonstrates the positive impact of vouchers on the productivity of Milwaukee public schools.

Caroline Hoxby, “School Choice and School Productivity (or Could School Choice be a Tide that Lifts All Boats?),” Education Next, Winter 2001.

Education Week published a positive, in-depth examination of the MPCP in 1995 (“A Choice in the Matter,” by David Ruenzel). Ruenzel reported, “...the Milwaukee choice plan ... has deeply involved long-alienated parents in their children’s schooling. This is of crucial importance, standing as a powerful retort to educators who have long suggested that parents burdened by social and economic problems could devote but minimal attention to educational issues.”

The Institute for the Transformation of Learning (ITL) at Marquette University has issued several reports on various aspects of school choice. All are available at Research & Publications In addition to findings already cited, ITL research shows that:

Many public schools screen student admissions based on such criteria as academic ability, special needs, and past behavior. In contrast, the Wisconsin statutes dictate that private schools in the MPCP may use no such criteria in reviewing the applications of MPCP students.

Many organizations opposed to vouchers routinely make inaccurate statements in describing existing programs in Milwaukee, Cleveland, and Florida. “Lies and Distortions: The Campaign Against School Vouchers,” a study released in April 2001, demonstrates this claim.

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