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Evaluations and Research

Indiana Center for Evaluation at Indiana University and the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard University have conducted research on the Cleveland Scholarship and Tutoring Program.

Kim Metcalf at the Indiana Center for Evaluation has been the official state evaluator of the CSTP. Dr. Metcalf has released seven reports, the most recent in October 2004.

The 2003 evaluation is the third report produced from a longitudinal study of students in the program. The study compares them over time with regular public school students and those who received the voucher and chose to attend public schools. The evaluation follows children enrolled in the program from kindergarten or first grade through fourth grade from 1998-2002.

After three years, the evaluation finds that:

"When students’ academic achievement measures are adjusted to account for the influence of minority status and family income, there are virtually no differences in performance between students who use a scholarship and students who attend public schools."

Kim Metcalf, "Evaluation of the Cleveland Scholarship and Tutoring Program, Summary Report 1998-2002," Indiana Center for Evaluation, December 2003.

The longitudinal study has ended early due to a cut in funding by the Ohio Department of Education. The previous evaluation contained a caveat calling for a long-term study:

"Although it is not statistically significant in the data available to date, there is some evidence of a pattern of slightly greater annual achievement growth among students who have used a scholarship continuously since kindergarten. If this pattern continues, the achievement of this group may become noticeably, and meaningfully, higher than that of public school students. However, data over three to five additional years will be necessary to confirm or discount such a pattern."

Kim Metcalf, "Evaluation of the Cleveland Scholarship and Tutoring Program, Summary Report 1998-2001," Indiana Center for Evaluation, March 2003.

A 1999 Metcalf evaluation concluded that:

“The [Cleveland] scholarship program effectively serves the population of families and children for which it was intended and developed. The program was designed to serve low-income students … The majority of children who participate in the program are unlikely to have enrolled in a private school without a scholarship.”

Further, Metcalf found:

“…[P]arents of scholarship students tend to be much more satisfied with their child’s school than other parents … [S]cholarship recipient parents are more satisfied with the child’s teachers, more satisfied with the academic standards at the child’s school, more satisfied with order and discipline, [and] more satisfied with social activities at the school…”

Kim Metcalf, “Evaluation of the Cleveland Scholarship and Tutoring Program, 1996-1999,” Indiana Center for Evaluation, September 1999.

The Program on Education Policy and Governance has issued two evaluations of the CSTP, and are posted on their website.

Both evaluations report high parental satisfaction based on parent survey results:

“...scholarship recipients remained considerably more satisfied with their school than parents of students in public schools. Nearly half of the parents in choice schools report being “very satisfied” with the academic program of their child’s school, as compared to less than 30 percent of public-school parents.”

Paul Peterson, William Howell, Jay Greene, “An Evaluation of the Cleveland Voucher Program after Two Years,” June 1999. See also Jay Greene, William Howell, Paul Peterson, “An Evaluation of the Cleveland Scholarship Program,” September 1997.

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