After re-analysing their data from dozens of angles, Paul Petersen and William Howell defend the conclusions of their recent study, which showed positive effects for African-American students enrolled in a voucher programme in New York City. The privately-funded programme gave vouchers worth $1,400 to 1,200 public school students to help pay the cost of private schooling. The lucky students were chosen by lottery from among applicants. A research team collected baseline test scores and followed them for three years. According to their findings:
To answer critics who said that the method for determining ethnicity was misleading, Petersen and Howell used four different classification schemes in their re-analysis.
Furthermore, students benefited from the private schooling regardless of what grade they were in when they entered the programme.
Petersen and HowellÂ’s study is part of a body of research supporting school-voucher programmes that has “greater breadth and depth than research on almost any other education policy,” said Jay Greene, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
Source: Paul E. Petersen and William G. Howell, Again, Our Study Shows the Value of Vouchers, Letters, Wall Street Journal, June 16, 2003; Jay P. Greene, An Unfair Grade for Vouchers, Wall Street Journal, May 16, 2003.
For Petersen-Howell letter
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB10557312137885300-search,00.html
For more on Voucher programs http://www.ncpa.org/iss/edu/
FMF Policy Bulletin/ 1 July 2003
