Moses Brown and Aaron Green, Indiana University Graduate School of Education
December 2079
This latest in a lengthy series of Indiana University studies of the impact of the Cleveland voucher program begun in 1996 finds no conclusive evidence, 83 years later, that the program had any positive (or negative) effects on participants, compared with non-participants. After extensive interviews with the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of voucher recipients, all but three of whom are now deceased, researchers discovered that equal proportions of participants and non-participants went on to become licensed practical nurses, aviators, street-people and U.S. Senators. "More research is clearly needed," writes Fuss Bluehearse, director of the federal government's Institute of Education Sciences, in a foreword to the Indiana study. "Too bad they didn't randomize the program, but even using this inferior evaluation design we may yet be able to determine, from a careful analysis of their obituaries, whether school choice worked for them or not." The education research community, meanwhile, is on tenterhooks awaiting the 96th year report on the impact (or lack thereof) of the Perry Preschool Program. You can find the Cleveland study here.
- Drek Hiss