Jay Greene and Marcus Winters, Manhattan Institute
August 2003
The unquenchable Jay Greene is back with a new study on the effect that vouchers, and the threat of competition from vouchers, have on Florida's public schools. The results are staggering. Voucher-eligible schools (schools that have received at least two Fs on the Florida state assessment in four years, making students eligible for state-funded "opportunity scholarships," or vouchers) improved by a statistically significant 9.3 scale score points more than gains made by other Florida public schools between 2001-02 and 2002-03. The gain was similar for schools that have received one failing grade ("voucher-threatened" schools): 6.7 scale score points more than other schools. But schools that are only in danger of receiving their first F, or are chronic D-performers - in other words, schools not immediately threatened by vouchers - posted statistically insignificant gains, while schools that were formerly threatened by vouchers actually lost ground compared to others. Greene and Winters also tested whether it was actual competition or the threat of competition that produced gains, i.e. what some have termed the "stigma" of being labeled failing. They conclude that it is actual vouchers and not mere stigma that produce the observed effect. Check it out at http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/ewp_02.htm.
"Report: vouchers have a positive effect on schools," by Nancy Cook Lauer, Tallahassee Democrat, August 20, 2003