A careful review of the Brookings study of New York City’s privately-funded voucher program finds that the program had no significant effects.
The authors of the voucher study, Paul Peterson of Harvard and Matthew Chingos of Brookings, wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal claiming that their study proved “the success” of vouchers. The study was widely cited by news media and voucher advocates as “proof” that vouchers improve college-admission rates for minority students.
Sara Goldrick-Rabb of the University of Wisconsin says that the study does not confirm the authors’ inflated claims. The National Education Policy Center, which published Goldrick-Rabb’s review, writes:
In her review of the Brookings report, Goldrick-Rab observes that the study identifies no overall impacts of the voucher offer, but that the authors “report and emphasize large positive impacts for African American students, including increases in college attendance, full-time enrollment, and attendance at private, selective institutions of higher education.”
This strong focus on positive impacts for a single subgroup of students is not warranted. Goldrick-Rab notes four problems:
· There are no statistically significant differences in the estimated impact for African Americans as compared to other students;
· There is important but unmentioned measurement error in the dependent variables (college attendance outcomes) affecting the precision of those estimates and likely moving at least some of them out of the realm of statistical significance;
· The authors fail to demonstrate any estimated negative effects that could help explain the average null results; and
· There are previously existing differences between the African American treatment and control groups on factors known to matter for college attendance (e.g., parental education).
“Contrary to the report’s claim, the evidence presented suggests that in this New York City program, school vouchers did not improve college enrollment rates among all students or even among a selected subgroup of students,” Goldrick-Rab writes.
http://nepc.colorado.edu/newsletter/2012/13/vouchers-college
Diane Ravitch's blog 
In Maine, Governor LePage cited a study from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government to justify an attack on public schools and push for charters. I was also surprised to find the report from a branch of Harvard that is usually associated with studying international affairs and governmental functions.
When I read the study, I was shocked by the poor quality of the research and analysis. After checking the funding sources and authors, I was still more disgusted by the highly partisan nature of the funding sources and authors. So far as I could tell, the whole reprot looked like a set up that LePage found “convenient” to use a stick to beat on our schools.
But what was truly disappointing was realizing that no one in the press bothered to check the report’s sources or find an independent commentator on its conclusions, analyisis, or methodology. The report was cited without comment as “The Harvard Study”. I wrote letters to the editor to two papers, both published, citing my concerns on the points above. But trying to correct such egregious disinformation in two 300-words-or-fewer is a tall order when the press publishes pages of the governor’s claims without any critical comment.
And of course, the increasing tendency of the faculty at our elite schools to prostitute themselves is really sickening. This is a growing problem not just in education, but in climate science, and fracking as well.
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Anything from the Harvard Program on Education Policy and Governance will endorse school choice, vouchers and charters.
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Moosesnsqirrels, I was trying to identify whether you were VT, NH, or ME although some midwest states could qualify as well. I have strong ties to VT, so I knew in my heart that area of the country was your stomping ground. Since VT has managed to avoid some of this nonsense, ME seemed most likely from the discussions we have had here. Anyway, I love your handle. I smile every time I see it. We need smiles.
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I live in Maine, 2old2tch. And thanks for the thumbs up! 🙂
P.S.
I’m still a big Bullwinkle fan.
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Years ago, I inquired of some top notched education researchers and policy experts about studying with Paul Peterson. I was told, “his conclusions sometimes get ahead of his data.”
That seems to be what is going on here.
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It’s hard to derail a train once its left the station… I doubt that the WSJ will publish a clarification of its initial report…
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