BOULDER, CO (June 11, 2019) – A recent report from EdChoice presents itself as a yearly updated list and synthesis of empirical studies exploring the impacts of school vouchers across a set of outcomes. But a new review of the report finds that it fails to provide a robust summary of the research literature on vouchers and their full range of positive and negative impacts.
T. Jameson Brewer, of the University of North Georgia, reviewed The 123s of School Choice: What the Research Says About Private School Choice: 2019 Edition.
EdChoice’s report attempts to convince readers that a solid body of research evidence shows voucher benefits such as an increase in test scores, parental satisfaction, increased civic values, improvements in racial segregation, and fiscal benefits through governmental cost savings.
What Dr. Brewer found instead was a limited collection of cherry-picked studies, largely from non-peer-reviewed sources, and primarily authored by voucher advocates. The report’s misrepresentation of the existing research, combined with its use of the questionable methodology of simply counting up results categorized as positive or negative, results in an overall appearance of stacking the deck to create an illusory compilation of studies that profess to bolster EdChoice’s predetermined commitment to cheerleading school vouchers.
Find the review, by T. Jameson Brewer, at:
http://nepc.colorado.edu/thinktank/school-choice
Find The 123s of School Choice: What the Research Says About Private School Choice: 2019 Edition, written by Andrew Catt, Paul DiPerna, Martin Lueken, Michael McShane, and Michael Shaw, and published by EdChoice, at:
https://www.edchoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/123s-of-School-Choice.pdf
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I hope NEPC can address the claims in todays report from the 74, promoted as if to justify Cory Booker’s performance on K-12 education in Newark. …
“A study released today shows that academic performance in Newark, at both charter and traditional public schools, has improved significantly over the last 12 years. When compared with low-income areas around the state, and New Jersey schools as a whole, kids in Newark are achieving at a much higher level now than in 2006.”
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This must be the phony study on which Florida is basing its propaganda campaign. Florida politicians are trying to sell the public on their universal vouchers, and they keep stating that students in private schools get a superior education. I remember reading a NEPC study that showed there was little appreciable difference between privately and publicly educated students. There is a disconnect in Florida where rabid privatizers including DeSantis will say and do anything to transfer public money out of public schools.
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It wasn’t a NEPC study. It was a U of Virginia study that showed when demographics are controlled there is little difference between student performance in public and private schools. https://dianeravitch.net/2018/07/13/new-study-attendance-in-private-schools-has-no-effect-on-performance-when-demographics-are-controlled/
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From the writing of test questions to the selection of cut scores to the scoring of written responses to the analysis of the scores… there are many ways to manipulate data when a powerful someone’s business ventures depend on them.
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The photos of the 4 authors of the report (all of whom appear to be in-house) portray a demographic monolith. Does EdChoice provide a great gig for white men?
Based on bio’s, three of the 4 didn’t mind taking advantage of the citizens’ sacrifices in providing them with quality public colleges that were affordable and weren’t legacy admission schools.
If we want to see the thinking (loosely interpreted) of school choice-paid spokespeople, we can read the favorite quotes of 3 of the report’s writers, conveniently provided at the EdChoice site. One quote sounds like it’s from Dr. Seuss or Alice in Wonderland. It’s attributed to L.C. (maybe it’s an inside joke, like two of them wearing bow ties for the bio. pics). Sports quotes about winning were selected by two of the report writers. One of those same guys also picked a Lincoln quote which was anomalous to Lincoln’s other writings in that it omitted mention of a moral compass as the driving force for working hard.
Too bad NEPC felt compelled to write a review of the report.
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The EdChoice photo array of staff and fellows …
showing us how choice works for inclusion.
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The 24 footnotes at the end of the EdChoice report include 4 from Patrick Wolf, who has an endowed chair in school choice at the University of Arkansas, 6 from the Journal of School Choice, one from Monty Python, one from Heartland and two from the authors’ own articles.
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It’s bizarre that ed reformers believe private schools are intrinsically superior to public schools. I wonder if it’s because so many of them came out of private schools, therefore….must be better!
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Like Georgia Gov. Talmadge, who first suggested privatization?
Weed out from your generalization, the libertarians who don’t want to pay to have a civilized society, preferring people die like feral dogs in the gutter.
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I think ed reform inexorably and inevitably ends up as pushing vouchers for all schools. The whole thing is incoherent without that.
Everyone will get a low value government voucher to purchase education services from thousands of unregulated contractors.
Just in the last 10 years they went from lockstep pushing charters to lockstep pushing vouchers. The next step is a radical restructuring of funding. The low value vouchers will cut the cost in half, with a commensurate cut in quality and services.
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Vouchers priced so that they can purchase the Gates /Z-berg, for-profit schools-in-the box while the children of the ruling class attend St. Albans and Lakeside.
During the inevitable upheaval/revolution the public will target politicians and think tank staff/property i.e. those they can get at, living among them. There will be no protection from the richest 0.1% for the once useful, who became obsolete.
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Has the ed reform “movement” accomplished anything in any state this year apart from lobbying for public funding of private schools?
Can anyone point to anything? The only successes for public school students have been when ed reform initiatives have been defeated, but that’s a limitation of harm, not an actual success.
What do they bring to the table for public school families and students? What do they contribute?
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“Accomplished anything?” A charter school operator is driving a Maserati in Dayton, Ohio, on the taxpayers’ dime. And, going back a few years, the Ohio GOP party got campaign contributions from charter operators, the Koch’s ALEC got Ohio HB 70 (within 24 hrs. communities were robbed of their local democracy), a city school system that was taken over by the state was assigned a superintendent with alleged conflicts of interest, who recently testified in Columbus in favor of HB 70, while simultaneously, he is unable to report to work due to personal issues, local education tax dollars may have been diverted for interests in Turkey,…
Out of respect for the sensibilities of Fordham, EdChoice, and The 74, (sarcasm), I’ll end the list at this point.
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Go to Democrats for Education Reform’s social media and try to find a single positive mention or plan for any public school or public school student.
They offer nothing. If you’re not in a charter or private school you’re irrelevant and completely ignored. Which is amazing, when you think about it, given that 90% of students attend the schools they ignore and this is supposedly “about” public education.
That’s what happens in an echo chamber. You get weird glaring omissions like this. They’re probably not even aware of it.
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Irony
EdChoice has a blog post- “What to Do When Editorial Boards Don’t Fact Check Expert Claims…the Friedman Foundation has published a helpful blog post that explains what makes a study a gold standard study”.
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Too funny!
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Voucher supporter, Rick Santorum, and Trump ally, Matt Schlapp, have new gigs on the board of a “benefit corporation” whose product is cryptocurrency for Catholics (Financial Times). Apparently, there’s a market for the religious right who want a payment system (3% feee on transactions) that competes with other less costly systems. The benefit to Catholics who don’t want women to have control of their own bodies is that they can avoid payment firms that allow purchasers to designate Planned Parenthood as their charity choice for the rewards they earn. The product, Cathio, honors the faithful and their God.
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It’s a dilemma. Do I cheer on Cathio or PayPal, which was founded by Peter Thiel. (Facebook’s board includes PayPal’s executive, Peggy Alford.) Thiel infamously said that women voting in a capitalistic democracy was an oxymoron.
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Thiel founded Palantir which worked with Cambridge Analytica on the Facebook data in 2016. The firm’s been in the news related to Trump’s election.
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The tuition at Nickolas Sparks’ Epiphany school in N.C. ranges from about $9500 to $11,000. If the school was in Ohio, the max. voucher a student could use to attend the school is $6,000. Ability to pay denies access to private schools like Sparks’. With one in 5 American children living in property, the discriminatory effect is evident. Additionally, private schools get to choose what child is permitted to enroll and which child gets a scholarship. The circumstances are the antithesis of what was intended by creation of public schools.
The Daily Beast reported yesterday about a lawsuit set for August which was filed by the former headmaster of Sparks’ school. Daily Beast posted court documents (e-mails) attributed to Sparks which if true are alarming.
Tax dollars shouldn’t go to the for-profit schools-in-a-box which deny Main Street the economic multiplier effect of local education dollars spent locally and, tax dollars shouldn’t go to religious schools like Sparks’.
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