Higher test scores achieved by black students transferring to private schools may be the effect of vouchers, a Harvard University professor reported yesterday.
Scores among blacks who switched from public to private schools were 3.3 points higher than their public school counterparts on combined math and reading tests.
Vouchers have a more dramatic effect on black students than on white students, who already have plenty of school choices and don’t seem to benefit from the vouchers, according to Harvard professor Paul Peterson.
“School choice is driven by access to housing and can be a lot more advantageous for whites than for blacks,” said Peterson, who presented his findings last night as part of Boston University’s Institute on Race and Social Divisions workshop series. “Parents with kids in private school are much happier.”
Peterson’s research found that students who attend private schools generally like school better than students who attend public schools. They also happen to like their teachers more.
Parents, however, are usually satisfied with their child’s schooling whether the child is enrolled in a private or public school. Though a distinction can be detected between “satisfied” and “very satisfied.” Surveys show the parents with children in private schools were more likely to be “very satisfied” with their child’s school than were parents whose child attended public school.
Vouchers have a brief history in the United States, according to Peterson, dating back only to 1990. Since then, Milwaukee, Cleveland and the state of Florida have established publicly funded voucher programs. Privately funded voucher programs are more common, according to Peterson, who used such programs in his research.
“This issue is important because it causes people to address the state of the public school system,” said University Professors Program freshman Caroline D’aquila.
University of Chicago researchers found in a nationwide survey of high school students in public and private schools and found that those in Catholic or private schools learned more than those in public schools. The effects between public and private school were magnified even greater for black students.
Peterson’s research focused on programs in Dayton, New York and Washington, D.C. The research found vouchers had positive effects on black test scores, but had minimal or no effects on test scores of students from other backgrounds.
The three voucher programs Peterson and his colleagues studied were similar, privately funded and featuring students from low-income families.
The research team collected baseline test scores and family background information before parents completed surveys describing their satisfaction with their child’s school, their involvement in their children’s education and information regarding their demographics. All this was done before the lottery was conducted to choose the participants.
The lottery selected a random array of students, and thus the test group was not much different than the control group. The study was concerned with the effect of using a voucher to attend a private school rather than the effect of just being offered a voucher and not using it.
The subjects were in grades two through six at the time of the survey, because most private schools accept younger students regardless of test scores. In addition, affecting test scores of older students would be more difficult than elementary school children.
Peterson said he hoped his research would help people “be more knowledgeable of school vouchers and their effect on African American educational opportunities. Theses small studies encourage us to conduct larger scale experiments and see what happens.”
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