Graduation Rate Analysis to be Released Next Year

Last Updated: July 16, 2010

Patrick Wolf, the Principal Investigator of the School Choice Demonstration Project (SCDP), discusses the results and future of his team’s ongoing evaluation of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) in the July issue of Wisconsin Interest magazine. He tells the public to “stay tuned” for a critical report on the impact of the MPCP on high school graduation to be released next year. Wolf writes:

“Many scholars argue that educational attainments, measured through critical events such as high school graduation, are more important in the long run than educational achievement…. Earlier studies based on limited data have suggested that Milwaukee choice students graduate from high school at higher rates than do other MPS students. Our study, with a more rigorous research design and stronger data, may or may not confirm those earlier findings.”

University of Minnesota Professor Rob Warren most recently in 2010 compared MPCP and Milwaukee Public School (MPS) graduation rates between 2003 and 2008 and found MPCP rates to be 18% higher.

Wolf also notes that while demographically matched MPCP and MPS students have achieved similar test score gains during the first three years of the evaluation, the entire Milwaukee school system has improved because of competition from school choice: “We do know…that all Milwaukee students are benefiting academically from the competitive pressures of the voucher program.” Further, fourth and eighth grade students in the MPCP achieved higher test scores than low-income urban students nationwide.

Lastly, Wolf writes that the program saved Wisconsin taxpayers about $37 million in 2009 due to the fact that it costs state taxpayers more for a student to attend MPS than it does for a student to attend a school through the MPCP. “[E]very student who uses a voucher to attend a Milwaukee private school saves the state money,” writes Wolf.

Click here to read the entire article, and here to review the first three years of SCDP research.