Milwaukee Independent Charter Schools Study: Report on Two- and Three-Year Achievement Gains

The general purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness of Milwaukee’s independent charter schools in promoting student achievement growth. Independent charter schools are authorized by non-school district entities and are considered independent because they are not a part of the Milwaukee Public School District (MPS). Throughout the course of this report we will estimate three-year achievement growth for independent charter school students who were in grades 3 through 8 at baseline (2006-07). We will examine four years of scores in reading and math on the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examination (WKCE). Specifically, the report presents the results of an analysis comparing achievement gains of independent charter students to the achievement gains of a group of matched comparison students attending MPS. Our next report, to be released in spring 2012, will examine four-year achievement gains

Milwaukee Independent Charter Schools Study: Report on One Year of Student Growth

The general purpose of this evaluation is to assess the effectiveness of independent charter schools in promoting two desirable student outcomes: student achievement growth and educational attainment. Independent charter schools are authorized by non-district entities and are considered “independent” because they are not a part of the Milwaukee Public School District. We will estimate achievement growth of independent charter school students in grades 3-8 over four years in reading and math on the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examination (WKCE). Similarly, in later reports we will track student attainment, specifically whether uppergrade cohorts in our evaluation graduate from high school. Case studies of independent charter schools will help us to identify best practices in these schools and will also be addressed in future reports

Life After Vouchers: What Happens to Students Who Leave Private Schools for the Traditional Public Sector?

Few school choice evaluations consider students who leave such programs, and fewer still consider the effects of leaving these programs as policy-relevant outcomes. Using a representative sample of students from the citywide voucher program in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, we analyze more than 1,000 students who leave the program during a 4-year period. We show that low-performing voucher students tend to move from the voucher sector into lower performing and less effective public schools than the typical public school student attends, whereas high-performing students transfer to better public schools. In general, transferring students realize substantial achievement gains after moving to the public sector; these results are robust to multiple analytical approaches. This evidence has important implications for school choice policy and research.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

MPCP Longitudinal Educational Growth Study Fifth Year Report

This is the final report in a five-year evaluation of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP). This report features analyses of student achievement growth four years after we carefully assembled longitudinal study panels of MPCP and Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) students in 2006-07. The MPCP, which began in 1990, provides government-funded vouchers for low-income children to attend private schools in the City of Milwaukee. The maximum voucher amount in 2010-11 was $6,442, and 20,996 children used a voucher to attend either secular or religious private schools. The MPCP is the oldest and largest urban school voucher program in the United States. This evaluation was authorized by 2005 Wisconsin Act 125, which was enacted in 2006

Bayesian versus politically motivated reasoning in human perception of climate anomalies

In complex systems where humans and nature interact to produce joint outcomes, mitigation, adaptation, and resilience require that humans perceive feedback-signals of health and distress-from natural systems. In many instances, humans readily perceive feedback. In others, feedback is more difficult to perceive, so humans rely on experts, heuristics, biases, and/or identify confirming rationalities that may distort perceptions of feedback. This study explores human perception of feedback from natural systems by testing alternate conceptions about how individuals perceive climate anomalies, a form of feedback from the climate system. Results indicate that individuals generally perceive climate anomalies, especially when the anomalies are relatively extreme and persistent. Moreover, this finding is largely robust to political differences that generate predictable but small biases in feedback perception at extreme ends of the partisan spectrum. The subtlety of these biases bodes well for mitigation, adaptation, and resilience as human systems continue to interact with a changing climate system.Peer reviewedSociolog

The Benefits and Costs of the Section 8 Housing Subsidy Program: A Framework and First-Year Estimates

The authors provide estimates of the social benefits and costs of the Section 8 housing subsidy program. Their analysis rests on a series of studies in which they estimate the effects of voucher receipt on a variety of recipient living unit behaviors, including movement to new neighborhoods, employment, earnings, and the receipt of public benefits: child-care subsidies, medical care assistance, and welfare assistance

Transportation Utility Fees: Possibilities for the City of Milwaukee

Using four evaluation criteria, this report evaluates whether Milwaukee should implement a transportation utility fee (TUF) to fund the operation and maintenance of transportation infrastructure in the city. Under a TUF, transportation infrastructure is treated as a public utility and fees are assigned according to usage. Based on the results of quantitative and qualitative analyses, the authors recommend the adoption of a TUF ordinance in Milwaukee. Such an ordinance would provide an additional revenue source for the City and more equitably distribute the burden of funding transportation infrastructure