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

Analyzes results of an evaluation of gains in reading and math scores over one academic year among independent charter school students compared with public school students, by charter school type, student characteristics, and school-switching

Student Attainment and the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program

In this report we examine high school completion and postsecondary enrollment (a.k.a. “educational attainment”) of the cohort of 9th grade students who were in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) at the beginning of our state-mandated evaluation of the MPCP in 2006. After tracking the MPCP 9th graders following the 2006-07 year and comparing them to a carefully matched sample of 9th graders who were in Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) during the 2006-07 year, we use a combination of parent surveys and administrative (school) records to estimate attainment

School and Sector Switching in Milwaukee

In this report we analyze the movement of students to and from the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) and Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS). We also analyze student mobility between schools within each sector. The analysis rests on two separate sets of data: the administrative records we have collected as part of our separate analysis of academic achievement in MPCP (Witte , Wolf, Cowen, Fleming, & Lucas-McLean, 2010), and the results of an extensive set of surveys collected from parents of private and public school students

The Wisconsin Role in the School Choice Movement

Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson led a Midwestern policy revolution in the late 1980s and early 1990s centered on providing parents with more school choices. Since those early years, school choice in the forms of private school vouchers, public charter schools, and public school open enrollment have spread across almost all of the country. Longitudinal evaluations of the effects of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP), the voucher program initiated by Governor Thompson, indicate that student achievement outcomes were not consistently affected by vouchers but other vital student outcomes, including educational attainment, civic values, criminal proclivities as well as parent and student satisfaction were positively influenced by participation in private school choice. A generally similar pattern of results applies to public charter schools and open enrollment. Parents across the U.S. tend to have more educational options in no small part due to the pioneering initiatives of Tommy Thompson. Although the evidence on school choice, and the desirability of the policies themselves, remains fiercely contested 30 years later, our assessment is that, on balance, disadvantaged families in Wisconsin and elsewhere are no worse off and most likely somewhat better off if they have availed themselves of the school choice opportunities that Governor Thompson helped to make possible

Special Education and the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program

Special education and parental school choice are two of the most controversial issues in K-12 education in the United States. Those policies converge on an important question in an evaluation of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, what proportion of students have education-related disabilities? This debate, in Wisconsin, has provoked a lawsuit against the state’s Department of Public Instruction (DPI), which implements the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP). MPCP is the oldest and largest urban private school voucher program in the United States

The MPCP Longitudinal Educational Growth Study Third Year Report

This is the third-year report in a five-year evaluation of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP). 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 2008-09 was $6,607, and approximately 20,000 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 Wisconsin Act 125 enacted in 2005

When Rights, Incentives, and Institutions All Clash: The Case of School Vouchers and Special Education in Milwaukee

Two highly controversial issues in the field of K-12 education in the U.S. are special education and parental school choice. Those two policy concerns converge surrounding the question of what proportion of students in school voucher programs compared to public schools have education-related disabilities, and whether or not the two school sectors are properly classifying and serving students with special education needs. We might expect private voucher-receiving schools to serve fewer students with disabilities than local public school systems due to the legal framework and institutional incentives surrounding special education and private schools. Most federal disability laws do not apply to private schools. The private schools participating in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP), which is our subject here, do not receive any extra government funds to serve students with disabilities. Still, if only a small portion of all MPCP students have disabilities, that finding would raise questions regarding the extent to which the program is fulfilling its original mission to serve disadvantaged students in Milwaukee. Based on evidence we collected over five years of studying the MPCP program, we are able to estimate that between 7.5 and 14.6 percent of MPCP students have disabilities that likely would qualify them for special education services were they attending Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS). Our strongest analytical lever in generating that range is an individual fixed-effects estimation of the likelihood of being classified as a special education student in MPCP compared to MPS for the 20 percent of our sample who switched between the school sectors during our study. We also draw upon student disability classifications of private school principals, parent surveys, and school visits to inform our analysis. Our estimated rate of actual student disability in the MPCP is between 23 and 61 percent lower than the rate of student disability of 19 percent reported for MPS. Our estimates, however, are more than four times higher than the official disability rate of 1.6 percent for the MPCP announced by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction based merely upon the percentage of MPCP students who were given accommodations during the most recent round of accountability testing

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

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