Educational attainment effects of public and private school choice

ABSTRACT

The two fastest growing school choice options are charter schools and private school choice programs, which include vouchers, tax credit scholarships, and education savings accounts. Most research assessing the effects of these programs focuses on student achievement. I review the literature to determine the impact public and private school choice programs have on high school completion, college enrollment, and college persistence which, ultimately, may be different and of greater consequence than test scores. Of the limited research available, it appears that both type of school choice programs have a positive effect on educational attainment overall, however, more research is needed.

KEYWORDS:

• charter schools
• educational attainment
• private school voucher
• school choice

Notes

^1. The research on educational attainment and long-term outcomes of education interventions and programs is limited. There is an older, mostly observational literature which generally found larger effects on attainment than on achievement. Studies examining the benefits from Catholic schooling found small benefits in achievement for students in general with more substantial impacts for minority and disadvantaged students (Chingos & Peterson, 2012; Jencks, 1985), and larger positive effects on the probability of high school completion and college enrollment, especially for urban minority students (Altonji, Elder, & Taber, 2005; Chingos & Peterson, 2012; Evans & Schwab, 1995; Neal, 1997). Studies examining longer-term impacts have evaluated the Perry Preschool and Abecedarian programs (Almond & Curry, 2010; Chingos & Peterson, 2012; Heckman & Krueger, 2002), Job Corps (Burghardt et al., 2001; Chingos & Peterson, 2012), and a class size reduction intervention in Tennessee for grades K-3 (Chingos & Peterson, 2012; Dynarski, Hyman, & Schanzenbach, 2011).

^2. Sass et al. (2016) is an updated version of Booker et al. (2014); however, the Sass et al. article focuses on earnings for the Florida sample so is also included.

^3. Sass et al. (2016) restrict the sample to students who attended a charter middle school in eighth grade and then compare traditional public high school attendees with charter high school attendees. In contrast, Dobbie and Fryer (2016) match on third grade school/race/gender and include all students, whether or not they ever attend a charter school.

^4. While there are voucher programs in Maine and Vermont, they were established for students in towns that lacked public schools for their grade level, not to provide additional schooling options and thus are not included (Egalite & Wolf, 2016).