Reports & Studies

The studies below have been compiled and published by various education reform and parental school choice organizations across the country. They examine a wide array of topics from school choice legislation, to the impact of graduation rates on families and communities, and analysis of various choice programs being utilized in various states. We hope they will serve as a resource for any parental school choice questions and inquiries.

An Affordable Option: Increasing Private School Access for Working-Class Families: Parents for Educational
Freedom in North Carolina (PEFNC) conducted an extensive study to learn more about private education in the Tar Heel State and how private school tuition rates and capacity would affect accessibility for opportunity scholarship students.

View past studies by the Alliance here

2012 School Choice Yearbook: Following a year that saw educational choice expansions that included continued growth of public charter schools, public school choice, and expansions of options like education savings accounts and virtual schools, the Yearbook chronicles how much of the education reform successes in 2012 were made possible as a result of private school choice gains.
2011 School Choice Yearbook: The Alliance for School Choice’s annual award-winning Yearbook is a compendium of the nation’s most accurate data on school voucher and scholarship tax credit programs, an analysis of trends and information regarding school choice, a directory of the accountability provisions and requirements for each program, and a chronicle of the past year’s choice-related events and activities. Be sure to also check out PEFNC’s own Stan Chambers’ photography throughout the publication and on the cover!
Promise of Special Needs Scholarships (2012): The greatest testimony about the promise of special needs scholarships comes from the stories of eight families across the nation — families who share their experiences of participating in special needs scholarship programs. Keep reading to learn how school choice and special needs scholarships have transformed the lives of children.

View past studies by the Friedman Foundation here

2012 ABCs of School Choice: This is the most comprehensive guide to every private school choice program in America, showcasing the voucher, tax-credit scholarship, education savings accounts, and individual tax credit/deduction programs currently operating in 21 states and Washington, D.C. The 2013 edition also features personal stories of the students, parents, and schools that benefit from school choice along with “Friedman Feedback” on ways states can expand each program to eventually fund all children, a vision first established by the late Milton Friedman.
2011 ABCs of School Choice: No single, one-size-fits-all approach to education can meet the unique needs of the country’s diverse students, families, and communities. That’s where the annual publication, The ABCs of School Choice, comes in. It provides all the basic information you need to grasp the state of school choice in the U.S., as well as specific details to update you on every school choice program across the country.
The Fiscal Effects of School Programs on Public School Districts: Research shows that all forms of school choice tried in the United States have led to improvement in academic outcomes for students who remain in public schools or have led to no effect on academic outcomes for students who remain in public schools. Greater school choice does not harm academic outcomes for students who remain in public schools.
A Win-Win Solution: The Empirical Evidence on School Vouchers :This report collects the results of all available empirical studies using the best available scientific methods to measure how school vouchers affect academic outcomes for participants, and all available studies on how vouchers affect outcomes in public schools. Contrary to the widespread claim that vouchers do not benefit participants and hurt public schools, the empirical evidence consistently shows that vouchers improve outcomes for both participants and public schools.

Teaching Inequality: How Poor and Minority Students are Shortchanged on Teacher Quality : Research has shown that when it comes to the distribution of the best teachers,poor and minority students do not get their fair share. Teams from Chicago, Milwaukee, and Cleveland analyzed information to determine possible reasons for the patterns, and came up with strategies to achieve a fairer distribution.

Spreading Freedom and Saving Money: The Fiscal Impact of the D.C. Voucher Program : This study examines the fiscal impact of the voucher program on DCPS and the District of Columbia. This study also examines the fiscal impact of the program under several proposed changes to the law.

The Comprehensive Longitudinal Evaluation of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program: Students enrolled in the Milwaukee opportunity scholarship program are more likely to graduate from high school and go to college than their public school counterparts, boast significantly improved reading scores, represent a more diverse cross-section of the city, and are improving the results of traditional public school students, according to a comprehensive evaluation of the program.

Evaluation of the D.C. Scholarship Program: The students offered scholarships graduated from high school at rate 12 percentage points higher (82 percent) than students in the control group (70 percent), an impact that was statistically significant at the highest level. Parents remained more satisfied with their child’s school and viewed it as safer if offered a scholarship, even though students had similar views of school satisfaction and safety whether in the treatment or control group.
Does Capital at Home Matter More than Capital at School?: Social Capital Effects on Academic Achievement: The study found that students were more successful if they came from families with high social capital — the connection between parents and children. Although school social capital is important, students succeeded even if their schools had low social capital (teacher morale, positive learning environment, addressing needs of children). This means that the more parents engaged in their children’s education, the more successful their children were.

Does School Choice Reduce Crime?: Evidence from North Carolina : Evaluations of school-reform measures typically focus on the outcomes that are most easily quantified, namely, test scores, as a proxy for long-term societal benefit. But there are at least two reasons we might want to look beyond test scores and other school-based outcome measures. The author looks at whether the opportunity to attend a school other than a student’s assigned neighborhood school reduces criminal activity, especially among disadvantaged youth.