first thoughts on the DC voucher eval

well, i just got around to reading the first 32 pages of the DC voucher year 1 evaluation. (i have a job, people! i can't be reading voucher evaluations all the time.) there is nothing too surprising in it -- nothing we did not already know. specifically,

• that a high percentage of participants were already in private schools (28 percent)
  
• that a high percentage of particpating schools were religious (51 percent were Catholic schools; another 21 percent religious, non-Catholic)
  
• that a voucher program would not mean disadvantaged, minority kids gaining access to the kind of education elite, upper-class, white kids get at schools like st. albans

i won't attempt to say anything too insightful about the research methods. but i do take some issue with a couple of the research questions, such as:

Question #2: What is the impact of attending private versus public schools? i understand that this research question was invented by Congress, not by the evaluators. and i know i can't expect any different from voucher advocates. but this was put in there for no reason other than in the hope someday to read the headline: "Study shows private schools outperform public schools!!!!!!!!!!"

there are good private schools and there are bad private schools. there are good public schools and there are bad public schools. there are good charter schools and there are bad charter schools. none of them alone is the answer. any attempt to say otherwise is pure politics.

Question #4: What effect does the program have on student and parent satisfaction with the educational options available in the District and with children’s actual school experiences? come on. of course parent satisfaction is going to be higher. anyone who has taken an intro to psychology course knows that people are happier with things they choose than things that are given to them.

the school privatization battle is still in its early stages, and the degree to which this study affects the drive is going to depend on how well these kids do. if they do well, the data will be trumpeted far and wide. if they do poorly, we will never hear about it again.