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Full-Text Articles in Education

2015 Arkansas Report Card, Sarah Mckenzie, Gary Ritter Apr 2016

2015 Arkansas Report Card, Sarah Mckenzie, Gary Ritter

Education Report Card

The coming year brings more changes to Arkansas K-12 education, as the ACT Aspire replaces the PARCC assessments and state science assessments. As students progress through their schooling during these changing times, it is critical that parents, teachers and policy makers thoughtfully use all information available to ensure students are on track for success.


The 80 Percent Pension Funding Target, High Assumed Returns, And Generational Inequity, Robert M. Costrell Apr 2016

The 80 Percent Pension Funding Target, High Assumed Returns, And Generational Inequity, Robert M. Costrell

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

Generational inequity in pension funding is highly sensitive to the lax policies of 80- percent funding targets and high assumed returns to investment. I develop a simple, powerful relationship between steady-state (SS) inequity in contributions – the percent of extra contributions to fund prior cohorts – and the SS unfunded ratio. I then show how the SS unfunded ratio is governed by x-percent funding targets and the gap between assumed and true returns. The SS degree of inequity is over 60 percent under an 80 percent funding target and over 50 percent with a one point gap between assumed and …


The School Choice Voucher: A 'Get Out Of Jail' Card?, Corey A. Deangelis, Patrick J. Wolf Mar 2016

The School Choice Voucher: A 'Get Out Of Jail' Card?, Corey A. Deangelis, Patrick J. Wolf

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

In this report we examine crime rates for young adults who experienced Milwaukee's citywide voucher program as high school students and a comparable group of their peers who had been public school students. Using unique data collected as part of a longitudinal evaluation of the program, we consider criminal activity by youth initially exposed to voucher schools and those in public schools at the same time. We also consider subsequent criminal activity by the students that stayed in the voucher program through 12th grade compared to those who were in public schools for the same period. We show that the …


Measures Of Student Non-Cognitive Skills And Political Tolerance After Two Years Of The Louisiana Scholarship Program, Jonathan N. Mills, Albert Cheng, Collin Hitt, Patrick J. Wolf, Jay P. Greene Feb 2016

Measures Of Student Non-Cognitive Skills And Political Tolerance After Two Years Of The Louisiana Scholarship Program, Jonathan N. Mills, Albert Cheng, Collin Hitt, Patrick J. Wolf, Jay P. Greene

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

This report examines the short-term effects of the Louisiana Scholarship Program (LSP) on students’ non-cognitive skills and civic values. While a growing number of studies have evaluated K-12 school voucher programs along academic dimensions, few have focused on the development of non-cognitive skills and civic values. This study aims to address that gap by providing the first analysis of differences in self-reported measures of grit, locus of control, self esteem, and political tolerance associated with the LSP. Using results from a phone survey of applicants to the program, we find little evidence of differences between LSP scholarship recipients and non-recipients. …


The Impact Of The Louisiana Scolarship Program On Racial Segregation In Louisiana Schools, Anna J. Egalite, Jonathan N. Mills, Patrick Wolf Feb 2016

The Impact Of The Louisiana Scolarship Program On Racial Segregation In Louisiana Schools, Anna J. Egalite, Jonathan N. Mills, Patrick Wolf

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

The question of how school choice programs affect the racial stratification of schools is highly salient in the field of education policy. We use a student-level panel data set to analyze the impacts of the Louisiana Scholarship Program (LSP) on racial segregation in public and private schools. This targeted school voucher program provides funding for low-income, mostly minority students in the lowest-graded public schools to enroll in participating private schools. Our analysis indicates that the vast majority (82%) of LSP transfers have reduced racial segregation in the voucher students’ former public schools. LSP transfers have marginally increased segregation in the …


The Competitive Effects Of The Louisiana Scholarship Program On Public School Performance, Anna J. Egalite Feb 2016

The Competitive Effects Of The Louisiana Scholarship Program On Public School Performance, Anna J. Egalite

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

Given the significant growth rate and geographic expansion of private school choice programs over the past two decades, it is important to examine how traditional public schools respond to the sudden injection of competition for students and resources. This article uses 1) a school fixed effects approach, and 2) a regression discontinuity framework to examine the achievement impacts of the Louisiana Scholarship Program (LSP). This targeted school voucher program has provided public funds for low-income students in low-performing public schools to enroll in participating private schools since the 2012-13 school year. The main findings of the competitive effects analysis reveal …


The Effects Of The Louisiana Scholarship Program On Student Achievement After Two Years, Jonathan N. Mills Feb 2016

The Effects Of The Louisiana Scholarship Program On Student Achievement After Two Years, Jonathan N. Mills

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

The Louisiana Scholarship Program (LSP) is a statewide initiative offering publicly-funded vouchers to enroll in local private schools to students in low-performing schools with family income no greater than 250 percent of the poverty line. Initially established in 2008 as a pilot program in New Orleans, the LSP was expanded statewide in 2012. This paper examines the experimental effects of using an LSP scholarship to enroll in a private school on student achievement in the first two years following the program’s expansion. Our results indicate that the use of an LSP scholarship has negatively impacted both ELA and math achievement, …