Early Impacts of the Indiana Choice Scholarship Program

• In Event: 72.048 - School Vouchers: Impacts and Responses

Abstract

The Indiana Choice Scholarship Program (ICSP) has over 20,000 students participating to date. This paper examines the early impacts of the scholarship program for students in upper elementary and middle school who transfer to a private school with a voucher during the 2011-12 and 2012-13 school years—the first two years of the program. We analyze longitudinal data for students (grades 3-8) in several large Indiana urban school districts, where students use the voucher to transfer to a private school. Overall, we find no significant effects in English/language arts (ELA). In mathematics, however, voucher students who transfer to private schools experience significant losses in achievement, and these losses are consistent across different racial/ethnic groups.

Authors

• Joseph Waddington, University of Kentucky

• Mark Berends, University of Notre Dame