Effect of the Louisiana Scholarship Program on Student Achievement and College Entrance After Four Years

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: Making Sense out of Recent Mixed Results From Private School Voucher Evaluations

Abstract

Objectives/purposes. The Louisiana Scholarship Program (LSP) offers publicly-funded vouchers to students in low-performing public schools with family incomes no greater than 250 percent of the poverty line, allowing them to enroll in participating private schools. Established in 2008 as a pilot program in New Orleans, the LSP was expanded statewide in 2012. In this study, we estimate the achievement and college entrance impacts of ever using an LSP voucher to enroll in a student’s first-choice private school over the four-year period spanning from 2012-13 through 2015-16.
Theoretical framework. Vouchers are a market-based intervention theorized to benefit individual students by allowing them access to better schools or facilitating the matching of student needs to specific school programs and environments (DeAngelis & Erickson, 2018). Institutional theories, however, suggest that vouchers might not be effective at boosting achievement or attainment (e.g. Lubienski & Lubienski, 2014).
Methods. Leveraging lottery assignment for a student’s first choice private school, we use an experimental approach to identify the causal effect of being awarded a scholarship on students’ achievement on the state standardized test as well as their likelihood of entering college. The experimental sample in the achievement analysis includes 2,348 students, or 780 when controlling for baseline test scores. The college entrance analysis includes 1,113 randomly assigned students.
Data sources. Our analysis uses student-level data provided by the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE). Achievement is measured by student performance on the criterion-referenced tests mandated by the state for public school accountability purposes. For the college entrance analysis, we use data from the LDOE along with National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) Student Tracker Service data. The NSC collects data on college entrance from nearly all public and private post-secondary institutions. The comprehensiveness of the NSC database allows us to capture records for students in our sample who attend college outside of Louisiana.
Results. We find large negative effects of LSP voucher usage on student achievement after four years, especially in math. We find no significant difference on the rate at which treatment students enter college compared to their control counterparts. Additionally, we find no significant effect on the rate at which treatment and control students chose a four-year over a two-year post-secondary institution.
Scientific or scholarly significance. This research contributes to the existing literature on the participant effects of publicly funded voucher programs for three reasons. First, it uses a highly rigorous experimental design to estimate treatment effects while avoiding self-selection bias concerns. Second, it is among the first evaluations of a statewide school voucher program, as new private school choice initiatives tend to expand from cities to encompass entire states. Finally, this study examines student achievement and college entrance effects after four years, which allows for a more thorough understanding of how the effects of this particular voucher program evolved over time.

Authors

• Heidi Holmes Erickson, Kennesaw State University

• Jonathan N Mills, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville

• Patrick J. Wolf, University of Arkansas