US Department of Education Claims That Vouchers Improve Graduation Rates: Junk Science at Its Best
I recently began reading Dan Agin’s book Junk Science: An Overdue Indictment of Government, Industry, and Faith Groups That Twist Science for Their Own Gain. In that book, Agin goes to great lengths to point out how special interests in government, commerce, and the “faith” industry are using “junk” science to change or sway public opinion toward their own biased positions. Yesterday, the US Department of Education released their report entitled “Evaluation of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program.” The results of that report include the following:
- There is no conclusive evidence that the Opportunity Scholarship Program affected student achievement. “On average, after at least four years students who were offered (or used) scholarships had reading and math scores that were statistically similar to those who were not offered scholarships.”
- The program significantly improved students’ chances of graduating from high school. “The offer of an Opportunity Scholarship Program Scholarship raised students’ probability of completing high school by 12 percentage points overall. The graduation rate based on parent-provided information was 82 percent for the treatment group compared to 70 percent for the control group.
- The Opportunity Scholarship Program raised parents’, but
