School Choice and "The Truly Disadvantaged": Vouchers Boost College Going, but Not for Students in Greatest Need

Autor/inn/en	Cheng, Albert; Peterson, Paul E.
Titel	School Choice and "The Truly Disadvantaged": Vouchers Boost College Going, but Not for Students in Greatest Need
Quelle	In: Education Next, 21 (2021) 3, S.52-58 (7 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1539-9664
Schlagwörter	School Choice; Educational Vouchers; College Attendance; Academic Degrees; Educational Attainment; Program Effectiveness; Two Year Colleges; Disadvantaged Youth; Minority Group Students; Low Income Students; Access to Education; Mothers; Private Colleges; Intervention; Parent Background + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Choice of school; Schulwahl; Educational voucher; Bildungsgutschein; College; Colleges; Attendance; Hochschule; Fachhochschule; Anwesenheit; Degree; Degrees; Academic level graduation; Akademischer Grad; Hochschulabschluss; Bildungsabschluss; Bildungsgut; Benachteiligter Jugendlicher; Education; Access; Bildung; Zugang; Bildungszugang; Mother; Mutter; Privathochschule; Elternhaus
Abstract	This study looks at the impact of using a voucher on college enrollments and on degree attainment. The data covers a span of 21 years, which allows the ability to record college enrollment and attainment up to seven years after a student's anticipated date of high-school graduation and observe students' college-going behavior even if their education was interrupted. The analysis includes 2,634 students: a "treatment" group of 1,356 who received an offer of a voucher and a "control" group of 1,278 students who did not. The analysis considers enrollment and degree attainment at both two-year and four-year schools. The authors look at the impact of the voucher program in two ways: (1) the effect of being offered a voucher, whether it was ever used; and (2) the effect of actually using the voucher to attend a private school for some period of time. The authors find large differences in impacts between moderately and severely disadvantaged students. An offer of a voucher has no detectable benefit for severely disadvantaged students--minority students from either extremely low-income households or whose mothers did not enroll in college. However, for minority students who are either from a moderately low-income household or whose mother has attended college, being offered a voucher increases college-enrollment rates by about 15 percent and four-year degree attainment by about 50 percent. Those impacts are even larger if students use the voucher to enroll in a private school. The findings point to the limitations of half-tuition vouchers to promote college enrollment and graduation among the least advantaged students, as well as their potential value for those with access to greater fiscal and cultural resources. (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	Education Next Institute, Inc. Harvard Kennedy School, Taubman 310, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge, MA 02138; Fax: 617-496–4428; e-mail: Education_Next@hks.harvard.edu; Web site: https://www.educationnext.org/the-journal/
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01