Panel Paper: Experimentally Estimated Impacts of a School Choice Intervention on Long-Term Educational Outcomes: The Effects of School Vouchers on College Enrollment

Thursday, November 6, 2014 : 3:05 PM
Enchantment I (Convention Center)

*Names in bold indicate Presenter

Matthew M. Chingos, The Brookings Institution and Paul E. Peterson, Harvard University
Providing the first experimental estimate of the long-term impacts of an offer of a private-school voucher to low-income families, we link data from a privately sponsored voucher initiative, which awarded the scholarships by lottery, to college enrollment information maintained by the National Student Clearinghouse, which we are able to do for 99 percent of participants. An earlier paper based on this analysis found no significant effects on college enrollment of the offer of a voucher to attend private school, but large, significant impacts for African-American students and smaller but statistically insignificant impacts for Hispanic students. This paper will present updated results based on at least 5 years of data after presumptive high school graduation, including information on degree attainment.