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Evaluation of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program:

NCEE 2009-4050
March 2009

Table 1.  OSP Applicants by Program Status, Cohorts 1 Through 5, Years 2004-2008


  Cohort 1
(Spring 2004)
Cohort 2
(Spring 2005)
Total
Cohort 1 and
Cohort 2
Cohort 3
(Spring 2006),
Cohort 4
(Spring 2007),
and Cohort 5
(Spring 2008)
Total, All
Cohorts
Applicants 2,692 3,126 5,818 2,034 7,852
Eligible applicants 1,848 2,199 4,047 1,284 5,331
Scholarship awardees 1,366 1,088 2,454 1,284 3,738
Scholarship users in initial year of receipt 1,027 797 1,824 1,057 2,881
Scholarship users fall 2005 919 797 1,716 N/A 1,716
Scholarship users fall 2006 788 684 1,472 333 1,805
Scholarship users fall 2007 678 581 1,259 671 1,930
Scholarship users fall 2008 496 411 909 807 1,714
NOTES: Because most participating private schools closed their enrollments by mid-spring, applicants generally had their eligibility determined based on income and residency, and the lotteries were held prior to the administration of baseline tests. Therefore, baseline testing was not a condition of eligibility for most applicants. The exception was applicants entering the highly oversubscribed grades 6-12 in cohort 2. Those who did not participate in baseline testing were deemed ineligible for the lottery and were not included in the eligible applicant figure presented above, though they were counted in the applicant total. In other words, the cohort 2 applicants in grades 6-12 had to satisfy income, residency, and baseline testing requirements before they were designated eligible applicants and entered in the lottery.
The initial year of scholarship receipt was fall 2004 for cohort 1, fall 2005 for cohort 2, fall 2006 for cohort 3, fall 2007 for cohort 4, and fall 2008 for cohort 5.
SOURCES: OSP applications and WSF’s enrollment and payment files.