The Effects of the Louisiana Scholarship Program on Student Achievement and College Entrance
Erickson, Heidi H.; Mills, Jonathan N.; Wolf, Patrick J. (2021). Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, v14 n4 p861-899. Retrieved from: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1314473
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examining2,745Students, grades1-12
Single Study Review
Review Details
Reviewed: December 2021
- Single Study Review (findings for Louisiana Scholarship Program)
- Randomized Controlled Trial
- Meets WWC standards without reservations because it is a randomized controlled trial with low attrition.
This review may not reflect the full body of research evidence for this intervention.
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Findings
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Outcome measure |
Comparison | Period | Sample |
Intervention mean |
Comparison mean |
Significant? |
Improvement index |
Evidence tier |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
College Enrollment |
Louisiana Scholarship Program vs. Business as usual |
5 Years |
College entrance sample (students in grades 7-12);
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34.90 |
31.70 |
No |
-- | ||
| Show Supplemental Findings | |||||||||
|
College Enrollment - 2 Year Institution |
Louisiana Scholarship Program vs. Business as usual |
5 Years |
College entrance sample (students in grades 7-12);
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21.10 |
17.80 |
No |
-- | ||
|
College Enrollment - 4 Year Institution |
Louisiana Scholarship Program vs. Business as usual |
5 Years |
College entrance sample (students in grades 7-12);
|
13.70 |
13.90 |
No |
-- | ||
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Sample Characteristics
Characteristics of study sample as reported by study author.
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Female: 52%
Male: 48% -
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Louisiana
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Race Black 90% Other or unknown 5% White 5% -
Ethnicity Hispanic 2% Not Hispanic or Latino 98%
Study Details
Setting
This study is an evaluation of the Louisiana Scholarship Program (LSP), which offered publicly funded school vouchers to students from low-income families who attend poor performing public schools in Louisiana. The vouchers provide tuition funding to allow students to attend one of a set of participating private schools in the state. LSP began as a pilot program in New Orleans in 2008, expanding to a statewide initiative in 2012. The program was available to students who have family incomes at or below 250% of the federal poverty line and who attended a public school that received a grade of C or lower in the Louisiana accountability system. Those who met the income criteria and attended school in the state's Recovery School District are also eligible, as were those students who met the income criteria and entered kindergarten during the study period.
Study sample
Students included in the analysis for academic achievement were enrolled in grades one through five when they applied for the LSP, while those in the college enrollment group were in grades seven through twelve. The majority (90%) of the sample was African American, with a near even split between males (48%) and females (52%). Because of the requirements of the program, all students had family incomes at or below 250% of the federal poverty line.
Intervention Group
The intervention examined is the Louisiana Scholarship Program (LSP), which provides publicly funded vouchers to low- and moderate-income students attending low-performing public schools. The vouchers allow students to enroll in participating private schools and provide funds to do so, with funding level defined as either the total amount of the student's state and local funding at their public school or the tuition charged by the private school attended by the voucher recipient.
Comparison Group
Students in the comparison group were comprised of students who did not receive a scholarship to their first choice school in LSP. They may have attended a private school that was not their first choice using the LSP scholarship or attended a public school.
Support for implementation
No information was provided about implementation support.
An indicator of the effect of the intervention, the improvement index can be interpreted as the expected change in percentile rank for an average comparison group student if that student had received the intervention.
For more, please see the WWC Glossary entry for improvement index.
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The sample on which the analysis was conducted.
The group to which the intervention group is compared, which may include a different intervention, business as usual, or no services.
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The number of students included in the analysis.
The mean score of students in the intervention group.
The mean score of students in the comparison group.
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Study findings for this report.
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