Working Papers
Our working papers promote dialogue about privatization in education. The papers are diverse in topic, including research reviews and original research, and are grounded in a range of disciplinary and methodological approaches. The views presented in the papers are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Center.
Submit a Paper
The Center encourages submission of new research. Please email ncspe@columbia.edu with an abstract or draft submission.
Drivers and Hurdles to the Regulation of Education Markets: The Political Economy of Chilean Reform, WP-239, 2019
Author(s): Adrián Zancajo
Adrián Zancajo explores the striking reversal of voucher policy in Chile in 2014. Through examination of 30 key policy documents and interviews with 37 stakeholders involved in this transformation, Zancajo reveals a telling story about the forces in Chile for and against modification of the country’s market-based system of schooling. For more about this working paper, see the NCSPE announcement.
Vouchers Come to Louisiana, WP-227, 2015
Author(s): Amber Peterson
Vouchers have recently gained significant ground with the introduction of statewide programs in Indiana in 2011, Louisiana in 2012, and Nevada in 2015. In this paper, Amber Peterson provides a concise, balanced assessment of the state’s voucher program. Peterson explains the evolution of the program, eligibility requirements for both students and schools, distribution of participating private schools throughout the state, outreach efforts by the state, barriers to enrollment, and problems with school assessment. For more about this working paper, see the NCSPE announcement.
Educational Vouchers and Social Cohesion: A Statistical Analysis of Student Civic Attitudes in Sweden, 1999-2009, WP-218, 2013
Author(s): M. Najeeb Shafiq and John P. Myers
This study examines the Swedish national educational voucher scheme and changes in social cohesion. We suspected that social cohesion would decline because vouchers in other countries have typically resulted in segregation, and also because Sweden’s private schools were not required to teach civics. We conduct a statistical analysis using data from the 1999 and 2009 rounds of the IEA Civic Education Study of 14-year-old students and their attitudes toward the rights of ethnic minorities and immigrants. Using regression models, we do not find evidence of a decline in civic attitudes and therefore social cohesion. We attribute the results to Sweden’s voucher design and context that minimized segregation and preserved civics curricula in all schools.
Parents and teachers on local school markets: Evidence from Sweden, WP-208, 2012
Author(s): Nihad Bunar
This article examines several major features of local school markets in two mid-sized municipalities in Sweden. Empirical material collected for the study consists of interviews with 81 school stakeholders and an extensive review of official documents, statistics and literature. Both parents and teachers interviewed in the study have reported several distinctly positive outcomes of school competition, such as pedagogical improvements, new profiles, increased communication and better cooperation between teachers and parents. However, they also described increased segregation, stress attached to making a choice, excessive time devoted to marketing and grade inflation as a way to improve a school’s position in the market. I argue that a) even if independent schools appear to be winners, the organizational habitat of a school is not exclusively correlated with its position in the market and that b) a school’s ranking is critically dependent on its neighborhood, the representation of highly educated parents, the number of immigrant students enrolled and the reputation and status of the school in the community. The overall conclusion is that the practical implementation of school choice policy in these two municipalities has both built on and continued to promote the socially unjust and segregating foundations of the educational system.
Educational Voucher Scheme in Lahore: Serving the Underserved, WP-203, 2012
Author(s): Ali Ansari
The primary education sector in Pakistan faces many challenges relating to access to education and quality of resources. This paper evaluates the Educational Voucher Scheme (EVS) in Lahore, Pakistan aimed at increasing access to primary schooling for low income families residing in the underdeveloped areas of Lahore by using the four criteria for evaluating privatization plans in education outlined by Levin (2002): Freedom of choice, equity, productive efficiency and social cohesion. The study finds that the EVS is associated with greater choice for families as they move from a situation of little or no schooling options to a situation of many schooling options. Similarly, the EVS increases equity by providing lower income families with access to private schools, and because, as studies of private schools in Pakistan have found, that on average, private schools are associated with better resources and academic outcomes particularly for girls. Student achievement data from the EVS is limited however, the sample shows that on the whole EVS students are doing no worse than their non-EVS peers. Furthermore, studies of private schools in Pakistan show they may have a cost advantage over public schools due to lower teacher wages in the private sector therefore, the EVS could potentially lead to increased productive efficiency in the form of higher student achievement and lower school costs by giving families the opportunity to send their children to private schools. Lastly, due to the lack of regulations on participating schools, social cohesion may not be achieved under the EVS as there is no way to ensure that students experience a common educational experience. However, if individuals in society are expected to possess some minimum level of literacy to participate in social and economic institutions, then it can be argued that the EVS could increase social cohesion by equipping children with basic literacy skills.
Vouchers, Responses and the Test Taking Population: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from Florida, WP-199, 2012
Author(s): Rajashri Chakrabarti
As the number of charter schools has grown nationally, there is increasing discussion of the consolidation of such schools into charter districts in which all schools would be charter schools from which parents would have the freedom to choose the school that they wished their student to attend. A major question is how such a charter school district would be organized to support its schools and who would perform the different functions required. It is argued that three economic guidelines need to be an important determinant of the solution to this question: the presence of economies of scale; transaction costs; and externalities. The article describes the application of these guidelines to the formation of a charter school district and suggests the different possibilities for addressing a range of important roles by schools, their districts and intermediate organizations and markets.
Competitive Effects of Means-Tested School Vouchers, WP-191, 2010
Author(s): David Figlio & Cassandra M. D. Hart
We study the effects of private school competition on public school students’ test scores in the wake of Florida’s Corporate Tax Credit Scholarship program, now known as the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program, which offered scholarships to eligible low-income students to attend private schools. Specifically, we examine whether students in schools that were exposed to a more competitive private school landscape saw greater improvements in their test scores after the introduction of the scholarship program, than did students in schools that faced less competition. The degree of competition is characterized by several geocoded variables that capture students’ ease of access to private schools, and the variety of nearby private school options open to students. We find that greater degrees of competition are associated with greater improvements in students’ test scores following the introduction of the program; these findings are robust to the different variables we use to define competition. These findings are not an artifact of pre-policy trends; the degree of competition from nearby private schools matters only after the announcement of the new program, which makes nearby private competitors more affordable for eligible students. We also test for several moderating factors, and find that schools that we would expect to be most sensitive to competitive pressure see larger improvements in their test scores as a result of increased competition.
Parental Choice in the Netherlands: Growing Concerns about Segregation, WP-182, 2009
Author(s): Helen F. Ladd, Edward B. Fiske, & Nienke Ruijs
The Netherlands has a long history of parental choice and school autonomy. This paper examines why segregation by educational disadvantage has only recently emerged as a policy issue in the Netherlands. In addition, we document the levels and trends of school segregation in Dutch cities. We find segregation levels that are high both absolutely and relative to those in the U.S. cities. Current efforts to limit segregation in Dutch cities inevitably confront the deeply held Dutch value of freedom of education.
Choice, Vouchers and the Consequences for Public High Schools: Lessons from Australia, WP-181, 2009
Author(s): Louise Watson and Chris Ryan
For over three decades, government subsidies have been a major source of funds for private schools in Australia and private schools now enrol over one third of all students. Analysing administrative and participation data, we find that Australian private schools have used government subsidies to increase the quality of their services (ie. to reduce student: teacher ratios) rather than to reduce their fees. As a consequence, the socio-economic composition of private schools has remained unchanged whilst a higher proportion of public school students now come from low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds. The Australian experience suggests that weighted voucher schemes are not likely to facilitate access to private schools for low SES students, without significant government policy intervention.
The Effectiveness of Private Voucher Education: Evidence from Structural School Switches, WP-180, 2009
Author(s): Bernardo Lara, Alejandra Mizala, & Andrea Repetto
In this paper we analyze the effect of private voucher education on student academic performance using new data on Chilean students and a novel identification strategy. Most schools in Chile provide either primary or secondary education. We analyze the effect of private voucher education on students that are forced to enroll at a different school to attend secondary education once graduated from primary schooling –structural switches. Moreover the data set used in this paper contains information on previous academic achievement and thus allows us to identify differences in students’ unobservable characteristics. Using a number of propensity score based econometric techniques and changes-in-changes estimation methods we find that private voucher education leads to small, sometimes not statistically significant differences in academic performance. The estimated effect of private voucher education amounts to about 4 to 6 percent of one standard deviation in test scores. The literature on Chile based on cross sectional data had previously found positive effects of about 15 to 20 percent of one standard deviation.
For-profit Schooling and the Politics of Education Reform in Chile: When Ideology Trumps Evidence, WP-178, 2009
Author(s): Gregory Elacqua
For-profit schooling is one of the most hotly debated issues in education policy discussions in Chile. Proponents argue that for-profit schools have incentives to reduce costs and to innovate, leading to both higher quality and greater efficiency in education. Critics maintain that for-profit schools cannot be trusted to place the interest of children over profitability. Buried in this position is the belief that for-profits would cut quality in the process of cutting costs. Researchers can gain insight into this debate by examining school systems where vouchers have been implemented on a large scale and where for-profit and non-profit school supply has increased. In 1981, Chile began financing public and most private schools with vouchers. Education in Chile occurs in a mixed market with 46 percent of students enrolled in public schools, 31 percent in for-profit voucher schools, 16 percent in non-profit (religious and secular) voucher schools, and 7 percent in private non-voucher schools. This paper compares the academic achievement of fourth and eighth-grade students across for-profit, non-profit and public schools. What I find is a mixed story. Initial results indicate that non-profits have a small advantage over for-profit and public schools and forprofit school students have slightly higher test scores than comparable public school students at fourth grade, once student and peer attributes and selection bias are controlled for. There is no significant difference in achievement between for-profit and public eighth grade students. When for-profits and non-profits are subdivided by ownership, for-profit chains and Catholic schools have a substantial advantage over other sectors. There is not a consistent statistically significant difference between for-profit independent and public schools. In some cases, evangelical schools produce the lowest achievement.
Evaluation of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program: Impacts After Three Years (NCEE 2009-4050), WP-174, 2009
Author(s): Patrick Wolf, Babette Gutmann, Michael Puma, Brian Kisida, Lou Rizzo and Nada Eissa
The DC School Choice Incentive Act of 2003 established the first federally funded private school voucher program in the United States, providing scholarships of up to $7,500 for low-income residents of the District of Columbia to send their children to local participating private schools. The law also mandated that the Department conduct an independent, rigorous impact evaluation of what is now called the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP). The study's latest report, Evaluation of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program: Impacts After Three Years, measures the effects of the Program on student achievement in reading and math, and on student and parent perceptions of school satisfaction and safety.
The evaluation found that the OSP improved reading, but not math, achievement overall and for 5 of 10 subgroups of students examined. The group designated as the highest priority by Congress — students applying from "schools in need of improvement" (SINI) — did not experience achievement impacts. Students offered scholarships did not report being more satisfied or feeling safer than those who were not offered scholarships, however the OSP did have a positive impact on parent satisfaction and perceptions of school safety. This same pattern of findings holds when the analysis is conducted to determine the impact of using a scholarship rather than being offered a scholarship.