Experimentally Estimated Impacts of School Voucher on Educational Attainments of Moderately and Severely Disadvantaged Students

This randomized control trial by Albert Cheng, Matthew M. Chingos, and Paul E. Peterson examines the effects of a private school voucher on college attendance and graduation for disadvantaged minority students. The authors compare students who received a voucher in an oversubscribed voucher lottery to students who entered the voucher lottery but did not receive a voucher; they also compare students who come from moderately disadvantaged families (those who have a college-educated parent or have an income above the median income of the voucher applicant sample) with those from severely disadvantaged families (those who do not have a college-educated parent or have an income below the median income of the voucher applicant sample). The authors find that students from disadvantaged families become more likely to attend and graduate from a four-year college when they have received a voucher; however, the effect of coming from a severely disadvantaged household negates any change in college-going behavior.