The Competitive Effects of School Choice on Student Achievement: A Systematic Review

This meta-analysis study by Huriya Jabbar, Carlton J. Fong, Emily Germain, Dongmei Li, Joanna Sanchez, Wei-Ling Sun, and Michelle Devall analyzes how school choice policies' competitive effects relate to student outcomes. Focusing on student grades and test scores, the authors find the competition induced by school choice policies has a modest positive impact on student achievement. The paper emphasizes that these effects are moderated by the type of school-choice policy (such as charter schools and private school vouchers) and by student demographics. While the percentage of students qualifying for Free and Reduced Lunch (FRL) had only a limited relationship with the efficacy of school choice policies, districts with higher percentages of non-white students have greater positive effects.