From the August 14, 1996 Daily Report Card:
-> *6   VOUCHERS WORK:  MILWAUKEE STUDENTS SHOW PERFORMANCE GAIN
->    Milwaukee students who attend private schools as part of the
-> city's school choice program have posted higher test scores in
-> reading and math after four years than their public school
-> counterparts (AP/PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 8/13).  The latest
-> findings run counter to an earlier report that found the voucher
-> students in private schools performed no better than public
-> school students.
->    In 1994, U of Wisconsin professor John Witte found that
-> although parental support of the voucher program was high, school
-> choice had not improved student performance.  (See DRC 1-11-94)
-> More recently, researchers from Harvard U and the U of
-> Houston recently compared about 1,000 mostly minority students in
-> private schools with approximately 400 disadvantaged students who
-> applied for vouchers but were not enrolled in the program due to lack
-> of space, writes the paper.  An examination of test scores revealed
-> that voucher students in their third year scored an
-> average of 3 percentage points higher on standardized reading
-> tests and 5 points higher on math tests than the public school
-> cohort.  At the fourth-year mark, voucher students scored 11
-> percentage points higher on math and nearly 5 points higher in
-> reading than the public school students.
->    George Mitchell, a Milwaukee education consultant, commented
-> that the study is "significant given that for the last five years all
-> that we have heard is that the program has had no impact."
-> He added that "this is going to redefine the debate."
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