Letter To The Editor Of The Washington Post

by
Alex Molnar

Center for Education Research, Analysis, and Innovation
School of Education
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
PO Box 413
Milwaukee WI 53201
414-229-2716

February 29, 2000

CERAI-00-09

Letters to the Editor

The Washington Post

1150 15th St. NW

Washington, DC 20071

To the Editor:

The headline,"Vouchers Earn Positive Remarks" on Jay Mathews’ article in theWashington Post of Monday, Feb. 28, 2000, reporting on the findings of PaulPeterson and colleagues on the effects of the Washington Scholarship Fund, ismisleading.

The story reported that inonly one of the four comparisons involving test scores did children using thescholarship fund’s vouchers to attend private schools outscore their peers inpublic schools. In another of the four, however, these students trailed theirpublic school peers by a larger amount. Moreover, the result favoringthe voucher students showed up on elementary mathematics tests, which can bereadily driven up over the short term through repeated practice drills. Yetolder voucher children trailed public school children in reading, an area inwhich it is harder to manipulate test results.

Whatever advantages thechildren using scholarships enjoyed may have come from other factors that thereport does not appear to have discussed. For instance, much well-reviewedresearch has found that children in small classes outperform those in largerclasses. The children attending private schools were in classes that averagedonly 18 students while the public school classes averaged 22 pupils. Adifference of four students in classes with this size range could well produceincreased achievement for those in the smaller classes.

It is disturbing that Mr.Peterson appears to have established the habit of releasing the results of hisvoucher studies in the press well before the research findings are presented toan audience of academic peers, where they can be properly examined andcritiqued.

We should be worried aboutthe prospect of public policy being shaped by news reports describing researchthat has not been subjected to scientific peer review. A public in search ofanswers to the difficult problems facing our public schools may prematurelyembrace solutions based on inadequate data that have been overinterpreted.

Sincerely yours,

Alex Molnar

Professor and Director

Center for EducationResearch, Analysis and Innovation

cerai-00-09