Gadfly Bites 7/8/16 - Lots of folks evaluate our evaluation of the EdChoice Scholarship Program

In case you missed it, Fordham Ohio released a new report yesterday—Evaluation of Ohio’s EdChoice Scholarship Program—a first-of-its kind rigorous examination of the state’s largest voucher program. Say what you will about the frankly disappointing findings but never say that Fordham is afraid to go where the data lead. Here is the higher-level coverage the report received both in Ohio and nationally. More to come, I imagine:

1. Ohio’s voucher students fare worse than public-school peers, study finds (Columbus Dispatch, 7/7/16)
2. Study: Public-school students test better than voucher users (Associated Press, 7/7/16) – more than two-dozen outlets published this AP piece, which mainly notes that the Dispatch covered our report.
3. Ohio Study Latest to Show Poor Voucher Results: 7 Theories Dissect The Trend (The 74 Million blog, 7/7/16)
4. Ohio Vouchers Have Mixed Impact on Student Performance, Study Finds (Education Week. 7/7/16)
5. Study Finds Failing Ohio Voucher-Funded Schools Perform Worse than Public School Counterparts (WKSU-FM, Kent, 7/7/16) – ran in other public media outlets as well
    
6. Principal investigator on the EdChoice evaluation, Dr. David Figlio, presented his findings and took audience questions at a City Club of Cleveland event yesterday. You can find audio and video of the presentation here. (City Club of Cleveland, 7/7/16)
    
7. In other news, this is a nice discussion of what we are calling around here “the HB2 effect”. Many of the charter school reforms included in that landmark piece of legislation have yet to really take root since passage, but in anticipation of that inevitability many charter schools and sponsors are altering their behavior. For example, 20 existing charter schools will close their doors for good this summer. A huge number. The closures were equally split between schools whose sponsors declined to renew their contracts and schools which decided to close voluntarily for one reason or another. Those who’d lost their sponsors applied, as is normal, to the Ohio Department of Education in an effort to remain open. ODE, for the first time, denied all such applications. Chad is quoted in support of these outcomes and declares the era of “sponsor-hopping” for bad charter schools over. (Gongwer Ohio, 7/7/16)