A Think Twice Review of:

The 123s of School Choice: What the Research Says About Private School Choice: 2019 Edition

Think Twice - Jun 11, 2019

Publisher/Think Tank - EdChoice

Author(s) - Andrew Catt, Paul DiPerna, Martin Lueken, Michael McShane, and Michael Shaw

A recent report from EdChoice presents itself as a yearly updated list and synthesis of empirical studies exploring the impacts of school vouchers across a set of outcomes. But a new review of the report finds that it fails to provide a robust summary of the research literature on vouchers and their full range of positive and negative impacts.

Reviewer(s) - T. Jameson Brewer, of the University of North Georgia

What Dr. Brewer found instead was a limited collection of cherry-picked studies, largely from non-peer-reviewed sources, and primarily authored by voucher advocates. The report’s misrepresentation of the existing research, combined with its use of the questionable methodology of simply counting up results categorized as positive or negative, results in an overall appearance of stacking the deck to create an illusory compilation of studies that profess to bolster EdChoice’s predetermined commitment to cheerleading school vouchers.