Think Tank Report’s Conclusions about School Choice and Integration Overreach Data and Analyses

 

October 4, 2006

For Immediate Release

 

Contact:

Teri Battaglieri, Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice

(517) 203- 2940 (e-mail) greatlakescenter@greatlakescenter.org


Gary Ritter,
University of Arkansas

(479) 575-4971 (e-mail) garyr@uark.edu

 

 

EAST LANSING, Mich.-- A new report from the Buckeye Institute and the Friedman Foundation, “Segregation Levels in Cleveland Public Schools and the Cleveland Voucher Program” finds that private schools participating in the Cleveland voucher program are less segregated than the city’s public schools.

 

In a Think Twice review of this report, University of Arkansas Associate Professor Gary Ritter says that while this finding is important, it says little about whether voucher programs would increase or decrease segregation. Ritter notes that the report documents that private schools are less segregated in Cleveland’s center city, but are more segregated nationwide.

 

Ritter indicates that though the methodology and analysis in the report appear sound, the conclusions drawn by its authors should have been more cautious and some “overreach” the data presented. He warns that with regard to the effect of school choice plans on segregation, the Cleveland and national data in the report offer only a small piece of a very large puzzle.

 

Ritter suggests that policymakers should pay attention to the two key results of the data analysis found in the report and consider the possible implications.  “First, they should approach any nationwide choice schemes with caution, as such schemes may well move students into less racially integrated private schools.  Second, however, the Cleveland example suggests that policymakers should not be fearful that public-private voucher schemes in city centers would have the deleterious effect of moving students into private schools that are more racially segregated than the public schools that they would leave.”

 

Find Professor Ritter’s review and a link to the Buckeye/Friedman report at: http://www.greatlakescenter.org. 

 

The Think Twice project provides the public, policy makers and the press with timely, academically sound reviews of selected think tank publications. It is a collaboration of the Education Policy Studies Laboratory at Arizona State University and the Education and the Public Interest Center at the University of Colorado and is funded by the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice.

 

 

The mission of the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice is to identify, develop, support, publish and widely disseminate empirically sound research on education policy and practices designed to improve the quality of public education for all students within the Great Lakes Region. 

Visit the Great Lakes Center website at: http://www.greatlakescenter.org