The primary purpose of the participant effects study is to collect information on how receiving a scholarship affects recipient families over a period of at least five years. In particular, we will focus on whether scholarship recipients benefit academically by virtue of having been given a scholarship. We will also examine the differences between the public and private schools in evaluation sites that may account for any academic benefits of receiving a scholarship to attend private school.

In addition, we will study a number of other issues related to the effects of the program on participants. We will collect information on how receiving a scholarship affects parental reports of satisfaction with schools and family interactions with each other, particularly regarding education. We will also collect information on the smaller charter school populations that may participate in the program and on how charter schooling affects important cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes.

The availability of scholarships will be advertised on a very extensive basis. Therefore, it is expected that the number of eligible students will exceed both the number of available scholarships and the number of available seats in preferred private schools – thereby enabling the lottery to be both a fair way to allocate scarce resources and an instrument for conducting an experimental evaluation of the program. Attempts will be made to follow all initial study participants through the course of the study, whether they (1) avail themselves of the programmatic treatment, (2) decline the treatment offered to them, or (3) are not offered the treatment.

See our Reports section to view our publications in this area.