Abstract: Recommendations for Further Research, by Carlos, Todd, Elizabeth, and Chris:

Voucher programs have been bolstered over the past decade by the Supreme Court’s decision in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris in 2002, the high rates of satisfaction among program participants, and generally positive public feelings about vouchers.  However, data on the effects of voucher programs on participants and on public education systems are both mixed and lacking.  Therefore, while we suggest that voucher programs may be a truly promising prospect for closing the achivement gap in urban education, we recommend that further research and evaluations be done of various voucher programs, in order to inform policy decisions going forward.  This paper outlines and justifies our recommendations, detailing the type of voucher programs we think should be piloted and how these programs should be evaluated and funded.

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