Kids in Milwaukee choice program still 17% more likely to finish, study says

Erin Richards:

High school graduation rates increased for both Milwaukee Public Schools students and low-income city children using vouchers to attend private schools in 2008-'09, but voucher students are still more likely to graduate than their public school peers, according to data released Monday.

The latest findings add a seventh year of data - for 2008-'09 - to a study that has followed the graduation rates of both groups of students since 2002-'03.

Because the latest graduation rate went up 5 percentage points from the previous year for both Milwaukee Parental Choice Program and MPS students, the report contends that choice (also called voucher) students were 17% more likely to graduate from high school than children in MPS over the past two years of the study.

For voucher school students, the graduation rate increased to 82% in 2008-'09; for MPS students, it increased to 70%, the study says.

Wisconsin is ripe for many more student/parental choices.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at January 12, 2011 2:05 AM
Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas