THE 123 s OF SCHOOL CHOICE - What the research says about private school choice programs in America - 2025 EDITION

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Kyle

An overview of findings on private school choice programs in America, presenting updated research for the 2025 edition. The content explains EdChoice’s mission and outlines what’s new, including new fiscal analyses and educational attainment studies tied to specific state programs. It also describes methodological updates to include quasi-experimental evidence on participant test scores, reflecting changes in the available research landscape and stakeholder interest in more recent evaluations.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages52

Reading Time2 h 11 min

AccessFree to download

About EdChoice

What’s New This Year?

NEW RESEARCH

NEW INCLUSIONS

RESEARCH OVERVIEWS

Program Participant Test Scores

Program Participant Educational Attainment

Parent Satisfaction

Public School Students’ Academics

Civic Values and Practices

Racial/Ethnic Integration

Fiscal Effects

School Safety and Climate

Other Reviews of Research

Appendix 1: Bibliography

Appendix 2: How to Use Research

Appendix 3: Methodology

Notes

Contributions

THE 123 s OF SCHOOL CHOICE What the research says about private school choice programs in America 2025 EDITION 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS About EdChoice ................................................... 03 What’s New This Year? ........................................ 04 Cumulative Number by Year ............................... 09 Overall Effects Counts ........................................ 10 Appendix 1: Bibliography ..................................... 38 Appendix 2: How to Use Research ........................ 43 Appendix 3: Methodology ..................................... 45 Notes ................................................................... 48 Contributions ...................................................... 48 RESEARCH OVERVIEWS Program Participant Test Scores ....................... 13 Program Participant Educational Attainment .... 16 Parent Satisfaction ............................................. 19 Public School Students’ Academics ................... 22 Civic Values and Practices ................................. 25 Racial/Ethnic Integration ................................... 28 Fiscal Effects ...................................................... 31 School Safety and Climate .................................. 36 Other Reviews of Research ................................ 39 ABOUT EDCHOICE EdChoice is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, nonpartisan organization. Our mission is to advance educational freedom and choice for all as a pathway to successful lives and a stronger society. We are committed to understanding and pursuing a K–12 education ecosystem that empowers every family to choose the learning environment that fits their children’s needs best. EdChoice is the intellectual legacy of Milton and Rose D. Friedman, who founded the organization in 1996 asthe Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice. The contents ofthis publication are intended to provide empirical information and should not be construed as lobbying for any position related to any legislation. 3 WHAT’S NEW THIS YEAR? 4 NEW RESEARCH Since releasing the first edition in 2019, we’ve updated The 123s every year with all the newly published studies that fall within our inclusion criteria (please see Appendix) . Since the 2024 edition, three new studies have been published. • Michael Griffith and Dion Burns of the Learning Policy Institute published a fiscal analysis of Arizona’s ESA program. Using publicly available enrollment and cost data from the Arizona Department of Education, the researchers calculated the net fiscal effect of the 2022 expansion, which made all Arizona K–12 students eligible for the ESA program, on the 2022-23 school year. Due to data limitations, the researchers estimated the fiscal effect for the 2023- 24 school year. This study found a net cost to the ESA expansion due to the 2022-23 switching rate and the estimated switching rate for 2023-24 . One limitation of this study is the assumption that all ESA students who joined in 2022-23 or 2023-24 were not already participating in one of Arizona’stax credit scholarship programs, but data on students switching from these programs to the ESA are not available. • Matthew Chingos, David Figlio, and Krzysztof Karbownik studied the effect of Ohio’s EdChoice Scholarship Program on college enrollment and graduation, which was published by the Urban Institute. (EdChoice is not affiliated with Ohio’s EdChoice Scholarship Program.) By matching public school students and voucher students, a quasi-experimental statistical technique, the researchers found that participating in the EdChoice Scholarship Program hada significant positive effect on enrollment in and graduation from all college types. Additionally, the researchers found that the voucher had a positive effect on the college enrollment and graduation of students who remained in public schools. This is the first competitive effects analysis to look at the educational a

FAQs

What is EdChoice’s purpose in publishing The 123s?

EdChoice is a nonprofit organization focused on advancing educational freedom and choice, and The 123s provides empirical information intended to inform school choice discussions without lobbying for legislative positions.

What new research was added in the 2025 edition?

The edition adds fiscal and educational attainment studies, including analyses of Arizona’s ESA expansion, Ohio’s EdChoice Scholarship Program effects on college enrollment and graduation, and fiscal analyses for multiple new programs across several states.

Why did the edition expand participant test score research to include quasi-experimental studies?

The document states two reasons: public interest in more recent quasi-experimental evidence and the rarity of lotteries for scarce vouchers, which makes randomized gold-standard research uncommon; quasi-experimental work is used as a “next best” approach.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Kyle