Second Study Questions Research Linking Voucher Threat to Gains

By Jessica L. Sandham

Debate continued last week over a recent report that connected gains in student achievement in Florida to the state's voucher program, as another scholar came forward to question the conclusions of the Manhattan Institute study.

In an academic article published on March 19, a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder contends that the substantial gains on state tests achieved by Florida schools facing the threat of vouchers might be due to schools' efforts to achieve minimum passing scores on the writing portion of the exam. The analysis came in response to the report released last month by the Manhattan Institute, in which researcher Jay P. Greene concluded that a "voucher effect" had motivated low-performing schools to achieve at higher levels.

"I saw Greene's report as partial," said Haggai Kupermintz, an assistant professor in the research and evaluation methodology program at the University of Colorado's school of education and the author of the new article. "I thought there was something more in the data than was...