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Josh Cowen

@joshcowenMSU

Dec 15

@NPEaction

Another glaring gap between the actual Fordham #ohioed #schoolvouchers results and the spin from its Forward is on student achievement.
@NPEaction @Network4pubEd @PV4PS @OhioPEP @StephenODyer @CLub_edu @SchlFinance101
1/

The actual researchers clearly say their results are due to changes in student composition—with #schoolvouchers by design drawing more lower income students (ie also lower ave test scores) away from districts.

So districts didn’t actually improve #education due to vouchers
2/

They just lost lower scoring kids.

“But wait!” #schoolvouchers activists may say, “that shows vouchers are admitting poorer kids!”

True enough but there’s no evidence voucher programs know how to *serve* those kids.

Quite the opposite:
3/

Read 6 tweets

Josh Cowen

@joshcowenMSU

Dec 15

https://twitter.com/CLub_edu/status/1603206583336460291

It’s the #schoolvouchers two-step playbook:

❌ set up a bar they know they’ll pass by saying “critics say…”
❌ barely pass and celebrate.

But there’s never discussion of relative effects:

1/

https://twitter.com/CLub_edu/status/1603206583336460291

@SchlFinance101

For example there is vastly more and stronger evidence that funding public schools has substantial and long-term effects that dwarf the tiny “competitive effects” on public schools that some #schoolvouchers studies find
#schoolfinance @SchlFinance101 @dsknight84

2/

@Network4pubEd

And Fordham glaringly ignores its own previous study showing that students who actually use #schoolvouchers had test score drops ~ 4x the test gains by competition in the new study @Network4pubEd @OhioPEP @PV4PS

3/

Read 4 tweets

Josh Cowen

@joshcowenMSU

Dec 14

@Network4pubEd

A few general comments on this new Fordham report on #ohioed #schoolvouchers:
@Network4pubEd @PV4PS @NPEaction @NEPCtweet @pfpsorg @OhioPEP

1/ 🧵🪡
fordhaminstitute.org/ohio/research/…

First and most important: the study presents a ton of zero impacts and tiny effects. Mostly this is #schoolvouchers report about statistical noise, packaged as a win. The beauty of null results is one can see what one wants.

2/

But in what’s become a trend for Fordham, its house-written Forward makes way more of the externally done results than it should.

Basically the argument goes

“#schoolvouchers” critics say vouchers hurt but we find no evidence of vouchers doing anything! Critics are wrong!”

3/

Read 11 tweets

Josh Cowen

@joshcowenMSU

Dec 13

https://twitter.com/network4pubed/status/1602703895863648256

Imploring #edchat journalists to ask these data questions of current/proposed #SchoolVouchers schemes.

It’s how we know the so-called #COVID19 exodus for private/#homeschool will come back.

5-year voucher exit rates *before* COVID were near 💯

1/
dianeravitch.net/2022/12/12/jos…

https://twitter.com/network4pubed/status/1602703895863648256

There are 3 groups of #schoolvouchers users—each giving lie to #EducationFreedom:

🤑 long-standing #privateschool parents cashing in—far the largest group

🤔 voucher-curious kids leaving soon after (most of the rest)

😵‍💫 some stray sorters—often susceptible to recruiting

2/

There is NO evidence that #schoolvouchers give long-term “lifelines” out of so-called failing schools. They’re a tax-giveaway to parents already sending kids private…

…and for the rest a crypto-like short-term gamble that they usually back out of soon after enrolling.

3/3

Read 4 tweets

Josh Cowen

@joshcowenMSU

Dec 6

Why have #schoolvouchers programs persisted and expanded despite a more lopsided base of objective evidence against them than nearly any other current #edpolicy #education initiative?

A few reasons 🧵🪡

1/

First is that today #schoolvouchers activists are directly part of the larger #trump-style revanchist and anti-democratic turn in American politics since Obama’s second term.

Politically their success is intertwined.
2/

But as a policy matter too we see #schoolvouchers linger around even as #education research has tried to place itself in an #evidencebased position to inform policy.

If evidence were all that informed #edpolicy then vouchers would have been dead a decade ago.

3/

Read 13 tweets

Josh Cowen

@joshcowenMSU

Dec 5

https://twitter.com/palan57/status/1599597163192778752

One reason #schoolvouchers are still described as having “mixed” outcomes is the success of advocates propping up shoddy studies to flood the zone and offset quality evaluations showing dreadful impacts.

But it’s also because few people know what “mixed” truly looks like.

1/

https://twitter.com/palan57/status/1599597163192778752

But another reason is non-researchers don’t know what “mixed” truly looks like. #SchoolVouchers outcomes are mixed compared to a standard of “all results show bad outcomes.”

Most do—and all recent do—but not all studies ever show negative.

2/

But that’s not the question. Relative to other #edpolicy questions #schoolvouchers research over the last decade is entirely one-sided.

I could tell a data-driven story on either side of many #edpolicy questions. Where you have to decide the general tendency not an absolute

3/

Read 6 tweets

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