The consequence of Expanded Private School Choice on Student Proficiency in underperforming Schools: Evidence from the Ohio educational choice scholarship

This paper aims to examine whether expanded private school choice policy effects student proficiency in underperforming schools and how outcomes vary in the post-expansion period. Focusing on the Ohio Educational Choice Scholarship (EdChoice), this study employed a comparative interrupted time-series estimation with school-census tract panel data for the years 2010 through 2017. Two important results were found. First, this study identified the effects of EdChoice expansion on student proficiency and the effect driven by the status of each underperforming school. Second, changes in student proficiency varied in the post-expansion years of the EdChoice. The empirical evidence implies that higher achieving students tend to opt out of underperforming schools based on a decreasing pattern of student proficiency in later years.