Impact of school vouchers on college enrollment 

This randomized study from the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution and Harvard's Program on Education Policy and Governance examines the college-going behavior through 2011 of students who participated in a voucher experiment as elementary school students. The original data for the analysis came from an experimental evaluation of the privately funded New York School Choice Scholarships Foundation Program. In the spring of 1997, this program offered scholarships to low-income families for their elementary-age children to attend private schools. 

For the current study, researchers obtained student information that allowed them to identify over 99 percent of the students who participated in the original experiment and follow up on their college enrollment status. Findings showed no overall impacts of the vouchers on college enrollment, but did find large, statistically significant positive impacts on the college going of African-American students in the study. Specifically, the researchers report significant increases in full-time college attendance, enrollment in private four-year colleges, and enrollment in selective four-year colleges for this group of students.