Dive Brief:

• Tulane University professor Douglas N. Harris, the directing founder of the Education Research Alliance (ERA) for New Orleans, writes in Education Next that four new Technical Reports and a Policy Brief released by the ERA point to an overall failure of the state's voucher system to improve student performance.
• Private school students who used the vouchers scored 13 percentage points lower than peers in math, and flat-lined in reading.
• Yet alternately, the voucher program has reduced racial segregation in Louisiana schools, helping black students enroll in schools that had served majority white students.

Dive Insight:

Harris downplays the voucher program's success at integrating schools, saying "...while I personally think segregation is an important issue, it is not one of the objectives of the program."

Harris also notes that the studies, which cover the last two years, aren't lengthy enough to critically determine either the success or failure of the voucher program. At question, according to Harris, is how long the program should continue before its fate is decided. 

School integration is proven to improve student performance, and research has shown it's critical in closing the racial and socioeconomic achievement gap. A report released last month from The Century Foundation found that increased integration is beneficial for the academic advancement of historically disenfranchised student populations. Only 91 school districts in 32 states have socioeconomic integration policies.