Elementary school students who received scholarships through Illinois’ controversial Invest in Kids tax credit program lagged in reading and math proficiency on state standardized tests compared with public school students, according to a new report submitted to the Illinois State Board of Education Friday.
Conducted by the nonprofit research agency WestEd, the 14-month study contrasts the Illinois Assessment of Readiness reading and math scores of scholarship recipients in grades 3-8 with the average scores of public school students in the same grades. In 2022 and 2023, Invest in Kids recipients fared worse in both subjects. At the high school level, researchers juxtaposed students’ SAT performance, with mixed results.
The report, which the 2017 Invest in Kids Act mandated ISBE to create, comes in the wake of fierce debate over the merits of continuing the program past its scheduled Dec. 31, 2023, end date. Lawmakers allowed the program to sunset, bucking a national trend that’s seen several states expand or create voucher programs in recent years.
Invest in Kids supporters argued the program gave students who couldn’t otherwise access private schools a shot at a better education. Opponents said it was a diversion of tax dollars to bolster theological-based programs that exclude certain students — while Illinois continues to fall short of the state funding it’s determined public schools are owed.
As part of the Save My Scholarship coalition of groups advocating for the reinstatement of Invest in Kids this spring, leaders from Catholic, Orthodox Jewish and scholarship-granting organizations were quick to rebuke WestEd’s report.
Rather than comparing scholarship recipients’ scores to state averages, they should be compared with the scores of public school students from similar socioeconomic backgrounds, coalition members said in a news release Wednesday. Invest in Kids eligibility was limited to students whose families earned up to 300% of the poverty level in the year before they applied. Without proper context, Save My Scholarship said the study results were meaningless.
“What belies this flawed study is the overwhelming satisfaction parents and students provided regarding their schools’ safety, climate, teachers, and educational opportunities,” said Bobby Sylvester, executive director of Empower Illinois. Among a handful of organizations the Department of Revenue certified to accept Invest in Kids donations, grant students scholarships and retain up to 5% in fees, Empower Illinois received the majority of contributions, $51 million, last year.
“The Illinois legislature must renew the Invest in Kids Act … to help level the playing field for low-income students,” he said.
Cassie Creswell, executive director of Illinois Families for Public Schools, advocated for the state to sunset Invest in Kids. “Not showing evidence that this was a good use of public-tax dollars,” she said the study “reinforces that the legislature was right not to continue the program.”
However, like proponents of the program, Creswell said the first and final report on Invest in Kids doesn’t rise to the level of analysis dictated by state statute, which mandated annual reporting involving demographic data WestEd researchers said was unavailable.
“There’s not really oversight and transparency and accountability,” she said of Invest in Kids. Unlike ISBE’s reporting on public schools, Creswell added that attendance, graduation and retention rates, grades, and data on discipline, suspensions and expulsions at participating schools is unknown.
School culture and special education
Along with student performance on standardized tests, the WestEd study aims to assess “how private schools are organized to support students’ success,” drawing on a total of around 1,000 survey responses from students, parents and educators and interviews at 10 schools. Faith-based schools make up the vast majority of schools that received Invest in Kids funds, according to the Department of Revenue’s most recent annual report on the program. Researchers found that faith is “a critical organizing element in school culture, curricula, and interpersonal relationships,” according to the study. Just over 8% of teachers surveyed said they worked at an independent private school without a religious affiliation.
In some schools, researchers said teachers see prayer as a way to connect with students and address disruptive behavior, while principals stressed the need for parents to align with their school’s mission and values, according to the study, which notes that one school encourages families to sign statements of faith.
Invest in Kids participants mostly praised administrators and teachers for cultivating trusting school environments that welcome parent involvement and feel safe, according to the study. But several people who spoke with researchers shared concerns that their schools could not meet diverse learners’ needs. (State and federal laws that protect the right of students with disabilities to a public education don’t similarly apply to private schools.)
“This girl did not belong … She had extreme behavioral issues … Like it’s not that we don’t want that child or it’s not like we’re un-Christian, but it’s like we don’t have the resources for it … We don’t have a special ed program or a behavioral program,” said a parent at one of 10 schools researchers visited, according to the study, which does not name participants.
The report doesn’t include the number of students with disabilities who received vouchers and WestEd noted it doesn’t have data to know how many schools, beyond those researchers visited, share similar concerns. But the sentiment was echoed during parent interviews at another private school, researchers wrote. “Some kids who have special needs function here. But some kids, with their needs — I don’t know,” said another parent included in the study.
“Smaller schools lack the resources to add services and programs they might need, like special education and counseling, and many programs they want to add, such as after-school programs,” WestEd notes.
Robert Gilligan, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Illinois, encouraged lawmakers to allocate state funds to private schools that “expressed interest in adding special education opportunities, counseling, and after-school programs,” in the Save My Scholarship coalition’s news release.
Sylvester, of Empower Illinois, noted that more than 90% of students and parents polled said their school provides students of all backgrounds equitable access to high-quality academic programs, support and extracurricular activities.
Surveying students at participating schools inherently leaves out the experiences of students who may have been excluded, said Creswell of Illinois Families for Public Schools, adding that there are also limitations to insights standardized test scores can provide.
“That said, we are handing out public dollars, and we’re giving them to private schools. And I think it’s a problem to hold public schools to one standard, and not hold private schools to that same standard,” she said.
Invest in Kids students had lower IAR scores
“Parents think their children are getting a good education,” the study notes. But, on average, Invest in Kids scholarship recipients in elementary school fared worse in both reading and math, in each of the two years of Illinois Assessment of Readiness standardized test scores studied, according to the report. More than 13,000 Invest in Kids recipients’ scores are included in WestEd’s analysis.
“In both 2022 and 2023, Illinois public schools had a higher percentage of grades 3–8 students meeting or exceeding expectations in (English Language Arts) compared to (Invest in Kids) scholarship recipients,” WestEd researchers wrote.
In 2022, 30% of public school students met or exceeded standards, compared with 21% of scholarship recipients, according to the report, which notes that in the following year, 35% of public school students met or exceeded reading standards, compared with 23% of Invest in Kids scholarship recipients.
“The same was true in Math for both 2022 and 2023,” the study continues. “Illinois public schools had a higher percentage of grades 3–8 students meeting or exceeding expectations than (Invest in Kids) scholarship recipients.”
According to the study, 26% of public school students met or exceeded math standards in 2022, compared with 18% of scholarship recipients. In 2023, the gap remained, with 27% of public school students meeting or exceeding IAR math standards, compared with 16% of scholarship recipients.
Among high school students, WestEd analyzed SAT scores in the 2022-23 school year, finding that Illinois public school students performed slightly lower in reading and slightly higher in math than Invest in Kids scholarship recipients. Compared with 32% of public school students, 34% of scholarship recipients met or exceeded state proficiency standards in reading, while 27% of public school students met or exceeded state benchmarks in math, compared with 24% of scholarship recipients.
Given the limited number of testing years and other limitations, WestEd urged the findings to be interpreted with caution. Some schools in the study are well funded, with scholarship recipients representing a small portion of students, while other schools relied significantly on Invest in Kids funds, the report notes. Since the program sunset, the Archdiocese of Chicago has announced plans to close or consolidate several schools.
