A researcher is urging lawmakers not to interpret a new study finding that federal housing vouchers offer no educational benefits as a reason to abandon the program.

The program, run in New York and four other cities, takes low-income families out of public housing facilities and relocates them into neighborhoods with less poverty — at the same net cost to the government, giving families that win a lottery vouchers they can use to rent in private housing markets, the researcher said.

The study, published in the fall issue of Education Next, finds that the program has so far done nothing to improve children’s academic achievement.

Researchers studied more than 5,000 children, examining their test scores and behaviors such as being suspended and repeating a grade. They found that children whose families received the vouchers performed better on none of the outcomes and were attending schools that were only moderately better.

A researcher who led the study, Jeffrey Kling, said the findings do not indicate that the program should end. He cited a study released in January that found the housing vouchers had health benefits such as decreasing adult obesity and lowering the likelihood of depression.