Does Intradistrict Transfer Make the Grade? A Case Study of the Effects of School Choice on Achievement

• In Event: School Choice and School Improvement

Abstract

Framework & Objectives

Existing literature on school choice has focused largely on the impact of specialized programs such as vouchers, charter schools, and magnet schools. Little research has examined the link between increased student achievement and student participation in intradistrict transfers. Understanding this link is of particular interest because educational initiatives such as No Child Left Behind as well as the Voluntary Public School Choice Program use federal dollars to support such school choice options. To advance the literature to the influence of policy-relevant school choice options, we examine the effects of one district’s intradistrict transfer program on student achievement.

Data

To study the relationship between intradistrict transfers and student achievement, we focus on elementary students in one small urban school district located in the Intermountain West. This district was selected because it has several characteristics that provide an optimal context for exploring the impacts of school choice on student achievement. These characteristics include small geographic size, which limits the extent to which transportation is a barrier to choice; a stable population of students, which generates undersubscribed schools allowing all students access to their first-choice school; and a long history of and support for intradistrict transfer choice options at both the state and the district level. The unique characteristics of this district limit the extent to which common barriers to school choice—such as lack access to information, lack of transportation, and an inability to secure enrollment in one’s first-choice school—interfere with parents’ ability to choose the school they believe is best for their children.

Methods

The decision to participate in any form of school choice is not random and is influenced by a variety of factors, both observed and unobserved. This endogeneity presents difficulties in establishing causation in studies of the effects of school choice on academic achievement. To address issues of endogeneity in the unique context of our study, we employed propensity score matching (PSM). To determine the influence of intradistrict transfer on student achievement, we ran two separate sets of linear regression models: one with language arts achievement as the outcome, and another with mathematics achievement as the outcome measure of interest. To minimize the differences on all covariates that were related to both intradistrict transfer and student achievement, we weighted each model using the sampling weights generated by the PSM procedures.

Results & Significance

We find that intradistrict transfers do not raise students’ test scores in language arts or mathematics. However, when students use intradistrict transfers to leave academically lower-performing schools and attend higher-performing schools, they experience large increases in both language arts and mathematics achievement. Nevertheless, relatively few students use intradistrict transfers as a way to leave a lower-performing school. Most parents choose schools for their children that are academically similar to the schools they are zoned to attend. These results highlight the importance of using school choice in coordination with other policies to ensure that students who face the most educational disadvantages are most able to choose higher-performing schools.

Authors

• Kristie J.R. Phillips, Brigham Young University

• Charles S. Hausman, Eastern Kentucky University

• Elisabeth Larsen, Brigham Young University