Who "Wins the Lottery"? Washington, D.C., Schools' Composition as a Function of the Citywide Lottery

• In Event: The Process and Limits of Choosing Schools

Abstract

The continued expansion of charter schools and intra-district choice programs fuels debates about the equity potential of school choice policies and their design. In 2014, Washington, D.C. pioneered a citywide lottery and student enrollment system to match students with preferred institutions and distribute access to seats in high performing schools. This exploratory study gauges the impact of the unified lottery on schools’ composition of students before the inception of the lottery and five years after. Descriptive analyses reveal patterns of racial and socioeconomic segregation particularly between schools of varying performance levels. We find that the lottery limits disadvantaged students’ access to top schools through preference structures that supersede student lottery numbers but can be modified to enhance distributive justice.

Authors

• Jason Saltmarsh, University of Maryland - College Park

• Francisco Lagos, University of Maryland