Public Policy and Private Choice: Interacting Sources of Contemporary School Segregation

• In Event: Schooling Past, Present, and Future: Segregation, School Choice, and Other Issues of Equity

Abstract

We take advantage of unique data describing the school choices available to incoming Kindergarteners in North Carolina’s Wake County Public School System to shed new light on the way educational policy and individual decisions interact to produce segregated schools. First, we detail how school assignment and choice policies shaped the choice sets of incoming Kindergarteners. Second, we examine the factors that influence family decisions among schools in their choice sets, paying particular attention to the role of race. Together, these analyses shed light on the way policy decisions structure the processes through which individual make complex decisions, such as selecting a residence or school, and how individuals and families choices can ultimately maintain racially segregated schools.

Authors

• Deven E. Carlson, University of Oklahoma
  Non-Presenting Author

• James Samuel Carter, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author

• Thurston Domina, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
  Presenting Author

• Matthew A. Lenard, Harvard University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Andrew McEachin, NWEA
  Non-Presenting Author

• Rachel M. Perera, The Brookings Institution
  Non-Presenting Author