Selective Schools, School Choice, and the Mobility Decisions of New York City Families

• In Event: Tensions and Complexities: How Policy Actors Navigate, Reproduce, and/or Disrupt Inequities in U.S. School Choice Contexts

Abstract

Academically selective public schools are often characterized as a strategy to attract and retain upper middle class (often White) families. This paper uses applications data from NYC to examine families’ enrollment and residential choices when they fail to receive an offer to a selective program. Preliminary results find White families and those living in less disadvantaged neighborhoods are more likely to exit to private school between middle and high school, regardless of admissions outcome; exits from the city are low overall. Receiving a less-preferred choice is associated with greater exit, especially for White families in less disadvantaged neighborhoods, but this is also true for Black and Hispanic families.

Author

• Sean P. Corcoran, Vanderbilt University
  Presenting Author