Choosing Opportunities: Reducing Educational Inequalities With Choice Neighborhoods, Wrap-Around Services, and Case Management

• In Event: Forces Beyond the Classroom Shaping and Impacting Underrepresented Low-Income Students

Abstract

The Department of Housing and Urban Development launched the Choice Neighborhood Initiative (CNI) in 2009 to redevelop systematically underinvested communities of color, while relocating families to higher-income neighborhoods in the process. The CNI differs from previous initiatives by addressing housing, neighborhood institutions—including schools, and the lives of residents. Leveraging over 820,000 student-level records from Shelby County Schools spanning over seven years, as well as interviews with over 20 CNI residents, we explore the ways in which the CNI influences educational outcomes. We find that the majority of benefits accrue to children of origional residents who move to higher-income schools during the redevelopment phase; however access to these schools is restricted due to constrained transportation options and limited social networks

Authors

• Jason F. Jabbari, Washington University in St. Louis

• DeMarcus A Jenkins, University of Pennsylvania

• Yung Chun, Washington University in St. Louis

• Allante Moon, University of Pennsylvania

• Andrew Foell, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Odis Johnson, Johns Hopkins University

• Kourtney Gilbert, Washington University in St. Louis