How Low-Income Families Frame the Opportunity to Enroll in Higher-Performing Schools

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

Abstract

Studies of school decision-making posit residential and informational barriers or preferences to explain unequal school sorting patterns. I explore how low-income families respond to the opportunity to enroll in higher-performing schools by leveraging an experimental housing mobility intervention that provided a novel set of resources to address barriers. Drawing on interviews with 90 parents, I find that divergent ways of framing potential school changes – as academic optimization, family negotiation, or risk management – explain why some families used residential mobility to enroll in higher-performing schools and others did not. These findings shed light on the social and situational construction of school preferences and school quality perceptions and show why some low-income families may not pursue opportunities to enroll in higher-performing schools.

Author

• Joseph L. Boselovic, College of William & Mary