Institutional Resources or Changing Compositions? Unpacking Neighborhood Effects on Education

• In Event: Unpacking Place-Based Policies: Mechanisms, Spillovers, and Partnerships Shaping School Outcomes and Community Change Across Contexts

Abstract

Place-based policies have increasingly shifted from siloed investments in housing, schools, or family supports toward integrated strategies that aim to transform neighborhoods holistically. The Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (CNI) represents one of the most ambitious of these efforts, combining mixed-income housing redevelopment, school partnerships, and intensive family case management. Despite over $1 billion in federal investment and implementation across dozens of cities, there remains limited causal evidence on how these multi-pronged interventions affect children’s educational outcomes—or through which mechanisms these effects operate.

This paper brings together new evidence from multiple studies of the CNI, with a particular focus on disentangling the roles of neighborhoods, schools, and family-level supports in shaping student outcomes. Anchoring the paper is new research from St. Louis that leverages longitudinal administrative data from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and applies advanced difference-in-differences methods (Callaway and Sant’Anna) to estimate the causal impacts of CNI exposure on student achievement. This study is complemented by prior work in Memphis and emerging analyses in additional sites, enabling cross-context comparisons of program impacts and mechanisms.

Findings from the St. Louis study indicate large and statistically significant improvements in academic achievement associated with CNI exposure, particularly for students directly exposed during the early implementation phase. Students residing in CNI neighborhoods or attending CNI-partnering schools experienced substantial gains in English Language Arts and mathematics, with effects concentrated among early cohorts and attenuating for later entrants. These results suggest that the timing and intensity of investments—particularly during initial redevelopment and school reform—play a critical role in shaping educational outcomes.

At the same time, complementary analyses using synthetic control methods and spatial mobility data reveal no evidence of large-scale displacement or gentrification-driven compositional change during the early years of implementation. Student mobility patterns remained largely localized, with families relocating to demographically similar neighborhoods within St. Louis City and nearby North County areas. These findings challenge common concerns that neighborhood redevelopment effects are primarily driven by selective in-migration of more advantaged families, instead pointing toward institutional and programmatic mechanisms.

Together with prior findings from Memphis—where case management services improved reading outcomes and school partnerships reduced disciplinary incidents—this paper highlights the importance of unpacking mechanisms within complex place-based interventions. Specifically, the evidence suggests that school-based investments and family-level supports may drive early gains, while neighborhood-level changes alone may be insufficient to generate sustained improvements without complementary institutional reforms.

From a policy perspective, these findings underscore the value of integrated approaches that align housing, education, and social services, while also emphasizing the importance of implementation timing, program intensity, and sustained investment. By bringing together evidence across multiple sites and methodological approaches, this project contributes to a deeper understanding of how and when place-based policies can promote educational equity and social mobility.

Author

• Jason Jabbari, Washington University in St. Louis
  Presenting Author