Three Decades of Representation Disparities in Alternative Schools

• In Event: School Choice, Screening, and Stratification: Evidence on Enrollment and Composition

Abstract

School choice policies have reshaped the educational landscape in the United States, with extensive research focusing on charter schools and private school vouchers. Far less attention, however, has been paid to alternative schools, a longstanding but underexamined sector that enrolls more than 900,000 students annually and operates at the intersection of choice and assignment. In this paper, we examine how student enrollment and composition in the alternative school sector has evolved over time and, in line with the theme of the conference, how this differs across states. Using national school-level data from 1992 to 2024, we analyze trends in racial composition across four types of alternative schools – special education, career and technical education (CTE), traditional alternative, and juvenile justice schools, comparing them to mainstream public schools. We estimate multilevel growth curve models of racial enrollment shares and assess average differences, trends, and heterogeneity across states. We find persistent and substantial disparities in student composition between alternative and mainstream public schools. Black students are consistently overrepresented across all alternative school sectors, with particularly large and growing disparities in traditional alternative and juvenile justice schools. In contrast, White students are underrepresented in most alternative sectors, and differences for Latinx and Asian students are smaller on average. However, these national patterns mask considerable variation across states, with some diverging meaningfully from national averages, underscoring the importance of local context in shaping enrollment patterns. By conceptualizing alternative schools as part of the school choice landscape, this study contributes to ongoing policy discussions about access, equity, and stratification in public education. Unlike charter schools or vouchers, alternative school placement is often shaped by a mix of choice and institutional processes, including disciplinary policies and special education identification. As a result, enrollment patterns in this sector reflect not only preferences but also systemic sorting mechanisms that may reinforce educational inequality.

Author

• Nicolas Pardo, University of Southern California
  Presenting Author