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

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Place-based policies have been a central strategy in U.S. social policy to address concentrated poverty, improve neighborhood conditions, and expand access to opportunity. Major federal initiatives–including HOPE VI, the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (CNI), and the Promise Neighborhoods Initiative–have aimed to coordinate investments across housing, education, and social services. However, existing research has largely examined impacts within sectors, leaving limited evidence on cross-sector spillovers, underlying mechanisms, and the role of implementation in shaping outcomes. 

This panel brings together four studies that examine how place-based policies affect school environments and student outcomes through neighborhood change, institutional processes, and cross-sector partnerships. The first two papers use national data to estimate policy impacts, while the latter two provide in-depth analyses of causal impacts in Missouri and descriptive, cross-site analyses of implementation, governance, and partnership in Massachusetts. 

Paper 1 evaluates the spillover effects of housing redevelopment policies (HOPE VI and CNI) on nearby public schools using a 32-year longitudinal dataset and quasi-experimental methods. Results show modest reductions in school poverty, but no improvements in academic proficiency on average, with some evidence of longer-term negative effects in mixed-income redevelopment sites. These findings raise questions about whether changes in school demographic composition alone are sufficient to improve school outcomes. 

Paper 2 examines the influence of the largest federal place-based education program on school disciplinary outcomes. Using in-school and out-of-school suspension data from the Office of Civil Rights Data Collection in 2010 and 2018, a time of declining exclusionary school practices in the United States, this project assesses how discipline rates in Promise Neighborhood school sites compare to national trends, with particular attention to changes in racial/ethnic gaps over time.

Paper 3 provides evidence on the educational impacts of CNI using longitudinal administrative data from Missouri and difference-in-differences methods. Findings indicate significant improvements in student achievement for early cohorts exposed to intensive program investments. Complementary analyses show no evidence of large-scale displacement, with student mobility remaining largely localized suggesting observed gains are driven by school-based reforms and family-level supports, rather than resident sorting or demographic change.

Paper 4 examines the implementation of Community School models in Massachusetts through a descriptive, cross-site analysis of policy design, governance structures, and public-private partnerships. This study highlights how state and local actors operationalize integrated, place-based strategies and the institutional conditions required to sustain them.  

Together, these studies highlight the importance of examining place-based policies across levels of governance. National analyses of federal initiatives reveal important patterns in outcomes, but can obscure local variation in implementation and the mechanisms that connect neighborhood change to school-level outcomes. In contrast, local and state-focused studies make these mechanisms more visible, showing how school-based reforms, family supports, and cross-sector partnerships translate broader investments into changes in school environments and student achievement. 

Consistent with the conference theme on state policy and variation, these findings underscore that as policy authority increasingly shifts to states, variations in how place-based strategies are designed, coordinated, and implemented will be central to their effectiveness.

Policy Area

• Housing, Community Development, and Urban Policy

Chair

• Rebekah Levine Coley, Boston College

Discussants

• Jane Leer, San Diego State University

• Laura Tach, Cornell University

Organizer

• Lindsay Lanteri, Northeastern University

Individual Presentations

• Place-Based Housing Investment and Spillover Effects on Local School Composition and Academic Outcomes - Presenting Author: Lindsay Lanteri, Northeastern University

• Place-Based Education Investment and Racial Disparities in School Discipline - Presenting Author: Alexandra Cooperstock, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Institutional Resources or Changing Compositions? Unpacking Neighborhood Effects on Education - Presenting Author: Jason Jabbari, Washington University in St. Louis

• Reimagining Neighborhoods Through Community Schools: Highlights Across Massachusetts - Presenting Author: Benjamin Forman, MassINC