The Role of Gentrification, Demographics, and School Performance in the School Choice Marketplace: Evidence From New York City

• In Event: Good Schools, Bad Schools: Racialized Perceptions of School Quality

Abstract

Objectives
This paper examines patterns of school choice among families with kindergarten students in NYC public schools. It looks at which families are participating in kindergarten school choice, what neighborhoods they live in, and how their schools of choice compare to the schools for which they were zoned in terms of student demographics and school performance. It provides a deeper understanding of who has access to the school choice marketplace, how their choices are influenced by school demographics and measures of school quality, and how those choices may be contributing to segregation in NYC schools.

Theoretical Framework, Data, and Methods
One argument for school choice is that it can “liberate” low-income families from the segregated and low-performing schools to which they are more likely to be assigned (Boaz, 1991; Archbald, 2004). However, Darby and Saatcioglu (2015) argue that there are generational circumstances and opportunities that constrain parents’ abilities to choose schools, causing families with more advantages and greater resources to be more likely to exercise choice (Musset, 2012). Further, perceptions about school quality tend to be “bounded” by social networks, socioeconomic status, and race (Ben-Porath, 2009), which serves to reinforce social reproduction (Bourdieu, 1986) and school segregation (Roda & Wells, 2013). This paper finds evidence for this in NYC using a logistic regression of student-level administrative and residential data from the 2017-18 school year to identify which families are most likely to opt out of their zoned kindergartens. It then compares demographics and performance indicators for each family’s school of choice to their assigned zoned school to better understand what characteristics they may be avoiding in zoned schools and seeking out in schools of choice.

Findings
The paper finds that rates of school choice vary widely by race, ethnicity, and neighborhood. Black families in New York City opt out of their zoned schools far more frequently, while free lunch-eligible students and English language learners are much less likely to opt out. Students who choose tend to enroll in schools with higher levels of academic achievement and fewer low-income classmates. White families choose schools that have more White children than their zoned schools do; Black and Latinx families, on the other hand, choose schools with the racial demographics as the schools to which they were zoned. These discrepancies are even more stark in gentrifying neighborhoods, where white families are more likely to opt out of their zoned schools, so the racial and economic diversity of those neighborhoods are not reflected in the local schools.

Significance
Although school choice policies have allowed some NYC families to enroll their children in higher-performing schools, this may come at a systemic cost. Since access to choice is unequally distributed across NYC families, and preferences for choice seem to be based on student demographics as much as measures of school performance, school choice policies appear to be contributing to deepening segregation and stratification between schools. Policymakers should explore race- and class-conscious school choice policies to ensure that the potential benefits and costs of choice are equitably distributed.

Author

• Nicole Mader, Center for New York City Affairs at the New School