Parents' Experiences of Interdistrict School Choice: Empowered or Pushed to Choose?

• In Event: Choosing Schools in Market-Based Systems

Abstract

This study interrogated the political logics of school choice policies by exploring the experiences of parents from a range of economic and racial backgrounds who participated in a voluntary school choice lottery program designed to desegregate public schools in a large metropolitan region. We conducted interviews with 36 parents representing 62 students who applied to the 2020 school choice lottery. The study further contextualizes interview data with quantitative analysis of state administrative lottery data and document analysis. Findings revealed that parents from different geographic (City vs. Suburb) and socioeconomic backgrounds navigated school choice processes with differentially bounded rationality and choice sets. Parents also differed widely in terms of the political empowerment they felt, challenging the political logics of school choice.

Authors

• Chelsea Connery, University of Connecticut

• Casey D. Cobb, University of Connecticut