2025/10/08 by Jon Valant, Brigham Walker · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #School Choice and Performance #Global Educational Reforms and Inequalities
paper · doi:10.3368/jhr.0124-13347r2
openalex publication_date 2025/10/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
<h3>Abstract</h3> Even in cities with expansive school choice reforms, historically disadvantaged groups of students enroll in substantially lower-performing schools than their peers. We examine this phenomenon in New Orleans, focusing on the applications that families submit and the placements that result. We find large gaps in the types of schools that families request. Additionally, when Black and White (and poor and nonpoor) families request the same first-choice school for kindergarten, White and nonpoor families are more likely to receive those placements. This results from student priorities in the system’s placement algorithm. We examine these priorities and simulate placements under different policies.