The kids on the bus: The academic consequences of diversity-driven school reassignments

Abstract

Many public school diversity efforts rely on reassigning students from one school to another. While opponents of such efforts articulate concerns about the consequences of reassignments for students’ educational experiences, little evidence exists regarding these effects, particularly in contemporary policy contexts. Using an event study design, we leverage data from an innovative socioeconomic school desegregation plan to estimate the effects of reassignment on reassigned students’ achievement, attendance, and exposure to exclusionary discipline. Between 2000 and 2010, North Carolina’s Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) reassigned approximately 25 percent of students with the goal of creating socioeconomically diverse schools. Although WCPSS’s controlled school choice policy provided opportunities for reassigned students to opt out of their newly reassigned schools, our analysis indicates that reassigned students typically attended their newly reassigned schools. We find that reassignment modestly boosts reassigned students’ math achievement, reduces reassigned students’ rate of suspension, and has no offsetting negative consequences on other outcomes. Exploratory analyses suggest that the effects of reassignment do not meaningfully vary by student characteristics or school choice decisions. The results suggest that carefully designed school assignment policies can improve school diversity without imposing academic or disciplinary costs on reassigned students.

Publication
Journal of Policy Analysis and Management
Matthew Lenard
Matthew Lenard
PhD candidate in Education Policy & Program Evaluation

I am a Ph.D. candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) in its Education Policy and Program Evaluation concentration. My research centers on using causal inference research designs to measure the impacts of education programs and policies. I typically study topics at the intersection of education and economics, but also draw from the traditions of sociology and political science. My current projects focus on career and technical education, peer effects, school choice, and teacher labor markets.

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