The prevailing argument for school choice in metropolitan cities has been that children from economically disadvantaged communities need opportunities to access better quality schools than the traditional public schools assigned to them based on their address. However, as these cities experience gentrification, more economically advantaged parents…

I review the literature on how parents select schools when participating in private choice programs in the United States. I address two sub-questions. First, do parents have the incentives and motivation needed to participate in a schooling market? Second, when selecting a school, what school characteristics do parents consider? I find three…

Public school choice has become a common feature in American school districts. Any potential benefits that could be derived from these policies depend heavily on the ability of parents and students to make informed and educated decisions about their school options. We examined the readability and complexity of school-choice guides across a sample…

The DC Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP), established in 2004, is the only federally-funded private school voucher program for low-income parents in the United States. This evaluation brief describes findings using data from more than 2,000 applicants' parents, who applied to the program from spring 2011 to spring 2013 following…

The author analyzes the revealed school preferences of parents in the Washington, D.C., and asks, "What is the main determinant of charter school choice and how does it create racial, economic, and linguistic segregation?" The author first establishes a theory of choice, which incorporates past research and adds an additional variable to…

Every summer, an increasingly common event occurs across the country--parents open a letter explaining that their child's school is failing to meet benchmarks set under the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and that, as a result, they have a right to send the child to another public school, if space is available. In the summer of 2009,…

During the spring of 2004, the first federally funded voucher program--the District of Columbia Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP)--was established. The School Choice Demonstration Project (SCDP) recognized that publicly-funded school vouchers represent a relatively new and unstudied approach to school choice and education reform. To address …

School choice remains an important part of the national discussion on education reform strategies and their benefits. While a variety of policies encourage parents' selection of schools for their children--for example, charter schools, magnet schools, and district open enrollment--scholarships that allow students to attend a private school have…

Parental satisfaction is critical to the politics of school reform. Many charter school advocates have no qualms in talking about a charter school movement, linking charter schools to a larger political effort to reform the system of education in the United States. If this movement is to have traction, parents who are satisfied with their…

This study used data from a recent telephone survey of Washington, D.C. parents to evaluate the success of the Districts large and growing charter school program. Results for 384 parents show that parents with children in charter schools rate their teachers, principals, facilities, and schools overall higher than their traditional public school…

The Washington Scholarship Fund Pilot Program (WSF) was established as a privately funded voucher program for low-income families in the District of Columbia. The WSF awarded its scholarships by lottery, making it possible to evaluate it as though it were a randomized experiment. The responses of qualified families with children in public schools…