School desegregation in Chicago was derived from the implementation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. This article follows the formation of this policy to its implementation in Chicago. First, the federal government used the Civil Rights Act to garner school desegregation. Then, the Chicago Board of Education created desegregation plans for Chicago…

The purpose of this "Equity by Design" research brief summarizes a study that examined how Black and Latinx parents of students with dis/abilities living in the city of Chicago decided to avoid or leave neighborhood schools and instead chose to enroll their child(ren) in charter schools.

Students and families in Chicago are increasingly taking up school choice options offered by the school district. Prospective high school students and their families have 160 high schools to choose from. These options include a broad variety of schools in governance, size, academic approach, and programs offered. To streamline the school…

In the 2015-16 school year, 75 percent of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) ninth-graders opted out of their assigned high school. These students could choose from more than 300 programs at 138 public high schools. Selective enrollment high schools (SEHSs) were among the most high-profile and most sought-out options. SEHSs aim to provide high-achieving…

Chicago's magnet schools were one of the nation's earliest experiments in choice-driven school desegregation, originating among civil rights advocates and academic education experts in the 1960s and appearing at specific sites in Chicago's urban landscape during the 1970s. The specific concerns that motivated the creation of magnet schools during…

The Success Project was a multi-year effort that aimed to better prepare middle grade students for the transition to and success in high school and beyond. Underlying this initiative was a belief that many urban public middle grades students in the United States enter high school without sufficient social supports and academic skills to succeed in…

Many urban districts use a portfolio management model, hoping to promote school choice and improve school performance. This model requires school closure, which has predominantly impacted lower income families. In 2013, Chicago Public Schools relocated Granger Elementary into one of 48 schools it closed, placing its middle-class parents in the…

In this study, the author makes the connection between school and district provided information and families' use of this information. Prior studies have found that over half of families eligible for school choice have information to make their decision. However, little is known about if and how families actually use formally provided information.…

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) offers many options when it comes to high school enrollment. In fact, since the 2015-16 school year, about three out of every four incoming ninth-graders have chosen to attend a high school other than their assigned neighborhood school. Despite the widespread engagement in school choice, the high school application…

This study extends research on school choice policy, and on the geography of educational opportunity, by exploring how students understand their school choices and select from them within social-geographical space. Using a conceptual framework that draws from situated social cognition and recent research on neighborhood effects, this study…

Research has demonstrated that families are consistently willing to pay more for homes situated in catchments with better quality schools. However, few have considered whether other school characteristics are capable of capitalizing home values in this way. Using data from the city of Chicago, we investigate whether traditional magnet schools may…

Among the many troubling legacies of centuries of slavery and discrimination in the United States are extraordinary race-based inequalities in life chances. Black children grow up in families with much lower income and wealth, on average, than White children. They are more likely than White children to live in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty…

In the context of school zone discontinuity based on parents' educational level, housing price, and household income, empowering parents to choose children's schools with their own hands has the potential to improve overall access to education by weakening geographical advantages or disadvantages and opening up invisible boundaries between…

The two fastest growing school choice options are charter schools and private school choice programs, which include vouchers, tax credit scholarships, and education savings accounts. Most research assessing the effects of these programs focuses on student achievement. I review the literature to determine the impact public and private school choice…

This poll was conducted between January 15-January 16, 2021 among a sample of 2,200 adults. The interviews were conducted online and the data were weighted to approximate a target sample of adults based on gender, educational attainment, age, race, and region. Among the key findings are: (1) Although there has been an ongoing surge of COVID cases…