Open enrollment in public schools is a form of school choice that allows students to attend schools other than the one assigned to them by their school district. Though often less visible than policies such as charter schools, vouchers, and education savings accounts, K-12 open enrollment is rising in popularity across the nation, and 73 percent…

Despite receiving little academic attention, open enrollment has the greatest potential among school choice policies to transform the governance of local school districts because all student transfers occur within the public school system, meaning that families and governance structures in two (or more) school districts are impacted by…

Local education governance has allowed neighborhood schools to offer community-oriented curricula and activities, and public schools have been operated to serve only residents' children within the defined areas. The rise of neoliberalism may, however, undermine political foundations of the traditional political systems. This article explores how…

Background: Early studies of district-level outcomes of interdistrict school choice policies found changes in how districts interact with one another and changes in districts' per-pupil expenditures. More recent studies suggest that wider social and political consequences may result from interdistrict choice policies. Purpose: In Colorado,…

As open enrollment charter districts have continued to grow in Texas, researchers and policymakers have continued to investigate how charter districts market themselves to the public in an effort to recruit students, teachers, and finances. Although a wealth of research has examined how charter districts recruit students, teachers, and finances…

School choice policies can, by design or in implementation, give schools and districts discretion over enrollment. In this study, I examine the effect of local discretion over inter-district open enrollment on non-resident enrollment. I use longitudinal data on open enrollment patterns and policies in the metropolitan Detroit area. I find that…

This study examines the movement of students in suburban Detroit through open enrollment, or inter-district school choice. We examine whether absolute levels and changes in the district enrollment of Black, economically disadvantaged, and nonresident students are perceived as racial threats by suburban families, leading them to exit their local…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify an association between student mobility through open enrollment and voter support for school bond proposals. Specifically, we hypothesized that higher percentages of nonresident enrollment in a school district and resident exit from a district would be associated with lower levels of voter support…

Many papers have now examined the competitive effects of charter and voucher programs; relatively less attention has been paid to the potential competitive effects of other school choice programs. Our paper attempts to continue to fill this void, by examining the potential competitive effects of transfers within a statewide open enrollment program…

In severing the link between residential address and school assignment, school choice policies have the potential to decrease school segregation and increase educational equity. Yet this promise is undermined when school choice creates greater opportunity for those who are already privileged while limiting access to students from historically…

As US public education enrolment grows increasingly diverse, school choice policies create opportunities to break the link between residential and school segregation. They also create new pathways for families to self-segregate into ever more racially isolated schools. This study explores student enrolment patterns in Metro Detroit over a ten-year…

Purpose: Despite the popularity of open enrollment as a school choice mechanism, there is little research on how principals behave in a district-run competitive setting. This study adds to our understanding of how open enrollment policies affect the role of the principal as well as educational equity by examining the roles and behaviors of school…

This study estimates the effects of open-enrollment charter schools on student performance in traditional public schools in Arkansas. The paper examines the change in Iowa Assessment scores for first and second graders across Arkansas school districts between the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 school years. The ordinary least-squares regression estimates…

The bulk of research on the implementation of school choice policies has focused on how choice has been implemented in urban school systems. As of 2007, however, suburban students comprised more than one fourth (29%) of all students engaging in some form of public school choice in the United States. This article examines the implementation of…

Interdistrict open enrollment is the most widely used form of school choice in the United States. Through the theoretical lens of a utility maximization framework, this article analyzes the determinants of interdistrict open enrollment flows in Minnesota and Colorado. The authors' empirical analysis employs an original data set that details open…