This critical ethnography utilizes critical policy analysis and a theoretical understanding of neoliberal racism to examine the practiced reality of school choice in a public, under-resourced, and historically underperforming neighborhood elementary school attended predominantly by Latina/o/x students. Despite improvement initiatives that resulted…

The Indiana Choice Scholarship Program (ICSP), which began in fall 2011, is a state taxpayer-funded financial aid program that helps low and lower-middle income Hoosiers to send their children to the private K-12 school of their choice. This voucher program has been extremely popular among families, as the number of students receiving scholarships…

This annual publication of "The ABCs of School Choice" is a comprehensive, data-rich guide to every private school choice program in America. This edition of "The ABCs of School Choice" defines each of the four types of school choice: education savings accounts, vouchers, tax-credit scholarships and individual tax credits and…

An ongoing struggle for affordable housing in Southern California has led many predominately White, middle, and upper middle- class families to seek home ownership in divested urban communities. This phenomenon, known as gentrification, can benefit a community by increasing property values, but often comes at a cost to longstanding, Black and…

The goal of "The 123s" is to present the increasingly large body of private school choice research in a clear and easy-to-read format and cite the relevant studies so that anyone who is interested in the individual results can easily find them and read in more detail. This report is divided into 11 sections. The first section summarizes…

Rural students in Arizona enjoy far more education choice options than rural students in any other state. Education has flourished in rural areas under Arizona's robust choice environment just as much as in the remainder of the state. The data could not be clearer: Rural students with expanded opportunities thrive, as do their teachers and…

This study investigates the extent to which there is a typology of families who move to a new neighborhood so their child can attend a particular school. By conducting a Latent Class Analysis with a nationally representative dataset, the NHES Parent and Family Involvement in Education Survey (n=2,693), I determine there are four significantly…

School choice is expanding, but the majority of students in countries like the United States still attend the school associated with their residential address. We study assignment policies and reassignments of students, where students apply to attend a magnet school or request to transfer to another school within the public school system.…

I investigate longitudinal preferences for schools revealed by families' applications to middle and high schools within a large urban school district's universal enrollment system. I find that preferences for schools' racial/ethnic composition are more stable than preferences for quality and proximity to home, even after concurrently controlling…

We conducted a randomized controlled trial to assess the effects of providing information to families as they choose schools. Likely applicants to prekindergarten, kindergarten, and ninth grade were assigned to one of three groups. A "growth" group received lists (via U.S. mail, email, and text message) of the highest performing schools…

Given the huge increase in the number of American families able to choose their child's school, the time is ripe to ask, "What do parents want?" Whereas before, millions of parents were hemmed in by school policies that required their child to attend a residentially assigned traditional public school, now more and more states are…

School assignment in Boston and New York City came to national attention in the 1970s as courts across the country tried to integrate schools. Today, district-wide choice allows Boston and New York students to enroll far from home. Although 1970s desegregation efforts likely benefited minority students, urban school transportation is increasingly…

Background: The United States does not have a comprehensive, publicly funded early care and education (ECE) system. As a result, disparities in access and participation in quality ECE in the U.S. are well-documented. Low and middle-income families participate less frequently in ECE compared with higher-income families, often due to conflicts with…

Since 2021, Bellwether has conducted research on flexible learning options, including interviews with 85 policymakers, state administrators, funders, navigation organizations, technology providers, and many others. The goal was to address inquiries in a nascent and fast-growing field, such as how families and students access learning within a…

In this paper, we present data from the most recent wave of the "Longitudinal Study of Young Jews Raised in Conservative Synagogues." Participants were part of the b'nai mitzvah class of 1994-1995 (or, the year 5755 in the Hebrew calendar) and members of Conservative synagogues in the US and Canada. Approximately 400 panel members took…