One of the controversies surrounding charter schools is whether these schools may either "cream skim" high-performing students from traditional public schools or "pushout" low-achieving students or students with discipline histories, leaving traditional public schools to educate the most challenging students. In this study, we…

The admission policy for public compulsory schools in China is neighbourhood enrolment which entitles children to attend their assigned local school free of charge, and this policy has been rigorously implemented in recent years to prevent school choice. However, driven by disparities in education provision, parents still find ways to make choices…

Research has documented the complexity of parent decision-making within school choice marketplaces, including the ways in which individual preferences, social networks, and geography influence where parents choose to enroll their children in school. Yet, parent choices are constrained by the ways in which these dynamics intersect with existing…

Advocates for taxpayer-funded school-choice programs cite the potential of market competition to spur educational improvement and promote equity for low-income students. Meanwhile, school-choice critics lament the exodus of talent and resources from public schools, which they argue such programs necessarily cause. Most research on publicly funded…

We examine the literature linking private and charter schooling to perceptions of student safety in United States schools. The results are generally positive for student, parent, and principal reports of school safety for the nine studies on safety in public charter schools and the eleven studies on safety in private schools. Eight of the nine…

Parents across the country continue to be concerned about their children's academic and social-emotional well-being. Some parents are sufficiently satisfied with their children's school and are content with a return to a pre-pandemic normal. Other parents are sufficiently dissatisfied and have already made a change, whether between schools, to…

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, perhaps enhancing integration. Urban school transportation is increasingly costly, however, and has unclear…

School choice advocates argue that choice policies increase access to desirable schools by breaking the link between residence and school placement. However, a growing body of research suggests that the distance from home to school actually influences school choice decisions. In this study, we examine the relationship between residential…

This report argues that the Michigan state constitution's "Blaine Amendment," a provision which prevents parents from drawing on state funding to go outside the public school system, is superseded by the United States Supreme Court's 2020 ruling in the case Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue. The report discusses a legislative…

School buses may be a critical education policy lever, breaking the link between schools and neighborhoods and facilitating access to school choice. Yet, little is known about the commute for bus riders, including the average length of the bus ride or whether long commutes harm academic outcomes. We begin to fill this gap using data from New York…

Purpose: We examine policy influencers' perceptions of the targets of school-choice policy across five states, exploring how constructions varied for White and racially minoritized families, whether policy actors conceived of the "target" of policy as the child or the parent, and how these racialized constructions varied across different…

Purpose: We examine policy influencers' perceptions of the targets of school-choice policy across five states, exploring how constructions varied for White and racially minoritized families, whether policy actors conceived of the "target" of policy as the child or the parent, and how these racialized constructions varied across different…

Our essay examines the challenges and opportunities for the New York City Universal Pre-K program in Catholic Schools. We review the impact of the program before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. These Pre-K programs have brought much needed revenue for Catholic Schools and provide a pipeline for prospective Catholic K-12 school students.…

Military families make tremendous sacrifices--which too often include having to send their children to inadequate schools due to a lack of education options. Most military children have to attend the public school that is physically closest to their parents' assigned base, whether the school is good and safe or not. The federal government has a…

Past research demonstrates that familial and community support can aid the academic success of Latino/a students. However, few studies explore how older siblings influence their younger siblings' education trajectory including primary, secondary, and post-secondary education. Drawing on 25 in-depth interviews with Latino/a first-generation college…