Parents' happiness orientation has garnered early attention in school choice studies but has not been cautiously examined. Drawing on Aristotle's framework of Eudaimonia and Hedonia, along with Ahmed's concept of the happiness promise, this study transcends a perspec­tive of preference and examines how parents understand and pursue happiness in…

Individualism and competition are central neoliberal concepts that have profoundly altered the U.S. public education system. This article draws on poststructuralist theory and advances the argument that these concepts have produced problematic policies and deeply flawed school choice mechanisms such as charter schools and school vouchers. I also…

We provide novel evidence on the broader impacts of school choice systems by quantifying disparities in peer continuity from middle to high school in New York City. We find that Black and Hispanic students and those in high-poverty neighborhoods attend high school with a much smaller fraction of their middle school or neighborhood peers than their…

AACRAO Research completed five 60-Second Surveys and four comprehensive reports. Other research-supported work included: supporting the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation credit mobility learning portfolio, partnering with NACUBO to create a joint statement on the use of administrative and student success holds, and supporting WICHE in their work…

Schools' priorities in student selection constitute the basis for fairness in school admissions. We study the case where schools are active strategic players that rank their applicants in terms of priorities. A methodological framework is developed to examine the impact of the variation in the admission settings on the equality of opportunity in…

Using critical race methodology as a methodological framework, this paper explores how 16 Black men PhD scientists and engineers describe their undergraduate and graduate school choices and how race and racism influenced these processes. Our analysis yielded two descriptive themes focused on counterspaces for Black men in science and engineering…

Nebraska does not currently have any private educational choice programs, but recent legislative pushes have brought options such as education savings accounts (ESAs) into the spotlight. ESAs allow parents to withdraw their children from public district or charter schools and receive a deposit of public funds into government-authorized savings…

This study examines how the student transportation options available to families affect which schools are accessible to them in a choice-based setting. The study has two parts. First, we compare commute times by foot, public transit, school bus, and car. We show that providing school bus service reduces commute times and improves access for…

Many students attend a pre-kindergarten (pre-K) program outside of their neighborhood school, but there is no evidence that making this choice is associated with subsequent student readiness for kindergarten. In the Houston Independent School District (HISD), pre-K is not zoned, which means families can request to enroll their children on any…

There are competing popular beliefs about whether education reform is a fundamentally bipartisan or conservative movement. Yet, despite the popularity of these prevariling depictions, there has been minimal effort expended toward systematically observing the political beliefs of the key players in the education reform movement. I gauge the…

While the role of parental ideologies on children's bi/multilingual development and the role of children's beliefs about multilingualism are well-documented, less work examines how parental and student ideologies are enacted through talk. That is, how do students interpret what their family caregivers tell them about bi/multilingualism, and how do…

This poll was conducted between December 9-12, 2022 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) One out of four parents indicate that their child has switched…

The purported purpose of school choice policies is to increase students' access to "good schools." There is little discussion, however, of where those good schools are located, nor of the ways in which the distribution of good schools mirrors broader patterns of uneven development in the United States. Given that schools are neighborhood…

Over the past three decades, urban sociologists have shed light on the intensifying social inequality between the wealthiest and poorest neighborhoods in global cities; yet limited research has been done to illuminate the relationships between urban polarization and school choice (i.e., where parents choose schools for their children). This study…

This article explores how parents choose childcare settings for their pre-school children within a context of complex policy on eligibility for free provision and a developing market. Using data from interviews with 17 mainly middle-class parents in England, we explore in detail how parents go about choosing a childcare setting and the different…