The Effect of School Choice on Student Outcomes: Evidence from Randomized Lotteries / Julie Berry Cullen, Brian A. Jacob, Steven Levitt.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cullen, Julie Berry.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Jacob, Brian A.

Levitt, Steven.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w10113.

NBER working paper series no. w10113

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

The Effect of School Choice on Student Outcomes

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2003.

Summary:

School choice has become an increasingly prominent strategy for urban school districts seeking to enhance academic achievement. Evaluating the impact of such programs is complicated by the fact that a highly select sample of students takes advantage of these programs. To overcome this difficulty, we exploit randomized lotteries that determine high school admission in the Chicago Public Schools. Surprisingly, we find little evidence that attending sought after programs provides any benefit on a wide variety of traditional academic measures, including standardized test scores, attendance rates, course-taking, and credit accumulation. This is true despite the fact that those students who win the lotteries attend better high schools along a number of dimensions, including higher peer achievement levels, higher peer graduation rates, and lower levels of poverty. We do, however, uncover evidence that attendance at such schools may improve a subset of non-traditional outcome measures, such as self-reported disciplinary incidences and arrest rates.

Notes:

Print version record

November 2003.