The Role of Information and Institutional Arrangements in Stemming the Stratifying Effects of School Choice

Abstract

The design and implementation of school choice programs have emerged as critical issues in debates about how to reform American schools. At the core of these debates are issues of equity and fairness. For example, does the introduction of school choice lead to greater stratification along racial and socio-economic dimensions? Do all parents have equal access to the choice programs available to them? In this study I investigate such questions by first reviewing previous research that examines how school choice affects the equality of educational opportunities and then developing a framework and a set of testable hypotheses that provide a better understanding of how institutional, demographic, and contextual factors affect potential inequities in those who participate in school choice. In applying this framework to evaluate the public school choice programs of two inner-city New York districts, I find that institutional arrangements and information play a critical role in the distribution of educational opportunity. In East Harlem’s District 4, the gap in participation levels among advantaged and disadvantaged parents has been bridged not only by the maturity of the choice program and the institutional structures that are in place to disseminate and facilitate the flow of information, but also because the district culture and norms reinforce choice behavior among parents.