Effects of School Choice on Achievement II Discussion

Overview Evidence on the impact of expanded school choice on student outcomes is mixed. –School Choice Increases Performance: Rouse (1998), Hoxby (2000, 2003), Howell et al. (2002), Howell, and Peterson (2002), Peterson, et. al. (2003), Hoxby and Rockoff (2005). – School Choice Has Little or No Impact on Performance: Cullen, Jacob and Levitt (2005), Betts et. al. (2006), Bifulco and Ladd (2006), Sass (2006), Rothstein (2006).

Overview Why do results differ so dramatically across studies? –Differences in methodology, experimental design and identification strategies. –School choice plans are heterogeneous and may results in different outcomes. –Degree to which expanded choice leads to increased sorting along racial and socio-economic dimensions makes it difficult to disentangle direct impact of choice on student outcomes. – School choice programs may have little impact if parents are not well informed about choices.

Current Papers Both papers emphasize role of parental information in school choice plans. –Scott: “Expanded parental choice can privilege elite parents who tend to have access to better information about schools.” –Hastings and Weinstein: “Low-income households may have higher decision-making costs that may lead them to make suboptimal decisions when faced with complex decisions.” –Scott: Information and outreach provided to parents about school choice options is often inconsistent and confusing.

Findings of Hastings and Weinstein Evidence from natural experiment and field experiment suggests that providing low-income parents with transparent information: –Substantially increases fraction of parents who exercise choice. –Substantially increases the quality (as measured by test scores) of school chosen. Conditional on receiving transparent information and choosing a higher quality school results in a relatively larger increase in student performance: –0.36 to 0.63 gain in own test scores.

Findings of Hastings and Weinstein What factors influence parental response to transparent information? –In both the natural experiment and field experiment distance is one of the primary determinants of choice. –Families with high scoring schools in close proximity are more likely to choose high-quality schools. –Lowering information costs has biggest impact when there are high-quality alternatives in close proximity. Finding ties in nicely with Scott: –“Greater supply of high achieving schools is needed to significantly impact student achievement on any large scale.”

School Choice and Racial Segregation Scott: “Charter school students of color are more segregated by race and poverty than students of color in traditional public schools.” –Growing consensus that racial composition of schools is an important determinant of the black-white test gap (Card and Rothstein, forthcoming; Hanushek et al., 2002; Lutz, 2005). Scott: Documented correlation between charter schools serving predominantly black children and teacher quality (teacher experience, credentialed teachers, etc).

Transparent Information and Racial Segregation Can transparent information about choice reduce racial segregation? Hastings, Van Weelden and Weinstien (2007): “Without the Score form, an African American parent is willing to give up a 0.50 standard deviation in average test scores for a.34 increase in the fraction black at the school. However, with the Score form, she would only be willing to give up a 0.21 standard deviation in average test scores for a.32 increase in the school fraction black.”

Transparent Information and Racial Segregation Can transparent information about choice reduce racial segregation? Hastings et al results suggest the answer is yes. –However, as pointed out by Scott, and empirically supported by Hastings and Weinstein, answer depends on supply of high achieving schools in close proximity.