Quality, Close to Home” and Invisible Zero-Sum Politics
Boston’s Home-Based Student Assignment Policy
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11260101 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kathryn A Mcdermott (0000-0003-1730-7175, University of Massachusetts Amherst, corresponding author), Anna Fung-Morley (Mount Holyoke College) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 93 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 395-410 |
| Publication date | 2018-08-08 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Peabody Journal of Education (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0161-956X • E-ISSN: 1532-7930 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/0161956x.2018.1488396 |
| OpenAlex | W2896589566 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 20 |
In 2013, the Boston Public Schools (BPS) adopted the Home-Based Student Assignment Policy (HBSAP), which replaced elementary and middle-school choice within three large geographic zones with an algorithm that generates a choice basket of schools for each address based on proximity to the student’s home and a guarantee that all baskets will include at least four schools in the top two state test-score quartiles of BPS. Adoption of HBSAP broke a long political stalemate. BPS invited broad public participation in the process but also shaped the agenda to favor what middle-class neighborhood participants wanted. The process obscured the zero-sum politics of student assignment by permitting current students and their younger siblings to continue in their schools after adoption of HBSAP and because the algorithm does not produce winners and losers as obviously as geographically defined student assignment policies do. BPS has not produced a comprehensive evaluation of HBSAP’s effects, but early evidence suggests that it is making enclave schools more white
Class (philosophy · Economic growth · Economics · Mathematics education · Political science · Politics · Quality (philosophy · School choice · Sociology · Stalemate · Computer Science · Law · Parental Involvement in Education · Psychology · Public Administration · School Choice and Performance · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies
Marketing Schools, Marketing Cities
When Middle-Class Parents Choose Urban Schools
Public Housing and School Choice in a Gentrified City
A different type of charter school
Mapping School Segregation
Geography in Parental Choice
School Choice, Gentrification, and the Variable Significance of Racial Stratification in Urban Neighborhoods
Common Ground
The Carrot or the Stick for School Desegregation Policy
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |