The Kids on the Bus

The Academic Consequences of Diversity‐Driven School Reassignments

Bibliographic Data

ID11680943
AuthorsThurston Domina (0000-0003-0161-3215, University of North Carolina Health Care, corresponding author), Deven Carlson (0000-0002-3406-7022), James S Carter, James A Carter (0000-0002-4068-9039), Matthew Lenard (0000-0003-2234-0666, IIT@Harvard), Andrew Mceachin (0000-0002-5113-6616, RAND Corporation), Rachel Perera (RAND Corporation)
Year2021
Volume40
Issue4
Pages1197-1229
Publication date2021-08-31
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Policy Analysis and Management (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0276-8739 • E-ISSN: 1520-6688
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/pam.22326
PMID35846069
OpenAlexW3165022400
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited61

Many public school diversity efforts rely on reassigning students from one school to another. While opponents of such efforts articulate concerns about the consequences of reassignments for students' educational experiences, little evidence exists regarding these effects, particularly in contemporary policy contexts. Using an event study design, we leverage data from an innovative socioeconomic school desegregation plan to estimate the effects of reassignment on reassigned students' achievement, attendance, and exposure to exclusionary discipline. Between 2000 and 2010, North Carolina's Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) reassigned approximately 25 percent of students with the goal of creating socioeconomically diverse schools. Although WCPSS's controlled school choice policy provided opportunities for reassigned students to opt out of their newly reassigned schools, our analysis indicates that reassigned students typically attended their newly reassigned schools. We find that reassignment modestly boosts reassigned students' math achievement, reduces reassigned students' rate of suspension, and has no offsetting negative consequences on other outcomes. Exploratory analyses suggest that the effects of reassignment do not meaningfully vary by student characteristics or school choice decisions. The results suggest that carefully designed school assignment policies can improve school diversity without imposing academic or disciplinary costs on reassigned students

Business · Diversity (politics · Sociology · Computer Science · Diverse Education Studies and Reforms

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