Sean Patrick Corcoran

Despite evidence that informational interventions can influence K–12 school choices, we know little about the mechanisms through which they work and the factors that produce heterogeneity in student responses. Through a school-level randomized controlled trial conducted in 473 New York City middle schools serving 115,000 eighth graders, we evaluated three counselor-delivered informational interventions that were designed to help students avoid low-graduation high schools, but differed in their level of individual customization and mode of delivery (paper or online). Every intervention reduced likelihood of application to and enrollment in low-graduation-rate schools (those below the city median of 75%). Simplified paper interventions had the largest impacts and produced lower heterogeneity in effects across subgroups than customizable digital formats. A key mechanism by which interventions worked was through new information replacing students’ default first-choice schools that had low graduation rates and guaranteed admission. We conclude that informational interventions to support school choice can be effectively implemented at scale via school counselors, but that intervention design can lead to differences in who engages, with consequences for inequality.

We provide novel evidence on the broader impacts of school choice systems by quantifying disparities in peer continuity from middle to high school in New York City. We find that Black and Hispanic students and those in high-poverty neighborhoods attend high school with a much smaller fraction of their middle school or neighborhood peers than their White, Asian, and low-poverty neighborhood counterparts. Disparities also emerge in peer isolation: 27% and 20% of Black and Hispanic students transitioned with no other student from their middle school, while only 7% to 8% of White and Asian students did. Group differences in choice similarity, which in part reflects systematic variation in the number of local school options, drive this result.

School nutrition programs (SNP) provide much needed access to fruits, vegetables, and other healthy foods at low or no cost. Yet, the infrastructure of school kitchens and cafeteria vary across schools, potentially contributing to systematic barriers for SNP operation and equity. The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between school infrastructure and outcomes including meal participation, untraditional lunch periods, and having an open campus. Regression analyses were conducted using administrative data for 1804 schools and school nutrition manager survey data (n = 821) in New York City (NYC). Co-location was significantly associated with open campus status (OR = 2.84, CI: 1.11, 7.26) and high school breakfast participation (β = −0.056, p = 0.003). Overcrowding was associated with breakfast (elementary: β = −0.046, p = 0.03; middle: β = 0.051, p = 0.04; high: β = 0.042, p = 0.04) and lunch participation (elementary: β = −0.031, p = 0.01) and untraditional lunchtimes (elementary: OR = 2.47, CI: 1.05, 5.83). Higher enrollment to cafeteria capacity ratios was associated with breakfast (elementary: β = −0.025, p = 0.02) and lunch (elementary: β = −0.015, p = 0.001; high: β = 0.014, p = 0.02) participation and untraditional lunchtimes (middle: OR = 1.66, CI: 1.03, 2.68). Infrastructure characteristics are an important source of variation across NYC schools that may hinder the equity of school nutrition programs across the city.

New York City's public specialized high schools have a long history of offering a rigorous, college preparatory education to the city's most academically talented students. Though immensely popular and highly selective, their policy of admitting students using a single entrance exam has raised questions about diversity and equity in access. In this paper, we provide a descriptive analysis of the "pipeline" from middle school to matriculation at a specialized high school, identifying group-level differences in application, admission, and enrollment. In doing so, we highlight potential points of intervention to improve access for underrepresented groups. Controlling for other measures of prior achievement, we find black, Hispanic, low-income, and female students are significantly less likely to qualify for admission to a specialized high school. Differences in application and matriculation rates also affect the diversity in these schools, and we find evidence of middle school "effects" on both application and admission. Simulated policies that offer admissions using alternative measures, such as state test scores and grades, suggest many more girls, Hispanics, and white students would be admitted under these alternatives. They would not, however, appreciably increase the share of offers given to black or low-income students.

Given the dominance of residentially based school assignment, prior researchers have conceptualized K–12 enrollment decisions as beyond the purview of school actors. This paper questions the continued relevance of this assumption by studying the behavior of guidance counselors charged with implementing New York City’s universal high school choice policy. Drawing on structured interviews with 88 middle school counselors and administrative data on choice outcomes at these middle schools, we find that counselors generally believe lower-income students are on their own in making high school choices and need additional adult support. However, they largely refrain from giving action-guiding advice to students about which schools to attend. We elaborate street-level bureaucracy theory by showing how the majority of counselors reduce cognitive dissonance between their understanding of students’ needs and their inability to meet these needs adequately given existing resources. They do so by drawing selectively on competing policy logics of school choice, narrowly delineating their conception of their role, and relegating decisions to parents. Importantly, we also find departures from the predictions of this theory as approximately one in four counselors sought to meet the needs of individual students by enlarging their role despite the resource constraints they faced. Finally, we quantify the impact of variation in counselors’ approaches, finding that the absence of action-guiding advice is associated with students being admitted to lower-quality schools, on average.

Concepts from the Australian mathematics curriculum on fractions were used as core elements to design three computer games. In each game, the concepts were presented in the form of tangible puzzles, customized to a difficulty level based on student capability. The games were integrated into a single virtual game world, and a fantasy story was used to help build a compelling experience. Five Year 6 classes were used to evaluate the game over four weeks. Three of the classes were provided with the games, and two served as a control. Both the intervention and control groups also covered fractions in class as part of the regular teaching program, consisting of instructor led content combined with access to online resources and activities. Participants completed a diagnostic test before the trial, and again at the end, designed to assess competence in the fractions concepts targeted by the game. Results show that on average students who had access to the game in addition to the regular teaching scored higher than control group students. In particular, looking at just students who started with a lower level of fractions skills, greater improvement was seen in those that had access to the game.

We use a policy change that occurred in Oregon in the late 1980s to re‐visit the budget‐maximizing agenda setter theory of local public expenditure. Prior to 1987, Oregon school districts held operating levy elections with an exogenous, often zero or very low, spending reversion. From 1987 through 1990, districts experienced a “safety net” regime where the reversion was at least the previous year's nominal spending. We find that the “safety net” sharply limited the agenda setter's ability to use the reversion as a threat to obtain voter approval of relatively large expenditures.

Many studies have investigated whether students in charter schools differ systematically from those in traditional public schools with respect to prior achievement, special education, or English Language Learner status. None, however, has examined gender differences in charter school enrollment. Using data for all U.S. public schools over 11 years, we find charters enroll a higher fraction of girls, a gap that has grown steadily over time and is larger in secondary grades and KIPP schools. We then analyze longitudinal student-level data from North Carolina to examine whether differential rates of attrition explain this gap. We find boys are more likely than girls to exit charters once enrolled, and gender differences in attrition are larger than in traditional schools. However, the difference is not large enough to explain the full enrollment gap between charter and traditional schools in North Carolina, suggesting gaps exist from initial matriculation.