American Economic Review Vol. 104 No. 3 2014

School Choice, School Quality, and Postsecondary Attainment

David J. Deming¹; Justine Hastings²; Thomas J. Kane³; Douglas O. Staiger⁴

¹ Harvard Graduate School of Education, Gutman 411, Appian Way, Cambridge, MA 02139 (e-mail: ) · ² Department of Economics, Brown University, 64 Waterman Street, Box B, Providence, RI 02906 (e-mail: ) · ³ Harvard Graduate School of Education, Center for Education Policy Research, 50 Church Street, Fourth Floor, Cambridge, MA 02138 (e-mail: ) · ⁴ Department of Economics, Dartmouth College, HB 6106, Rockefeller Hall, Hanover, NH 03755 (e-mail: )

Abstract

We study the impact of a public school choice lottery in Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools on college enrollment and degree completion. We find a significant overall increase in college attainment among lottery winners who attend their first choice school. Using rich administrative data on peers, teachers, course offerings and other inputs, we show that the impacts of choice are strongly predicted by gains on several measures of school quality. Gains in attainment are concentrated among girls. Girls respond to attending a better school with higher grades and increases in college-preparatory course-taking, while boys do not.

DOI

10.1257/aer.104.3.991

Volume

104

Issue

3

Pages

991-1013

Language

en

Sources

bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

Cite

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