School Choice, School Quality and Postsecondary Attainment

David J. Deming, Justine S. Hastings, Thomas J. Kane and Doug Staiger ()

No 17438, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We study the impact of a public school choice lottery in Charlotte-Mecklenburg (CMS) on postsecondary attainment. We match CMS administrative records to the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC), a nationwide database of college enrollment. Among applicants with low-quality neighborhood schools, lottery winners are more likely than lottery losers to graduate from high school, attend a four-year college, and earn a bachelor’s degree. They are twice as likely to earn a degree from an elite university. The results suggest that school choice can improve students’ longer-term life chances when they gain access to schools that are better on observed dimensions of quality.

JEL-codes: H4 I2 I21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-lab and nep-ure
Date: 2011-09
Note: CH ED LS PE
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