The Roots of Opting Out: Family, School, and Neighborhood Characteristics Associated With Non-Local School Choices

Abstract

Intra-district open enrollment policies are increasingly implemented as a means of expanding children’s educational opportunities and promoting greater racial integration in urban schools. However, racial segregation continues to endure in many choice-oriented urban school districts, to the extent that schools are often more segregated than their surrounding communities. I investigate the interplay between family, school, and neighborhood racial characteristics as they relate to pre-k and kindergarten school choice patterns in Boston, Massachusetts. Findings suggest school choice is a function of a variety of factors, with a school’s racial composition remaining salient even after accounting for academic achievement, discipline records, and distance from home. Furthermore, racial background moderates school choices such that White and Asian families displayed similar behavior, as they tended to choose schools with higher proportions of White and Asian students and lower proportions of Black students and students receiving free and reduced-price lunch subsidies. Neighborhood racial composition was not found to be a significant factor in families’ choices, but the average racial profile of the neighborhood schools did shape White and Asian families’ decisions to stay local or not. Finally, I found that families from neighborhoods with higher levels of ethnic heterogeneity and lower levels of socioeconomic advantage were more willing to travel longer distances for schools. The results underscore the importance of acknowledging the persistent salience of race in school choice processes, even when also accounting for various aspects of schools’ academic achievement, discipline, and location.