Working Paper: NBER ID: w10113
Authors: Julie Berry Cullen; Brian A. Jacob; Steven Levitt
Abstract: School choice has become an increasingly prominent strategy for urban school districts seeking to enhance academic achievement. Evaluating the impact of such programs is complicated by the fact that a highly select sample of students takes advantage of these programs. To overcome this difficulty, we exploit randomized lotteries that determine high school admission in the Chicago Public Schools. Surprisingly, we find little evidence that attending sought after programs provides any benefit on a wide variety of traditional academic measures, including standardized test scores, attendance rates, course-taking, and credit accumulation. This is true despite the fact that those students who win the lotteries attend better high schools along a number of dimensions, including higher peer achievement levels, higher peer graduation rates, and lower levels of poverty. We do, however, uncover evidence that attendance at such schools may improve a subset of non-traditional outcome measures, such as self-reported disciplinary incidences and arrest rates.
Keywords: school choice; student outcomes; randomized lotteries; Chicago Public Schools
JEL Codes: I28; H72
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Winning a lottery to attend a sought-after school (I23) | Traditional academic performance measures (standardized test scores, attendance rates, course-taking patterns, credit accumulation) (I21) |
| Winning a lottery to attend a sought-after school (I23) | Reduced disciplinary incidents and arrest rates (I29) |
| Winning a lottery to attend a sought-after school (I23) | Enjoyment of school and trust in teachers (I24) |