District-Level School Choice and Racial/Ethnic Test Score Gaps

Blatt, Lorraine; Votruba‐Drzal, Elizabeth

doi:10.3102/0002831221999405

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…To date, empirical scholarship regarding the efficacy of school choice has been mixed [8][9][10][11][12]. Recent reviews and meta-analyses of the extant literature have suggested that, on average, school choice policies have small, positive impacts on educational attainment [13], academic achievement [5], and disciplinary issues [10].…”

Section: School Choice Efficacymentioning

confidence: 99%

Parental rights or parental wrongs: Parents’ metacognitive knowledge of the factors that influence their school choice decisions

Cash,

Oppenheimer

2024

PLoS ONE

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School choice initiatives–which empower parents to choose which schools their children attend–are built on the assumptions that parents know what features of a school are most important to their family and that they are capable of focusing on the most important features when they make their decisions. However, decades of psychological research suggest that decision makers lack metacognitive knowledge of the factors that influence their decisions. We sought to reconcile this discrepancy between the policy assumptions and the psychological research. To do so, we asked participants to complete Choice-Based Conjoint surveys in which they made series of choices between different hypothetical schools. We then asked participants to self-report the weight they placed on each attribute when making their choices. Across four studies, we found that participants did not know how much weight they had placed on various school attributes. Average correlations between stated and revealed weights ranged from r = .34–.54. Stated weights predicted different choices than revealed weights in 16.41–20.63% of decisions. These metacognitive limitations persisted regardless of whether the participants were parents or non-parents (Study 1a/1b), the nature of the attributes that participants used to evaluate alternatives (Study 2), and whether or not decision makers had access to school ratings that could be used as metacognitive aids (Study 3). In line with prior psychological research–and in contract to policy assumptions–these findings demonstrate that decision makers do not have particularly strong metacognitive knowledge of the factors that influence their school choice decisions. As a result, parents making school choice decisions are likely to seek out and use the wrong information, thus leading to suboptimal school choices. Future research should replicate these results in more ecologically valid samples and test new approaches to school choice that account for these metacognitive limitations.

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Section: School Choice Efficacymentioning

confidence: 99%

Parental rights or parental wrongs: Parents’ metacognitive knowledge of the factors that influence their school choice decisions

Cash,

Oppenheimer

2024

PLoS ONE

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“…For example, Saw (2016) used TIMSS to document a rapid growth in achievement gaps by parental education in Malaysia, and Salmela-Aro and Chmielewski (2019) related educational policy changes to trends in SES achievement gaps over time in Finland. A related literature has focused on trends in race/ethnic achievement gaps and their relation to school segregation (see e.g., Blatt and Votruba-Drzal, 2021;Kuhfeld et al, 2021;Reardon et al, 2019Reardon et al, , 2022.…”

Section: Evidence On Socioeconomic Achievement Gaps and Trends Over Timementioning

confidence: 99%

The Widening Achievement Gap Between Rich and Poor in a Nordic Country

Sandsør

Zachrisson

Karoly

et al. 2023

Educational Researcher

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We study a decade of achievement gaps for fifth-, eighth-, and 10th-grade students in Norway using administrative population data. Norway is a wealthy and egalitarian country with a homogeneous educational system, yet achievement gaps between students at the 90th and 10th percentiles of parental income and between students whose parents have at least a master and at most a high school degree are found to be large (0.55–0.93 and 0.70–0.99 SD), equivalent to about 2 to 2.5 years of schooling, and increasing by grade level. Achievement gaps by parental income, but not by parental education, increased over the time period, underscoring the different ways these two socioeconomic status components relate to achievement and the potential for policy to alter gaps.

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“…As traditional school districts expand their school choice programs to be responsive to current market-based demands for 21st century workforce skills, it is imperative to examine how existing school choice programs are influencing student achievement, which could potentially determine their success in accessing and thriving in postsecondary opportunities. A need clearly exists to determine the extent to which these programs are effectively implemented, particularly given the preponderance of studies about charter schools and magnet programs (e.g., Archbald et al, 2018;Blatt & Votruba-Drzal, 2021;Berends, 2015;Kitmitto et al, 2016;Linkow, 2011;Ni & Arsen, 2011;Teasley et al, 2016).…”

Section: Statement Of the Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Schools of Choice and Neighborhood Schools: A Texas Statewide Investigation into the Academic Achievement of Their Students of Color

Browne

Slate

2023

RAE

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Differences between schools of choice and neighborhood high schools were examined in terms of the performance of their students of color on the Texas state-mandated English I and Algebra 1 exams for three school years. Hispanic students from neighborhood campuses outperformed their peers from the schools of choice at the Approaches and Meets Grade Level standards but not at the Masters Grade Level standard on the English I exam, and on the Algebra I exam except at the Meets Grade Level standard. Black students from schools of choice outperformed their peers from the traditional high schools on the English I exam but not on the Algebra I EOC exam. Implications and recommendations for future research were discussed.

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District-Level School Choice and Racial/Ethnic Test Score Gaps

Cited by 6 publications

References 50 publications

Parental rights or parental wrongs: Parents’ metacognitive knowledge of the factors that influence their school choice decisions

Parental rights or parental wrongs: Parents’ metacognitive knowledge of the factors that influence their school choice decisions

The Widening Achievement Gap Between Rich and Poor in a Nordic Country

Schools of Choice and Neighborhood Schools: A Texas Statewide Investigation into the Academic Achievement of Their Students of Color

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