Interest Convergence and Market-Based School Reform: The Promise and Limits of Using Controlled Choice to Desegregate Schools

Abstract

This article uses interest convergence and market-based theories to examine a recently-adopted controlled choice school admissions model intended to desegregate a diverse, urban school district. Drawing on longitudinal, qualitative interviews with advantaged parents who articulated support for controlled choice, we find that these parents' positive view of the measure was based on a belief that the desegregation policy benefited their own children as well as poor children of color. Yet for many, support for the reform was contingent on their child’s school assignment, pointing to the limits of utilizing a market-based model for achieving educational equity.