Student assignment algorithms have far reaching implications for families, the education system, and for society as a whole. Motivated by operational challenges faced by the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), we use a mechanism design framework to develop, operationalize, and streamline algorithmic student matching policies in San…

Browsing social media during back-to-school time, one frequently encounters pleas from teachers to help purchase classroom supplies through #clearthelist campaigns or to support their class' DonorsChoose projects. At a time of historically high levels of education spending, why do teachers require additional assistance to meet basic classroom…

Market-based policies, especially school vouchers, are expanding rapidly and shifting students out of traditional public schools. This essay broadens, deepens, and updates prior critiques of the free market logic in five ways. First, while prior articles have pointed to some of the conditions necessary for efficient market functioning, I provide a…

The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to examine the decision-making process of K-12 parents living in the Appalachian Highlands who chose to remove their children from traditional public schools to join learning pods (sometimes referred to as pandemic pods) during the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to answer this overarching…

The Education Scholarship Account (ESA) Act allows parents to use the funds that would have been allocated to their child at their resident school district for an education program of the parents' choosing. The Act identifies student eligibility as well as approved educational expenses. The Act establishes procedures for parents to apply to the…

A growing body of evidence suggests that decision-makers fail to account for correlation in signals that they receive. We study the relevance of this mistake in students' interactions with school-choice matching mechanisms. In a lab experiment presenting simple and incentivized school-choice scenarios, we find that subjects tend to follow optimal…

Drawing on ecological perspectives, this study investigates changes in the bilingual education of ethnic Koreans in China in the context of globalization. Focusing on two Chosonjuk (ethnic Korean in China, ?????, ???) schools in Northeast China that experienced challenges due to declining enrollment as a result of the increasing popularity of…

States vary widely in their approaches to charter school regulation. We administered online surveys to charter school leaders in four of the most stringently regulated states and three of the least stringently regulated states to examine how their approach might influence perceived school goals and levels of goal agreement. Generally, survey…

School choice can segregate schools by academic ability, income or ethnicity, but is this because of households' choices, or constraints in access to good schools? We examine whether segregation is by choice, finding that households' school choices are segregating in most areas. Through counterfactual simulation, we find that implementing a policy…

Advocates of charter schools hold that the marketization of education compels all schools to be innovative in raising student achievement outcomes. Opponents of charter schools dispute whether the impact of charter schools on student achievement is statistically sufficient to justify taking resources from traditional public schools. Another…

Socioeconomic differences among low-income and racially minoritized students may be consequential for understanding the dynamics of school choice--especially in high-poverty and racially segregated urban contexts that are often targeted by school choice policies. Yet school choice research largely focuses on differences between groups and relies…

What guidance does research provide about how to improve school district performance in the United States? Despite over 30 years of inquiry on the topic of effective districts, existing frameworks are relatively narrow in terms of disciplinary focus (primarily educational leadership perspectives) and research design (primarily qualitative case…

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) affirms parental rights in education through a simple statement: "Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children." However, in subsequent international treaties, this right is framed with greater complexity. Notably, the International…

Dual enrollment (DE) is one of the fastest growing programs that support the high school-to-college transition. Yet, there is limited empirical evidence about its impact on either students' college application choices or admission outcomes. Using a fuzzy regression discontinuity approach on data from two cohorts of ninth-grade students in one…

This research examines the reasons why parent(s)/guardian(s) have chosen to enroll their child in a Catholic high school in the New Orleans area. Currently enrollment in Catholic high schools in the area is down post-Hurricane Katrina. This research is a qualitative study utilizing Grounded Theory methodology. An anonymous survey was sent to…