title: School Choice, School Quality and Postsecondary Attainment.
abstract: We study the impact of a public school choice lottery in Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools on college enrollment and degree completion. We find a significant overall increase in college attainment among lottery winners who attend their first choice school. Using rich administrative data on peers, teachers, course offerings and other inputs, we show that the impacts of choice are strongly predicted by gains on several measures of school quality. Gains in attainment are concentrated among girls. Girls respond to attending a better school with higher grades and increases in college-preparatory course-taking, while boys do not.
authors.affiliation: Harvard Graduate School of Education, Gutman 411, Appian Way, Cambridge, MA 02139 ( david_deming@gse.harvard.edu ).
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Deming
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics, Brown University, 64 Waterman Street, Box B, Providence, RI 02906 ( justine_hastings@brown.edu ).
authors.forename: Justine S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Hastings
authors.affiliation: Harvard Graduate School of Education, Center for Education Policy Research, 50 Church St., 4th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02138 ( tom_kane@harvard.edu ).
authors.forename: Thomas J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Kane
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics, Dartmouth College, HB 6106, Rockefeller Hall, Hanover, NH 03755.
authors.forename: Douglas O
authors.initials: DO
authors.lastname: Staiger