Does a school district that expands school choice provide better outcomes for students than a neighborhood-based assignment system? This paper studies the Zones of Choice (ZOC) program, a school choice initiative of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) that created small high school markets in some neighborhoods but left attendance zone boundaries in place throughout the rest of the district. We study market-level impacts of choice on student achievement and college enrollment using a differences-in-differences design. Student outcomes in ZOC markets increased markedly, narrowing achievement and college enrollment gaps between ZOC neighborhoods and the rest of the district. The effects of ZOC are larger for schools exposed to more competition, supporting the notion that competition is a key channel. Demand estimates suggest families place substantial weight on schools’ academic quality, providing schools with competition-induced incentives to improve their effectiveness. The evidence demonstrates that public school choice programs have the potential to improve school quality and reduce neighborhood-based disparities in educational opportunity.

中文翻译：

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公立学校选择的影响：来自洛杉矶选择区的证据

扩大择校范围的学区是否能够比基于邻里的分配系统为学生提供更好的结果？本文研究了选择区 (ZOC) 计划，这是洛杉矶联合学区 (LAUSD) 的一项择校计划，该计划在一些社区创建了小型高中市场，但在该学区的其他地区保留了就学区边界。我们使用双重差异设计来研究市场层面的选择对学生成绩和大学入学率的影响。ZOC 市场的学生成绩显着提高，缩小了 ZOC 社区与学区其他地区之间的成绩和大学入学率差距。对于面临更多竞争的学校来说，ZOC 的影响更大，这支持了竞争是关键渠道的观点。需求估计表明，家庭非常重视学校的学术质量，为学校提供竞争激励以提高其效率。证据表明，公立学校选择计划有潜力提高学校质量并减少基于社区的教育机会差异。