Publications Page

The Details Matter: A Summary of Research on School Choice Policy and Implementation

September 21, 2026 | By Douglas N. Harris, Danielle Sanderson Edwards, Julie A. Marsh

REACH has been working for almost a decade to better understand different forms of school choice and their impact on student experiences and outcomes. In "The Details Matter: A Summary of Research on School Choice Policy and Implementation", Douglas N. Harris, Danielle Sanderson Edwards, and Julie A. Marsh bring together nearly a decade of REACH research, along with evidence from 90 additional high-quality studies, to examine nine key policy elements that shape how school choice works in practice. The report finds that the details of how school choice policies are designed and implemented matter for understanding their effects on students, families, and communities.

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Transportation Increases Schooling Access: Evidence from New York City

March 30, 2026 | By Amy Ellen Schwartz, Sarah A. Cordes

Drawing on three studies of transportation in New York City, a team of researchers led by Sarah A. Cordes and Amy Ellen Schwartz investigates how distance and transportation access affect school choice, attendance, and student test scores.

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How Do Charter Schools Serve Students with Disabilities? Lessons from Michigan

January 12, 2026 | By Scott Imberman, Andrew Johnson

Students with Disabilities (SWDs) make up nearly 15% of the K-12 student population in the U.S. but have historically been underrepresented in charter schools, and charter schools may offer different special education services than traditional public schools (TPS), raising concerns that they may be less attentive to the needs of SWDs.

Using data from Michigan K-8 students from 2013 to 2018, we study how the educational setting and the attendance and academic outcomes of SWDs change after switching from a TPS to a charter school, as outcomes of SWDs are rarely the focus of research on charter schools.

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Do Middle Schoolers Undermatch in High School Choice? Evidence from a Merit-Based School Choice Admission System

December 18, 2025 | By Jane Arnold Lincove

School choice mechanisms are proposed as a remedy for inequalities created by the combination of residential segregation and geographically zoned school assignments, and a common alternative to geographically zoned schools is merit-based admissions to academically selective high schools. In this study, we investigate whether a similar form of undermatch occurs when middle schoolers apply to high schools in a citywide choice system. We focus our study in Baltimore City, where selective high school seats are allocated based on a single metric of middle school performance, and in this context we ask whether access to academically selective high schools is driven by student preferences or student performance.

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School Choice Enrollment Systems in Large U.S. Cities: Implications for Integration and Equitable Access

December 18, 2025 | By Jon Valant, Jane Arnold Lincove, Nicolas Zerbino

Many cities have adopted unified enrollment (UE) systems that centralize the school choice application and assignment process. We examine the proliferation of these systems in large U.S. cities, focusing on whether adopting UE affects integration or access. We use Callaway and Sant’Anna difference-in-differences (CSDID) models to test if UE implementation changes systemwide racial and ethnic segregation levels. We then use comparative interrupted time series (CITS) models to test if UE changes enrollment patterns in schools that were disproportionately White before UE. We find little evidence of immediate effects. However, over time, we see incremental reductions in segregation and increases in nonwhite enrollment in schools where these students had been underrepresented.

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Did COVID Affect Middle School Choice? Distance, Transportation and the Zoned School

September 19, 2025 | By Jeff Zabel, Samantha Trajkovski, Sarah A. Cordes, Amy Ellen Schwartz

COVID-19 negatively affected student performance and widened racial and socioeconomic disparities. School choice was seen as one way to reduce these gaps, but the pandemic may have limited families’ ability to travel, investigate, and attend schools outside their community.

This study examines middle school choices of 6th grade students in New York City before and after COVID. After schools reopened, students traveled slightly farther and enrolled in a wider variety of schools. Most school characteristics influenced choices in similar ways before and after the pandemic, with one key change: eligibility for school busing significantly increased the probability of enrollment at both zoned and choice/charter schools.

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The Effects of Universal School Vouchers on Private School Tuition and Enrollment: A National Analysis

September 11, 2025 | By Douglas N. Harris, Gabriel Olivier

Similar programs in states across the country have so far raised private school enrollment by 3-4%, but these modest gains mask bigger shifts ahead, including rising tuition and benefits flowing mainly to higher-income families and small, religious schools.

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Michigan Teacher Licensure, Retention, and Effectiveness During the COVID-19 Pandemic

August 06, 2025 | By Matthew Guzman, Tara Kilbride, Salem Rogers, Katharine O. Strunk

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Michigan temporarily adjusted teacher licensure and student teaching requirements to avoid staffing shortages. This study explores how those changes affected teacher supply, diversity, retention, and effectiveness. While the overall number of new teachers was maintained, the 2020–21 cohort was more diverse, even among certification types not impacted by the policy. Teachers with temporary certificates performed similarly to those with standard ones, though modified student teaching experiences may have more strongly affected special education teachers.

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How Transportation Shapes School Choice: Evidence from Baltimore City Public Schools

July 06, 2025 | By Julia Burdick-Will, Marc Stein

Baltimore’s system of school choice requires students and families to select their high schools rather than be assigned one based on where they live. While this system provides flexibility, challenges related to distance and commuting remain, especially for those students who rely on public transportation to get to school. This study uses major changes to the bus system over time to examine the effect of commuting difficulty on school choice.

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The Double Burden of School Choice

April 23, 2025 | By Huriya Jabbar, Hanora Tracy, Emily Germain, Sarah Lenhoff, Jacob Alonso, Shira Haderlein

This study examines how the administrative demands of school choice—such as researching options, navigating systems, and completing applications—create obstacles for families. Drawing on interviews and focus groups with parents in Louisiana, Colorado, and Michigan, the researchers highlight the psychological toll of these processes.

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REACH Publications

The Effects of Universal School Vouchers on Private School Tuition and Enrollment: A National Analysis

All Entries (37)

The Details Matter: A Summary of Research on School Choice Policy and Implementation

Transportation Increases Schooling Access: Evidence from New York City

How Do Charter Schools Serve Students with Disabilities? Lessons from Michigan

Do Middle Schoolers Undermatch in High School Choice? Evidence from a Merit-Based School Choice Admission System

School Choice Enrollment Systems in Large U.S. Cities: Implications for Integration and Equitable Access

Did COVID Affect Middle School Choice? Distance, Transportation and the Zoned School

The Effects of Universal School Vouchers on Private School Tuition and Enrollment: A National Analysis

Michigan Teacher Licensure, Retention, and Effectiveness During the COVID-19 Pandemic

How Transportation Shapes School Choice: Evidence from Baltimore City Public Schools

The Double Burden of School Choice