The Effect of Charter Schools on School Segregation

This quasi-experimental study by Tomás Monarrez, Brian Kisida, and Matthew Chingos examines the relationship between charter school policies and racial segregation in school attendance. Using panel data on the demographic breakdown of American public schools from 1998 to 2018, the authors use an instrumental variable approach to examine the effect of charter school expansion on within-school racial segregation. They find that as the share of a district attending charter schools increases, so does racial isolation. Their findings suggest that while, on average, charter schools have decreased the likelihood of Black and Hispanic students attending schools with students of other races, the pattern is reversed in metropolitan areas.