Nudging Parents to Choose Better Schools: The Importance of School Choice Architecture

This online school choice simulation by Steven Glazerman, Ira Nichols-Barrer, Jon Valant, Jessie Chandler, and Alyson Burnett presented participants with a hypothetical choice of schools in a fictional school district and surveyed participants about their school preferences. The authors examined how school information presentation changes participants’ school choices, knowledge about schools, and perceptions of information presentation. The presentation of information varied over several dimensions, including the default school sort order, the amount of information, and the source of information. Information presentation significantly affected school choice in the survey; for example, default sort order by academics resulted in school choices with higher average test scores but located further away from the home.