Choice Programs Found to Help Integration, But Not Scores

A study of several school choice programs in San Diego finds that they are promoting more racial and ethnic integration of students, but do not, in general, have any notable effect on test scores.

The increased integration in public schools results as more nonwhite students seek access to schools with a higher percentage of whites than are attending their local schools. While the actual shifts are relatively modest, the researchers say they would be far more pronounced were it not for limits on space in the schools providing choice.

“On the whole, choice in San Diego is doing a very good job in terms of boosting integration,” said Julian R. Betts, a co-author of the study and an economics professor at the University of California, San Diego. But, he said, choice has been “very neutral” in its impact on students’ scores on standardized tests, “in the sense that it has neither...