Options for public school choice in the District of Columbia are often more limited than they appear on paper, a recent analysis concludes.
The paper, released last month by the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute, found that fewer than 30 percent of students in Washington who chose a new public school last year enrolled in relatively strong-performing schools, or what the authors describe as “higher proficiency” schools.
Part of the problem is a lack of open seats in the city’s high-performing charter schools, the report says. It also notes that the hunting season for new schools takes place before parents learn whether their current schools have made adequate yearly progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
