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  • Does Intra-District Transfer Make the Grade? : A Case Study of the Effects of School Choice on Achievement
    Authors:
    Year: 2011

  • Abstract:
    While studies of charter, voucher, and magnet programs have provided valuable contributions to the understanding of school choice and its influence on student achievement, the choice literature has failed to address intra-district transfer programs—a rapidly expanding form of school choice that has been enacted in at least 38 states. This paper studies the effects of intra-district transfers on student achievement in elementary schools in one urban school district located in the Intermountain West. This district provides a unique context because all students receive admittance to their first-choice school, thereby allowing better understanding of the effects of intra-district transfers in a natural setting. Using Propensity Score Matching (PSM), the researchers estimate the causal relationship between intra-district transfers and student achievement. They find that intra-district transfer in itself does not affect student achievement; however, when students use intra-district transfer options to choose away from low performing schools and choose higher performing schools, their achievement increases in both language arts and mathematics.

    This paper is published in a book from the Harvard Education Press.
    Download the chapter’s appendix above.


The NCSC is funded by a 5 year, $13.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences. Its lead institution is Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. The center is housed on the campus of Peabody College, one of the nation's top graduate schools of education.