School choice promises equal access to all but in practice, that's not always the case. Using combined student-level data from the Houston Independent School District and neighborhood-level data from the United States Census Bureau’s Zip Business Patterns, this study examines how neighborhood-level social capital and race/ethnicity impact the exercise of intra-district magnet school choice, finding that families living in low social capital neighborhoods and racial and ethnic minorities had a higher likelihood of attending an out-of-zone magnet school.
Photo: woodleywonderworks/Flickr
