Building on prior work with Democracy Prep Public Schools, I was delighted to join forces with Brian Gill, Emilyn Whitesell, Charles Tilley, Liz Potamites, and Mariel Ficucane from Mathematica Policy Research on this new study out today: The Impact of Democracy Prep Public Schools on Civic Participation
The takeaway finding is simple, and important: students admitted via random lottery admission to a Democracy Prep school were 16 percentage points more likely to be registered to vote upon graduation and 12 percentage points more likely to vote in a presidential election.
Our study, “Leveling the Playing Field for High School Choice: Results from a Field Experiment of Informational Interventions” was released today as a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper. The paper reports the results of a field experiment in 165 high-poverty New York City middle schools designed to help students navigate a complex high school choice process and access higher-performing schools. This paper and related publications can be found on our project website.
Do public transportation systems help or hinder school choice? Our team contributed to this new report from the Urban Institute on Student Transportation and Educational Access.
My colleagues and I had a letter to the New York Times published. While the high school admissions process in NYC is complex--with room for reform--our ongoing work suggests that carefully-designed and targeted information can make the process easier.