In April 2004, nearly 500 public schools in Chicago, Illinois, were identified as "in need of improvement" under the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). As a result, 175,000 Chicago public school students became eligible to transfer to a higher-performing school within the district under a "public school choice" provision in NCLB that’s designed to provide an escape valve for students in chronically under-performing schools.

 

But only 438 students, or less than 1 percent of eligible students, were able to take advantage of the transfer option. And Chicago is not unique. NCLB regulations mandate that districts offer students in failing schools at least two options, but only a tiny fraction of eligible students nationwide have utilized NCLB's school choice provision partly because they can't find a spot in even one high-performing school in their district.

To expand students' options, NCLB encourages districts to establish interdistrict choice agreements "to the extent practicable" with neighboring school districts, allowing students to attend schools outside district boundaries. Yet few districts have instituted such agreements. As a result, some choice advocates have recommended that financial incentives be added to NCLB to encourage more school districts to embrace interdistrict choice.

There are a number of steps that Congress and the next administration can take to improve the effectiveness of NCLB's choice provision, and thus increase the number of high-quality public school options for students in low-performing schools and the likelihood that the students who need access to high-quality options the most will be served. Expanding interdistrict choice is one of those steps, but it will not, by itself, make school choice available to substantially more students within public education. Achieving that goal would require additional steps by lawmakers. …Please download the full policy brief (above right).

This publication was made possible by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York. The statements made and views expressed are solely the responsibility of the author.