Abstract
The intent of Connecticut’s Open Choice Program is to offer underserved urban students the opportunity to achieve equitable educational outcomes by attending higher-quality public schools. As students transfer to schools that theoretically have more resources, increased educational achievement growth is expected. Additionally, with the implementation of the state exam, Smarter Balanced Assessment, student growth metrics have been introduced in state reporting. Examining student growth is a better measure for school quality than achievement levels. To understand the impact of Open Choice Program, a multiple regression analysis is applied to multiple imputed aggregate data to determine the relationship between school choice and Free-and-Reduced Price Lunch (FRPL) students. The findings indicate that, at best, public school choice accounts for 25% of variation in FRPL student outcomes. Furthermore, the results from the multiple regression indicate FRPL students in Open Choice, and the Open Choice program in general, are not outperforming their public-school counterparts. Due to the nature of the data in this study, inductive inferences about the Open Choice Program are made, but further research requires individual-level data.
Recommended Citation
Carson, Jacob S. and Duman, Gazi M.
(2025)
"PERFORMANCE AND POLICY REVIEW: DOES CONNECTICUT’S OPEN CHOICE PROGRAM PROVIDE EQUITABLE OPPORTUNITIES TO UNDERSERVED STUDENTS?,"
Pennsylvania Economic Review: Vol. 32:
No.
2, Article 1.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.65193/3067-8080.1019