Description: Department Seminar

Location: 368A Heady Hall

Contact: Bertan Turhan

Title: Who Gets What May Not Matter: Understanding School Match Effects

Abstract: We examine two approaches to improving urban school systems: changing who gets to go to existing schools (reallocation) and restructuring school portfolios through closures and reconstitution (resource augmentation). Using data from New York City high schools, we estimate models of schools effects allowing for both vertical school quality differences and horizontal student-specific match effects. While sophisticated reallocation policies that optimize student-school matches can generate modest educational gains, they are constrained by limited seats at highly effective schools. Simple resource-augmentation policies targeting low-performing schools achieve comparable improvements with less systemic disruption. Analysis of NYC’s school closures reveals that basic graduation rate metrics effectively identify struggling schools, suggesting complex value-added models may be unnecessary for closure decisions. Our findings indicate that capacity constraints, rather than poor school matching, primarily drive educational inequality.