TY - JOUR
T1 - Opting out of neighbourhood schools
T2 - The role of local education markets in student mobility
AU - Scandurra, Rosario
AU - Zancajo, Adrián
AU - Bonal, Xavier
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank the Consorci d'Educació de Barcelona for their support and access to databases. Rosario Scandurra also acknowledges the support of the Juan de la Cierva Incorporación Programme (Ref. IJC2019‐040056‐I). Adrian Zancajo also acknowledges the support of the British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship (PF2\180006).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors. Population, Space and Place Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Open enrolment policies assume that students living in disadvantaged areas can access better schools outside their neighbourhood. However, characteristics of individuals, quality of schooling and neighbourhood characteristics interact in very complex ways to produce heterogeneous patterns of school choice in local educational markets. This article analyses how the geography of educational opportunities, the socioeconomic background of students' families and the characteristics of their residential areas, impact on the travel-to-school distance in Barcelona. Based on a unique data set of school and student registers from Barcelona's local education authority, our study shows that distances travelled by students with the same social background vary depending on the characteristics of educational supply and the income of the neighbourhood. While socially advantaged students tend to travel longer distances than their peers from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, geographical and educational factors mediate to produce high heterogeneity in mobility patterns. Our findings cast doubt on the supposed virtue of school choice to reduce education inequalities and underline the need to consider the diversity of local microeducation markets in policymaking and planning.
AB - Open enrolment policies assume that students living in disadvantaged areas can access better schools outside their neighbourhood. However, characteristics of individuals, quality of schooling and neighbourhood characteristics interact in very complex ways to produce heterogeneous patterns of school choice in local educational markets. This article analyses how the geography of educational opportunities, the socioeconomic background of students' families and the characteristics of their residential areas, impact on the travel-to-school distance in Barcelona. Based on a unique data set of school and student registers from Barcelona's local education authority, our study shows that distances travelled by students with the same social background vary depending on the characteristics of educational supply and the income of the neighbourhood. While socially advantaged students tend to travel longer distances than their peers from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, geographical and educational factors mediate to produce high heterogeneity in mobility patterns. Our findings cast doubt on the supposed virtue of school choice to reduce education inequalities and underline the need to consider the diversity of local microeducation markets in policymaking and planning.
KW - distance
KW - educational opportunity
KW - school choice
KW - school composition
KW - spatial inequality
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85121455211&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/psp.2542
DO - 10.1002/psp.2542
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85121455211
SN - 1544-8444
JO - Population, Space and Place
JF - Population, Space and Place
ER -