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The Impact of Increased Exposure of Diversity on Suburban Students’ Outcomes: An Analysis of the METCO Voluntary Desegregation Program

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  • Elizabeth Setren

Abstract

Over sixty years following Brown vs. Board of Education, racial and socioeconomic segregation and lack of equal access to educational opportunities persist. Across the country, voluntary desegregation busing programs aim to ameliorate these imbalances and disparities. A longstanding Massachusetts program, METCO, buses K-12 students of color from Boston and Springfield, Massachusetts to 37 suburban districts that voluntarily enroll urban students. Supporters of the program argue that it prepares students to be active citizens in our multicultural society. Opponents question the value of the program and worry it may have a negative impact on suburban student outcomes. I estimate the causal effect of exposure to diversity through the METCO program by using two types of variation: difference-in-difference analysis of schools stopping and starting their METCO enrollment and two-stage least squares analysis of space availability for METCO students. Both methods rule out substantial test score, attendance, or suspension effects of having METCO peers. Classroom ability distribution and classroom suspension rates remain similar when METCO programs start and stop. There is no negative impact on college preparation, competitiveness, persistence, or graduation.

Suggested Citation

  • Elizabeth Setren, 2025. "The Impact of Increased Exposure of Diversity on Suburban Students’ Outcomes: An Analysis of the METCO Voluntary Desegregation Program," CESifo Working Paper Series 11893, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11893
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Stephen B. Billings & Jonah Rockoff, 2014. "School Segregation, Educational Attainment, and Crime: Evidence from the End of Busing in Charlotte-Mecklenburg," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(1), pages 435-476.
    2. Manasi Deshpande & Yue Li, 2019. "Who Is Screened Out? Application Costs and the Targeting of Disability Programs," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 11(4), pages 213-248, November.
    3. Hill, Darryl V. & Hughes, Rodney P. & Lenard, Matthew A. & Liebowitz, David D. & Page, Lindsay C., 2023. "New schools and new classmates: The disruption and peer group effects of school reassignment," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    4. Bergman, Peter, 2018. "The Risks and Benefits of School Integration for Participating Students: Evidence from a Randomized Desegregation Program," IZA Discussion Papers 11602, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Sarah J. Reber, 2010. "School Desegregation and Educational Attainment for Blacks," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 45(4), pages 893-914.
    6. John Logan & Brian Stults & Reynolds Farley, 2004. "Segregation of minorities in the metropolis: two decades of change," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 41(1), pages 1-22, February.
    7. Elizabeth Setren, 2024. "Busing to Opportunity? The Impacts of the METCO Voluntary School Desegregation Program on Urban Students of Color," NBER Working Papers 32864, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Baker, Andrew C. & Larcker, David F. & Wang, Charles C.Y., 2022. "How much should we trust staggered difference-in-differences estimates?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(2), pages 370-395.
    9. Elizabeth Setren, 2024. "Busing to Opportunity? The Impacts of the METCO Voluntary School Desegregation Program on Urban Students of Color," CESifo Working Paper Series 11320, CESifo.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    school integration; school segregation; school choice;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination

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