Does School Integration Generate Peer Effects? Evidence from Boston's Metco Program
Year: 2004
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Most integration programs transfer students between schools within districts. In this paper,we study Metco, a long-running desegregation program that sends mostly Black students outof the Boston public school district to attend schools in more affluent suburban districts.Metco increases the number of Black students in receiving districts dramatically. BecauseMetco students have substantially lower test scores than local students, this inflow generatesa significant decline in scores, with an especially marked effect on the lower quantiles. Thispaper investigates the impact of Metco on receiving districts. Aggregate data on schools fromdistricts throughout Massachusetts and micro data from a single large district stronglysuggest the impact of Metco is largely a composition effect, since OLS estimates show noimpact on average scores in samples of White or non-Metco students. On the other hand,OLS estimates using micro data show some evidence of an effect on the scores of minority3rd graders in Reading and Language. Instrumental variables estimates for 3rd graders areimprecise but generally in line with OLS. Further analysis shows the negative effects on 3rdgraders to be clearly present only for girls. Given the highly localized nature of these results,we conclude that any peer effects from Metco are modest and short-lived.
Source: American Economic Review
Authors: Joshua D Angrist, Kevin Lang
Institutions: Boston University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2043096264