Racial Disparities and Black Parents' School Preferences: Evidence from a Survey Experiment.

ABSTRACT: Nearly half of Black parents have access to public school choice, but choice may not provide equitable and supportive school environments. Qualitative research documents Black parents worries that majority-White schools with more resources and higher test scores may over-discipline, underestimate, and exclude their children. Yet large-scale studies rarely examine what Black families desire in potential schools, including how they navigate potential tradeoffs between high school quality and denigrating school racial climates. This survey experiment examines the extent to which test score gaps and suspension gaps between Black students and their non-Black peers deter Black parents from choosing schools with higher overall test scores and lower overall suspension rates. We randomly assign a l

SUBMITTER: Hall T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12764616 | biostudies-literature | 2026

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature