Busing to Opportunity? The Impacts of the METCO Voluntary School Desegregation Program on Urban Students of Color

Clicks: 19
ID: 329863
2026
Free PDF
Article Quality & Performance Metrics
Overall Quality
Not rated
Combines reader engagement with the AI quality analysis. This article has not been analysed, so there is no overall score — reader engagement is measured and shown alongside.
AI Quality Assessment
Not analyzed
Readership in this journal
Emerging

Ranked #149 of 448 articles by views in the quarterly journal of economics

Most read Least read

Bar heights use a square-root scale. Only the 120 most-read articles are drawn; the journal has 448 in total.

Mint this article as an NFT
Not yet minted

Create a permanent, verifiable on-chain record of this article on the Scimatic Network. The NFT is held in your Journament account, and you can withdraw it to your own wallet at any time.

5 SUSD one-off · no wallet required
Sign in to mint
Abstract
Abstract School assignment policies are a key lever for expanding access to high-performing schools and promoting racial and socioeconomic integration. For over 50 years, the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO) has bussed students of color from Boston, Massachusetts to relatively wealthier and predominantly White suburbs. I estimate the effects of attending a high-performing suburban school by comparing applicants who receive enrollment offers with applicants who do not. A two-stage least squares approach exploits waitlist assignment priorities and controls for a rich set of characteristics from birth records and application data. Attending a suburban school boosts math and English test scores, reduces dropout, and increases on-time high school graduation. Four-year college aspirations, enrollment, and graduation increase along with earnings in adulthood. Students whose parents did not attend college and boys experience the largest effects. The evidence points to several mechanisms, including access to higher value-added schools, higher achieving peers, and schools with stronger college-going norms. Participants are more likely to be tracked into lower performing classes, implying that effects could be larger with access to more advanced coursework. District value-added estimates suggest that students’ educational trajectories shift at least as much as they would from growing up in the suburban districts.
Reference Key
openalex_W7214475648 Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Elizabeth Setren
Journal the quarterly journal of economics
Year 2026
DOI
10.1093/qje/qjag043
URL
https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjag043
Keywords Keywords not found

Citations

No citations found. To add a citation, contact the admin at info@scimatic.org

Comments

No comments yet. Be the first to comment on this article.