Mapping Student Assignment Policies and School Segregation

School districts with similar choice and boundary policies can end up with very different levels of school segregation. A new Urban Institute data tool maps that variation.

IPPRA Associate Director for Education Deven Carlson is part of the research team behind the tool, which catalogs the student assignment policies — school choice options, attendance boundaries, and enrollment rules — used by the nation’s 100 largest school districts and pairs them with measures of school segregation.

District leaders, school board members, and education reporters can look up a specific district, compare it with peers, and see how the same policy plays out differently depending on local context. These comparisons can inform discussions about how to best design and structure student assignment policy.

Explore the Urban Institute’s school choice, attendance boundary, and segregation data tool