The effects of school choice: The Swedish experience

Bo Malmberg

Dep Human Geography

Stockholms university

Our research

• “Changing Geography of the Swedish School System”

• Swedish Research Council funded project 2010-2012

• Eva Andesson, John Östh, Zara Bergsten

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Composite!geographical!context!and!

school!choice!attitudes!in!Sweden:!!

A!study!based!on!individually!defined,!

scalable!neighborhoods!!!

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Bo!Malmberg! Eva!Andersson! Zara!Bergsten!

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Main findings

• Schelling-type white flight is likely driving force behind increasing performance differences between schools

• Increasing performance differences are not driven by increasing residential segregation

• School choice is largely exercised by advantaged groups, disadvantaged groups are avoided

• School choice motives are more influenced by residential context than by class background

Take-home message

• Active school choice is mainly driven by concerns about the demographic composition of the student body

• Active school choice is mainly exercised by middle class groups

Corresponds well with findings in the international literature (OECD 2010)

Corresponds well with findings in the international literature (OECD 2010)

• Middle-class families tend to actively seek out and select alternatives to neighborhood schools

• Working class families more prone to select school based on distance considerations

• White, middle class parents tend to select schools with low shares of minority students and few students from low-income households

• Both ethnic and socio-economic school segregation has been found to increase after the introduction of open enrolment.

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Share of students in private schools (9th grade) 1992-2009

Increasing school choice in Sweden

Increasing differences between schools

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Source: OECD PROGRAMME FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENT ASSESSMENT (2008) PISA 2006 Science Competencies for Tomorrow’s World. OECD Programme for International Student …

Between School Variance in Student performance, Sweden 2000-2006

Maths

Reading

Science

Increasing differences between schools

Decreasing performance

Is there a link?

Is there a link?

Conclusion

• Important to study the effects of school choice

• Does open enrolement increase school segregation?

• What influences parental choice

Four studies

1. Does visible minorities influence school segregation

2. Is residential segregation driving increasing school segregation?

3. Which groups make are selective and what is the role of residential context?

4. How are school choice motives influenced by residential context

DOES VISIBLE MINORITIES TRIGGER SEGREGATION PROCESSES?

Theory and method

• Schelling

– Small differences in preferences can lead to complete segregation

• PISA (2003) andregister data

– Is there more school segregation in regions with high VM shares?

Share of visible minorities

Yes, segregation higher in high VM regions

IS RESIDENTIAL SEGREGATION DRIVING INCREASING SCHOOL SEGREGATION?

Background and method

• Contrafactual close-to-home schools

• Compare between school variance in actual and contra-factual schools

Catchment area 50 meters

Catchment area 100 meters

Catchment area 150 meters

Catchment area 200 meter

Catchment area 250 meter

Catchment area 300 meter

Catchment area 350 meter

Catchment area 1000 meter

All students assigned to schools

Result: Residential segregation is

not the driving force

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DOES SCHOOL CHOICE MITIGATE RESIDENTIAL SEGREGATION

Radio interview: Integretation

minister Erik Ullenhag 20131005

• “School choice reduces the effect of residential segregation”

Method

• Commuting distance as a measure of school choice

• Relative to mean commuting distance of neighborhood area

• Three years 2000, 2003 och 2006

• 221 846 students (9th grade)

Results, effects on travel-to-school distances, individual level variables

Results, effects on travel-to-school distances neighbourhood level

variables

The ministers idea does not hold up

• School choice accentuates the effects of residential segregation

SCHOOL CHOICE MOTIVES

What are parents motives for school choice?

• Survey 2012 • 6 900 upper primary school (born 1999, 2000, 2001)

• 8 municipalities: Stockholm, Göteborg, Malmö, Uppsala, Västerås, Botkyrka, Nacka and Norrköping.

• 55 % response rate.

Five questions in focus

• ‘What is the main reason your child is attending the current school?’, 16 alternatives (Q11)

• “What type of school does your child attend? Public or independent?” (Q4)

• “Is the current school your closest available school?”(Q8).

• Who has influenced which school your child attends? (Q19)

• (Q28) “Would you choose a school, if the school was located close to home, but had few Swedish speaking students”

Analysis

1. The effect of family background Social allowance, high education, unemployment, single mother, western world, visible minority, disposable income

2. The effect of geographical context – Factor 1: Elite concentration – Factor 3: White non-elite – Factor 4: Visible minorities and marginalized

groups nearby – Factor 5: Single mothers – Factor 6: Small scale visible minority – Factor 14: Small scale academic elite

Describing the context So called ’Elite’ context from individualized neighborhoods

Number of closest neighbors

Results

• Geographical context more important than family background

• Elite areas stress school reputation, school profile, teachers quality and student performance, not closeness Independent schools favoured.

• White non-elite stress closeness, municipality recommendation, reputation and teacher quality less important.

• Visible minorities and marginalized groups nearby Answers similar to Elite areas.

DISCUSSION

Can Sweden’s poor results in PISA be explained by school choice?

• My answer is yes

• Last years (2006-2012) have seen an accelerating segregation process

– Share of students with foreign background has risen

• To near 100% in the most segregated schools in Stockholm, Malmö and Göteborg

• To above 60 % in other major metropolitan areas: Uppsala, Linköping, Västerås, Örebro

• Driven by parental concern for demographic composition, not quality concerns

What is the link to school performance?

• Good teachers in schools with “wrong” type of students are not rewarded but punished

• Schools with a “correct” student composition can recruit students even if teaching is of low quality

SUMMARY

• People interested in how to design a successful school system have traveled to Finland

• Now there is a new destination for such travels

• People interested in how to ruin a well working school system can travel to Sweden