Access to open enrollment and school choice is uneven: David S. Knight, Stephen Kotok
In the next few months, many El Paso-area parents will decide where to send their children for the 2019-20 school year. Parents now have more choices than ever. In addition to magnet, charter and private schools, El Paso schools have recently expanded open enrollment policies. However, some parents do not have the same advantages as others when it comes to information, transportation and equal access to these schools.
Open enrollment, offered in the El Paso Independent School District and the Ysleta Independent School District, allows students to attend a school other than their assigned neighborhood school. Many districts, including EPISD and YISD, allow students from outside their residential area to attend their schools through a streamlined process. Other districts, such as Canutillo, engage in public school choice, but all student transfers require approval from the associate superintendent.
Open enrollment policies are part of a growing movement, nationally and locally, to offer parents more choice in where their children go to school. Similar to the charter school movement, open enrollment is a market-based reform that is thought to drive innovation and specialization and improve student fit, while creating healthy competition between schools.
Because schools are held accountable for their students’ performance on standardized tests, school choice can create incentives to recruit higher-achieving students. Students who transfer schools through open enrollment can also be denied enrollment renewal. For instance, in YISD, the school can revoke the transfer for a variety of reasons including “not achieving passing score(s) on any portion of the state assessment.” We do not know the extent to which principals actually use these mechanisms to dismiss transfers. However, the fact that principals have this authority raises concerns about who actually has choice in open enrollment and district transfer plans. Moreover, there is no legislation in Texas to protect English learners or students with disabilities from admission criteria within open enrollment policies.
There are obvious advantages of a district-run open enrollment plan such as EPISD or YISD’s over a charter school market. Traditional public school districts have a responsibility to serve all students within their residential boundaries. Publicly elected school boards monitor district practices to help ensure students have equal access to educational opportunities. EPISD deserves credit in addressing some of our concerns regarding access and equity. Originally, when the open enrollment plan was introduced in EPISD in 2013, principals could deny admission if a student did not have a “B” average and was not proficient on state assessments. The EPISD board has now told principals that they can only deny an application for attendance or behavioral reasons. Still, EPISD as a district must serve all residential students.
In contrast, charter schools have more autonomy over their student body. Data show, for example, that on average charter schools serve lower proportions of students with disabilities and in some cases have higher student expulsion rates. In Texas, state law (section 12.111 of the Texas Education Code) allows charter school recruiters to deny students admission based on their school disciplinary history or criminal background. Our own research on charter schools has shown that school choice often leads to increasing segregation by race/ethnicity, income, and students with disabilities.
In a more recent study, we examined whether EPISD’s open enrollment policy resulted in unfair transfer patterns or increased segregation by race and poverty. We found no sizable effect on segregation; however, we caution that the plan is still young and could introduce inequities if not monitored.
Ultimately, we think that while open enrollment may offer some benefits, access to open enrollment and school choice is uneven. To address inequity in access to information, families would benefit from a centralized guide to understand all options and procedures at all districts in the region. In terms of transportation, it is worth exploring options to ensure students who want to attend a school outside their neighborhood can get to their school safely and efficiently. Other jurisdictions in Texas have plans to provide busing to either all parents or at least the neediest parents. Most importantly, districts need to remain vigilant in monitoring student transfer patterns to make sure schools are not excluding students based on their academic background or disability status. Only then will the El Paso metro area truly have open enrollment.
David S. Knight is director of the Center for Education Research and Policy Studies and assistant professor at UTEP. Stephen Kotok is assistant professor at St. John’s University.