Abstract

School choice policies are often promoted as more equitable alternatives to neighborhood-based school assignments in districts where residential segregation has long produced unequal access to educational opportunity. Although research links these policies to increased segregation, less is known about how their effects evolve as choice systems become more institutionalized and accessible. Have reforms aimed at improving participation made school choice more equitable over time by reducing White isolation? Using data from the National Center for Education Statistics and NHGIS census, this study examines racial isolation in Denver Public Schools (DPS) from 1995 to 2019—a district that transformed its choice system from a fragmented set of processes into a unified model now regarded as a national exemplar of accessibility. Despite these reforms, and even as participation expanded to include most families, White isolation from Black and Hispanic students persisted and even intensified. Findings indicate that expanding access to school choice alone does not alleviate segregation. Instead, organizational distinctions among schools within choice systems dynamically sustain White isolation while layering new forms of organizational inequality atop existing compositional divides. School choice thus provides not only the infrastructure for the continuation of racial segregation but a transformation of its form. .

Committee Chair

Cynthia Feliciano

Committee Members

Adia Harvey-Wingfield, Kiara Wyndham

Degree

Master of Arts (AM/MA)

Author's Department

Sociology

Author's School

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Document Type

Thesis

Date of Award

Winter 12-4-2025

Language

English (en)

Author's ORCID

https://orcid.org/0009-0001-6670-2334

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