Switching Schools and Navigating Neighborhoods: Can Housing Vouchers Improve Educational Achievement for Low Income Minority Youth?

Published
January 30, 2015

This study capitalizes on the Baltimore Mobility Program, an innovative housing voucher intervention, to explore whether improvements in neighborhood access translate into gains in educational opportunity and achievement for poor minority children. Research examining the effects of schools and neighborhoods rarely relies on data that includes low income minority families in the same kinds of neighborhoods and schools as middle class families. This study goes beyond previous research by examining the educational consequences of housing policy, for children who experience changes in the racial and economic composition of both schools and neighborhoods, and comparing student performance in impoverished schools with their performance after attending high quality schools.

Photo: “Oxon Hill High School Visit” by Maryland GovPics is licensed under CC BY 2.0