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Parent’s Choice or School’s Choice? Discrimination Against Students in Admission to Private, Charter, and Traditional Public Schools

Last registered on September 28, 2026

Pre-Trial

General Information

Title

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0019794

Initial registration date

September 21, 2026

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

September 28, 2026, 8:50 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name

Hussain Hadah

Affiliation

Northwestern University

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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Patrick Button

PI Affiliation

Tulane University

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PI Name

Douglas Harris

PI Affiliation

Tulane University

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PI Name

Barbara Lundebjerg

PI Affiliation

Vanderbilt University

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PI Name

Baris Alan

PI Affiliation

Tulane University

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Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2026-09-22

End date

2027-03-22

Keywords

Education, Gender, Labor

Additional Keywords

school admissions, school application, traditional public schools, charter schools, private schools, audit study, field experiment, correspondence experiment, LGBT, disability, racial discrimination

JEL code(s)

I24, I28, J14, J15, J16, C93

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

We conduct a nationwide audit correspondence field experiment of over 90,000 US K-12 public, charter, and private schools to quantify discrimination in admissions by race, ethnicity, disability, SES, and sexual orientation or gender identity (SOGI). Private schools can legally discriminate on most dimensions, and we will be the first to quantify whether they discriminate differently from public or charter schools. We will email school administrators (SAs) as mothers seeking to enroll their children and inquiring about the application process and fit, mimicking the crucial information-gathering phase when accessing schools of choice. These emails will be on average identical except signals of race or ethnicity (Black, Hispanic, Arab, White), SOGI, SES, and disability. We quantify discrimination by comparing response rates and quality by group and school type. We inform how to reduce discrimination by investigating the mechanisms of discrimination, such as how numerous policies (e.g., anti-DEI, anti(pro)-LGBTQIA+ policies, vouchers) associate with discrimination.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Alan, Baris et al. 2026. "Parent’s Choice or School’s Choice? Discrimination Against Students in Admission to Private, Charter, and Traditional Public Schools." AEA RCT Registry. September 28. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.19794-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

We send emails to school administrators (SAs) at K-12 traditional public, charter, and private schools nationwide, posing as mothers inquiring whether their child could enroll and how to apply. Each school receives two emails from two fictitious families, sent at least 21 days apart. The emails are on average identical except for randomly assigned signals of the family's race or ethnicity (White, Black, Hispanic, Arab), the child's sexual orientation or gender identity (SOGI) or disability, the child's gender, the family's socio-economic status (SES), and the child's academic achievement.

Intervention Start Date

2026-09-22

Intervention End Date

2027-03-22

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Our primary outcome variable is the response rate.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

We define a response: a non-automated response from the school received within a within a reasonable time frame. Automated

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

We code two secondary outcome variables capturing the quality of the response: (1) lower administrative burden and (2) welcoming. We also code a set of tertiary outcome variables: longer response (above the median length in characters, excluding the signature); check-in follow-up response; positive sentiment; and micro(macro)aggressions (name anglicization/españolización or misspelling, misgendering, racist/anti-immigrant/homophobic/transphobic responses, and other hostile or dismissive responses).

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Our general experimental design follows those of similar email-correspondence studies (e.g., Gaddis et al., 2024; Giulietti, Tonin, and Vlassopoulos, 2019). We conduct a nationwide audit correspondence field experiment of approximately 88,000 US K-12 traditional public, charter, and private schools. Each school's point of contact (usually the school secretary or administrative assistant) receives two emails from fictitious mothers inquiring about enrollment and the application process, sent at least 21 days apart. Within each pair, we randomly assign signals of race or ethnicity, SOGI or disability, gender, SES, and academic achievement, so that the two emails differ only in these signals and minor phrasing. We quantify discrimination by comparing response rates across groups and by school type (private and charter relative to traditional public).

Experimental Design Details

Not available

Randomization Method

Randomization done in office by a computer.

Randomization Unit

The school is the unit of randomization.

Was the treatment clustered?

Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

88,008 schools

Sample size: planned number of observations

Two emails are sent per school, so our goal is 176,016 observations (enrollment inquiries).

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

68,468 schools in the disability treatment arm and 19,540 schools in the SOGI treatment arm. Within each school, one email carries the arm's signal (disability or SOGI) and the other does not. Race and ethnicity, gender, SES, academic achievement, and nativity are randomized within pairs at the probabilities described in the experimental design.

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name

Tulane University Social-Behavioral IRB

IRB Approval Date

2024-10-21

IRB Approval Number

2024-1603

Analysis Plan

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