School Choice and Student Sorting: Evidence from Adachi City in Japan

We examine whether the school choice program of public junior high schools in Adachicity has caused student sorting and has thus increased the differences in scores betweenthe schools. We find that students are sorted in the sense that the students living in theschool attendance areas where there is a higher proportion of high-status occupationsare more likely to select private schools even after the introduction of the school choiceprogram, or they select public schools with higher scores. Adachi’s average scoresrelative to the Tokyo average have improved, while the between-school differences inscores have not expanded