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This technical report studies New York City middle school choices before COVID and after reopening, focusing on school quality and demographics, travel distance, and eligibility for school busing, finding increased travel and broader school variety after COVID and a bus eligibility effect on enrollment in both zoned and choice/charter schools.",{"@graph":14,"@context":64},[15,34,55],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/did-covid-affect-middle-school-choice-distance-transportation-and-the-zoned-school/587911/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/did-covid-affect-middle-school-choice-distance-transportation-and-the-zoned-school/587911.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Bintang","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-21","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":30},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",{"@type":56,"mainEntity":57},"FAQPage",[58],{"name":59,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":61},"What factor most strongly influenced enrollment after the COVID pandemic?","Question",{"text":62,"@type":63},"Eligibility for the school bus significantly increased the probability of enrollment at both zoned schools and choice/charter schools after COVID.","Answer","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":66,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":68,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":70,"site_id":7},587911,1792144825,{"code":4,"msg":73,"data":74},"success",[75,79,83,87,92,97,102,106,111,114,118],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":76,"show_sort_weight":77,"slug":78},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":80,"show_sort_weight":81,"slug":82},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":84,"show_sort_weight":85,"slug":86},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":88,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":93,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":94,"show_sort_weight":95,"slug":96},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":98,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":99,"show_sort_weight":100,"slug":101},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":103,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":105},8,30,"research-report",{"id":107,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":108,"show_sort_weight":109,"slug":110},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":109,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":112,"show_sort_weight":109,"slug":113},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":115,"slug":117},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":119,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":88,"slug":121},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":73,"data":123},{"doc_id":70,"user_id":124,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":125,"doc_module":4,"category_id":103,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":126,"file_id":127,"file_url":128,"file_type":129,"file_size":130,"view_count":30,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":131,"language":132,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":133,"faqs":134,"seo_title":135,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":136,"read_time":137,"preview_page_count":4},962085564381,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_6f874abed73319feea01a86fa6f0fab8","Did COVID Affect Middle School Choice? Distance, Transportation and the Zoned School  \nJeff Zabel, Tufts University  \nSamantha Trajkovski, Saint Michael’s College SarahA. Cordes, Temple University Amy Ellen Schwartz, University of Delaware  \nTechnical Report Published September 2025  \nDid COVID Affect Middle School Choice? Distance, Transportation and the Zoned School  \nJeff Zabel  \nTufts University  \nSamantha Trajkovski  \nSaint Michael’s College  \nSarah A. Cordes  \nTemple University  \nand  \nAmy Ellen Schwartz  \nUniversity of Delaware  \nAbstract  \nThere is growing evidence of a negative impact ofCOVID-19 on the academic performance of school-aged children and a widening of racial/SES disparities. The promise of school choice to reduce these disparities relied, to some extent, on the willingness and ability of families, particularly poor families, to choose better – or better matched-schools other than their zoned neighborhood school, their default. Unfortunately, COVID-19 may have reduced this willingness or ability to travel, or to investigate, choose, and attend schools outside their community. Given well-documented differences in the location of and access to high quality schools by  \nrace/ethnicity and income, such changes could have important consequences for educational inequality. This paper examines the middle school choices of 6th grade students in New York City before the COVID-19 Pandemic and after schools reopened focusing on changes in, school quality and demographics, distance to school, and eligibility for school busing. We begin by examining the choice to attend the default (zoned) middle school, rather than other potential choices, and then investigate the school and student characteristics that drive the choice of school among these alternatives, including eligibility for transportation. Our results indicate that after COVID, students traveled slightly farther to school and also attended a wider variety of schools. There was little difference in the importance of various school characteristics for predicting attendance at a students’ 6th grade zoned school before and after the pandemic. One exception to this is eligibility for the school bus, which significantly increased the probability of enrollment at both zoned and choice/charter schools after the COVID pandemic.  \nJeff Zabel: [j](jeff.zabel@tufts.edu)[eff.zabel@tufts.edu](jeff.zabel@tufts.edu), Samantha Trajkovski: [strajkovski@smcvt.edu](strajkovski@smcvt.edu), Sarah A. Cordes: [sarah.cordes@temple.edu](sarah.cordes@temple.edu), Amy Ellen Schwartz: [aeschwar@udel.edu](aeschwar@udel.edu. The research reported here)[. The research reported here](aeschwar@udel.edu. The research reported here)[ ](aeschwar@udel.edu. The research reported here)[was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences](was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences), U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305SC180025 to the Administrators of the Tulane Educational Fund. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent the Institute of the U.S. Department of Education. We would like to thank the NYCDOE and the Office of Pupil Transportation for data access and their continued support for this project.  \n1. Introduction  \nThere is growing evidence of a negative impact ofCOVID on the academic performance of school-aged children and widening of racial/SES disparities (Goldhaber et al., 2022; Kilbride, 2021; Kuhfeld et al., 2022). Myriad potential factors may have contributed including reduced school time, less effective instruction, delayed referral and receipt of supplementary services, decreases in after school programs, and own-or family-health issues. Yet one factor that remains largely unexplored is the role of school choice-specifically changes in school choices or matches between students and schools following the pandemic. In this paper, we address this gap by exploring the changes in students’ school choices before and after COVID among middle ","cbCaieclKS1HF0Sl","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaieclKS1HF0Sl","pdf",706471,45,"English","# Abstract\n# Introduction","[{\"question\":\"What factor most strongly influenced enrollment after the COVID pandemic?\",\"answer\":\"Eligibility for the school bus significantly increased the probability of enrollment at both zoned schools and choice/charter schools after COVID.\"}]","Did COVID Affect Middle School Choice? - Distance, Transportation and the Zoned School | PDF",1792063691,113]