[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-274636-105":59,"doc-detail-274636-en":131},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":124,"head_meta":126,"extra_data":128,"updated_unix":130},105,"en","student-preferences-and-horizontal-differentiation-in-urban-school-choice-markets","Student Preferences and Horizontal Differentiation in Urban School - Choice Markets","","Urban school districts increasingly allow families to choose among schools with distinct curricular themes, making curricular differentiation a key but understudied input to district education production. This paper analyzes New York City high school choice, estimating how applicants trade off curricular themes and school attributes during the application process. Results show broad preference for Humanities and Interdisciplinary programs, while differentiation slightly increases racial, income, and achievement segregation. Theme enrollment affects outcomes and postsecondary choice, with limited variation by stated theme preference.",{"@graph":69,"@context":123},[70,84,106],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/student-preferences-and-horizontal-differentiation-in-urban-school-choice-markets/274636/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/student-preferences-and-horizontal-differentiation-in-urban-school-choice-markets/274636.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Elsa","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-17","2026-09-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":105},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",13,{"@type":107,"mainEntity":108},"FAQPage",[109,115,119],{"name":110,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":112},"How does the paper study students’ preferences for curricular themes in NYC high schools?","Question",{"text":113,"@type":114},"The paper estimates a structural model of school program choice using student application data, treating curricular theme as an input to applicant utility alongside other school characteristics.","Answer",{"name":116,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":117},"What is the overall pattern of theme preference found in the model?",{"text":118,"@type":114},"On average, all demographic groups prefer Humanities and Interdisciplinary programs, particularly white and Asian applicants, compared with more specialized themes.",{"name":120,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":121},"Does curricular differentiation improve or worsen segregation and student outcomes?",{"text":122,"@type":114},"A simulated counterfactual with all programs set to Humanities and Interdisciplinary shows curricular differentiation slightly increases segregation by race, income, and achievement across high school programs.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":125,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":127,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":129,"site_id":62},274636,1789480464,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":132},{"doc_id":129,"user_id":133,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":134,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":135,"file_id":136,"file_url":137,"file_type":138,"file_size":139,"view_count":105,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":140,"language":141,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":142,"faqs":143,"seo_title":144,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":130,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},137455077381,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_994ba38a5ba835b3df7d355c54d3ed8d","Student Preferences and Horizontal Differentiation in Urban School  \nChoice Markets  \nShwetha Raghuraman  \nNovember 24, 2025  \nClick here for latest version.  \nAbstract: An understudied component of the district-level education production function is the degree of curricular differentiation across schools. Many urban school districts in the United States offer some degree of choice and curricular differentiation, allowing families to choose among schools with different curricular themes (e.g., arts or science) .  \nIn this paper, I investigate the impact of curricular themes on segregation, student welfare, and student outcomes in New York City high schools. I estimate a structural model using data on student applications to determine how students trade off curricular themes and other school characteristics in the application process. I find on average that all demographic groups, but particularly white and Asian applicants, prefer Humanities and Interdisciplinary programs, the most general curricular theme, to more specialized themes. Using the model to compare the baseline assignment to a simulated counterfactual assignment in which all programs are Humanities and Interdisciplinary, I find that curricular differentiation slightly increases segregation by race, income, and achievement across high school programs. While on average, students prefer their counterfactual assignment, a substantial minority of applicants, including about half of all Black applicants, would be worse off without curricular differentiation. Finally, I use quasi-experimental variation generated by the assignment mechanism to estimate theme enrollment effects on student outcomes. I find that theme matters for high school outcomes and postsecondary choice, but effects do not vary by theme preference, suggesting limited scope for themes to improve student-school match quality. 1  \n1 I thank my dissertation committee, John Bound, Zach Brown, Brian Jacob, and Katherine Michelmore, for their support and guidance throughout this project. I am especially grateful for the support of the Research and Policy Support Group and Office of School Enrollment at the New York City Department of Education, in particular for the help of Benjamin Cosman and Carlos Flores, without whom this project would not be possible. Clara Hemphill, Max Huppertz, Aaron Kaye, Russell Morton, Kevin Stange, Christina Weiland, participants at the AEFP, IWAEE, SOLE, EEA, and WEEP conferences, participants at the TrygFonden Math Skills Project Day, and participants at the University of Michigan Labor, Causal Inference in Education Research, and Industrial Organization Lunch Seminars provided helpful comments. The Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education award \\#R305B150012 supported this research.  \n1 Introduction  \nIn recent decades, urban school systems in the United States have expanded school choice and centralized assignment. Rather than defaulting to a neighborhood school, families are increasingly encouraged to actively choose among a broad set of schools with different attributes, express their preferences through an application process, and receive a school assignment from a coordinated mechanism. While schools differ on measures like test scores, graduation rates, and other “vertical” indicators of quality, they are also horizontally differentiated. Families can choose schools indifferent locations, with different teaching philosophies, and with different curricula, dimensions along which preferences are likely to vary.  \nA large literature has focused on the impact of school choice on access to high quality schooling, as measured by student outcomes, or school impacts on student outcomes. Much less attention has been paid to the horizontal dimensions along which schools are differentiated2 . Schools may have different teaching philosophies, for example, or different approaches to student discipline. One particularly common feature of urban school districts is so","cbCaidp1SBieDLLo","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaidp1SBieDLLo","pdf",3861808,64,"English","# Abstract\n## Introduction\n## Research Approach and Findings","[{\"question\":\"How does the paper study students’ preferences for curricular themes in NYC high schools?\",\"answer\":\"The paper estimates a structural model of school program choice using student application data, treating curricular theme as an input to applicant utility alongside other school characteristics.\"},{\"question\":\"What is the overall pattern of theme preference found in the model?\",\"answer\":\"On average, all demographic groups prefer Humanities and Interdisciplinary programs, particularly white and Asian applicants, compared with more specialized themes.\"},{\"question\":\"Does curricular differentiation improve or worsen segregation and student outcomes?\",\"answer\":\"A simulated counterfactual with all programs set to Humanities and Interdisciplinary shows curricular differentiation slightly increases segregation by race, income, and achievement across high school programs.\"}]","Student Preferences and Horizontal Differentiation in Urban School - Choice Markets | PDF",161]