The Florida Legislature is considering expanding open enrollment for public schools and giving students more freedom to cross district boundaries.
What could change if parents are more able to move their children to schools outside their assigned zones? We can draw some insight from Arizona, which has had a statewide open enrollment policy for nearly two decades.
In a nutshell, public schools in the Grand Canyon State have taken more steps to attract students and please parents, by expanding special programs and marketing their schools.
“Open enrollment has really transformed public education in Arizona,” said Kristine Harrington, a spokeswoman for Scottsdale Unified School District in Arizona. The district, she said, has responded to parent demands by creating more International Baccalaureate and magnet school programs, including schools that focus on science and robotics.
Schools near the borders of other districts almost always have long waiting lists, Harrington said. Some of the district’s high schools enroll as many as one third of the students from out-of-district addresses.
Florida’s school districts have embraced IB and magnet programs. In recent years, they’ve expanded them, and considered broader open enrollment policies, sometimes while speaking in explicit terms about competing with a growing charter school sector.
In Arizona, the greater freedom of movement among schools may have helped accelerate a similar trend.
“Open enrollment has been very, very popular,” David Garcia told the Arizona Republic. Garcia, an education professor at Arizona State University, said more students use open enrollment to transfer to other public schools than enroll in charter schools. In a state with one of the highest percentages of charter schools in the country, that says something.
Garcia said competitive pressure from charter schools may be doing more to spur districts to add specialized schools or new programs than open enrollment.
Still, he said open enrollment policies appear to have encouraged districts to appeal to parents in other ways, like improving customer service. Districts are now more likely to give parents time to provide input about services and spend time talking with parents who say they’re considering transfers.
Garcia said parents are look at factors beyond math and reading scores, such as school size, safety, their variety of programs, and the athletics and clubs available to students.
Consider the impact on the Chandler Unified School District, located in the suburbs southeast of Phoenix. Of its 42,400 students, 4,000 are enrolled from out-of-district addresses and another 10,000 attend schools other than their assigned neighborhood school.
“There is no one right way for kids to learn,” says Terry Locke, a spokesman for Chandler Unified.
The district’s schools reflect that principle.
Schools like Chandler Traditional Academy – Independence mimic charter schools with school uniforms, a focus on school culture, college prep, and even requirements for parent participation. Perry High School offers students the opportunity to earn a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Diploma, while Knox Gifted Academy is a Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM)-themed school.
Andersen Jr. High offers the option of single-gender classrooms. Patterson Elementary allows parents to choose traditional classrooms, with a back-to-basics focus and a teacher in front leading the class, or a classical education that involves more student interaction and group activity.
All 42 of the district’s schools post online videos that provide parents a virtual tour of the classrooms, school culture and facilities. The district also sends mailers to parents, informing them of their options.
“We fight to keep these students,” says Locke. “We are in this mode all year long.”
School choice critics may be skeptical about marketing educational opportunities. But it means schools are working to meet the needs of parents and students.
The effects of expanded open enrollment might play out a bit differently in Florida than in Arizona. For one thing, Arizona’s school districts also tend to be smaller than Florida’s, which follow county lines. The Phoenix metro area has 27 districts alone.
A report by Arizona State’s Jeanne M. Powers examined student mobility between districts and found that inter-district transfers were more popular among the smaller districts of the urban core than in the larger, outlying districts. The study also found students were more likely to enroll in a public school than a charter, and that overall, districts gained about as many students as they lost to new competition.
The exception was the Roosevelt School District, the lowest-performing district in Phoenix, which saw the largest net enrollment decline.
One thing Arizona has not seen is a major leap in statewide student achievement. Still, after two decades years of open enrollment, school choice is deeply rooted in the culture of Arizona’s public school districts, and that can be beneficial in its own right, as districts strive to keep parents and students satisfied.
