Summary of: Designing School Choice for Diversity in the San Francisco Unified School District

This brief summarizes the paper, Designing School Choice for Diversity in the San Francisco Unified School District1 which describes a collaboration between Stanford University researchers and the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) to re-design the district’s elementary student assignment system. The existing district-wide choice system replicates patterns of residential segregation at district schools and is difficult for families to understand and manage. Between 2018 and 2020, the collaboration worked to develop a system that would achieve the following goals: 1) diversity – schools that are socio-economically and racially representative of the district; 2) proximity – attending a school close to home; and 3) predictability – improving the experience for families by reducing complexity and uncertainty of district-wide choices. The district was aware that these goals require trade-offs; for example, the proximity and diversity goals are often in opposition due to residential segregation.