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EMAIL THIS | PRINTER FRIENDLY EWP 9 PDF (63 kb) WHAT THE PRESS SAID SUMMARY: This study finds that decreasing the size of school districts has a substantial and statistically significant positive effect on high school graduation rates, while consolidating school districts leads to more students dropping out of high school. The study indicates that decreasing the size of state's school districts by 200 square miles leads to an increase of about 1.7 percentage points in its graduation rate. The authors argue that these improvements occur because decreasing the size of school districts increases the choice that parents have in the school system that educates their child, which motivates public school districts to compete for students by providing a higher quality education. TABLE OF CONTENTS: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ABOUT THE AUTHORS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ABOUT EDUCATION WORKING PAPERS INTRODUCTION EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES AND INCREASING PARENTAL SCHOOL CHOICE CALCULATING GRADUATION RATES METHOD RESULTS CONCLUSION ENDNOTES REFERENCES Table 1: Average Square Miles/District by State Table 2: Relationship Between Increasing Average Square Miles of School Districts and Graduation Rates Table 3: Effect of Decreasing District Size to Benchmark Levels for Certain States Table 4: Effect of Increasing District Size to Benchmark Levels for Certain States