School Choice and Educational Inequality in South Korea

This study examined the choice debate in South Korea, which centers on the residentially based school assignment policy called the High School Equalization Policy (HSEP). Using a nationally representative sample of South Korean 11^th graders, the study further explored the role of the HSEP in educational equality by investigating how HSEP implementation was related to the separation of low and high socioeconomic status (SES) students between schools and how the socioeconomic composition of a school was related to student achievement. Results showed that the odds that low SES students were separated into low SES schools was smaller in the regions of HSEP implementation, where students were randomly assigned to a school based on place of residence, than in the regions of non-HSEP implementation, where students were allowed to choose a school. Results also showed that student achievement significantly depended on the socioeconomic composition of a school students attended in the regions of non-HSEP implementation, whereas this was not the case in the regions of HSEP implementation. We discussed the implications of these findings for the potential impact of school choice policies on educational inequality.