School Assignment by Match Quality

Proponents of school choice argue that it improves educational outcomes by allowing parents to self-select into schools are most effective for their children. Contrary these arguments, empirical evidence suggests may not incorporate effectiveness or match quality when choosing schools. The findings potentially impugn proponents' arguments choice-based assignment. We develop novel solutions restore maximizing subject stability constraints. Maximization algorithms provided both small and large districts. Simulations reveal substantial gains from our compared the celebrated Deferred Acceptance mechanism with a random tie-breaker. Our methodology can be used optimize other policy objectives in priority-based matching problems. Institutional subscribers NBER working paper series, residents developing countries download this without additional charge at www.nber.org.