In and out of school: Out-of-school time programs, nonprofits, Title I and the distribution of education resources in New York City

This dissertation adds to the literature on the relationship between schools, neighborhoods and academic achievement by examining the distribution of two educational resources that vary by neighborhood and school: out-of-school time (OST) programs and Title I funding.; While the traditional role of OST programs has been to provide childcare, safety and positive youth development, OST programs are now an important mechanism for providing additional academic resources to low-income children. Using a unique dataset on the characteristics of public elementary schools, population, OST programs and the nonprofit sector, the first two papers explore the interplay between OST programs, public school quality, and nonprofit location across elementary school attendances zones in New York City. The findings support the importance of geography as a determinant of OST location, with fewer OST sites in zones outside of Manhattan, regardless of the characteristics of the population or public schools. Additionally, the location decisions of nonprofit organizations contribute to the distribution of OST sites, as zones with OST sites have a larger share of independent nonprofit organizations than those with no sites.; My third paper utilizes regression discontinuity to examine the impact Title I, the largest federal compensatory education program, on school spending and academic achievement. Results indicate that Title I schools receive statistically significantly more Title I money than non-Title I schools, and that this increases for Title I schools as the percent of poverty increases. Additionally, the analyses show that Title I schools, particularly those near the Title I poverty cutoff, have significantly higher expenditures than non-Title I schools. Finally, while Title I schools near the cutoff have slightly higher math and reading scores compared to non-Title I schools near the cutoff, these results are not statistically significant. The findings suggest that while Title I funds are being directed to Title I eligible schools there is little impact on academic achievement.; The central theme of this dissertation addresses the flow of public dollars to support the educational needs of New York City school children. Taken together, the results show that the flow of public dollars varies across neighborhoods and schools across the five boroughs.