REICE. Revista Iberoamericana sobre Calidad, Eficacia y Cambio en Educación

This article analyzes the relationship between school choice, mobility and school segregation of socially disadvantaged students in Barcelona. The particularities of the city's zoning system and catchment areas, based on a complex model of restricted choice with a wide number of proximity options, make it a unique case to observe the relationship between mobility and educational inequalities. By using data on students’ residence and schooling of children in pre-school and primary education, the article shows how the interaction between residential segregation and patterns of student mobility generates greater school segregation of both students from low socioeconomic status and foreign students. A counterfactual analysis that simulates schooling models based on greater proximity shows that the school segregation of vulnerable students would be reduced by up to 50% in scenarios of less mobility and greater proximity schooling. Likewise, these scenarios would reduce the inequality of schooling between public and private schools. The article concludes with some reflections on the political implications of the analysis.