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The Moving to Opportunity Study

The Findings

Enabling low-income children living in concentrated poverty to move to higher opportunity neighborhoods dramatically improves their life prospects.

The Study

  • 3,300 low-income families living in high poverty public housing projects were randomly assigned to either a control group or a treatment group.

The Details

  • Researchers tracked these families and their children for over twenty years.

The Moving to Opportunity Study was a large scale randomized controlled experiment,
the gold standard in the social sciences.

The Study

  • Treatment group families received a voucher to move to a lower poverty neighborhood.

Outcomes were strikingly better for young kids who moved.

32% more likely to

attend college

31% higher incomes

in early adulthood

26% less likely to be

single mothers

70% lower risk of severe

anxiety disorders for girls

And this was in spite of major program limitations.

$0

19

8.2

th

Families received no

supportive services

Kids attended just

19th percentile

schools

Kids moved too late,

at 8.2 years old

on average

Our model is designed to deliver even more dramatic results.

We reach kids

early.

We target communities

with 80th percentile

schools.

And we provide robust

supportive services.

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