A contest without winners: how students experience competitive school choice

Introduction: competitive choice policy, the students who enact it, and its social backdrop

Unequal opportunities, unevenly distributed: the puzzle of admission results

Education policy without educators: how competitive choice puts responsibility for quality schooling on students

The sculptors and the sculptures: how neighborhoods shape and are shaped by competitive choice policy

Differentially defended: students' developmental vulnerability to competitive choice and family capital's buffering role

Civic education: how competitive choice policy encourages civic individualism

Conclusion: surprises, lessons learned, and a few paths forward.