This dissertation investigates the prevalence and mechanism of racial inequities in coproduction within public education: parent involvement. Also, it evaluates the effectiveness of the government initiatives, managerial approaches to promote coproduction, on alleviating the inequities. Using National Household Education Survey (NHES) 2012-19, the study primarily conducted logit regressions with Jackknife replication method. Results showed that the co-delivery and co-commissioning activities at school offer unequal access to racial minority parents, and the racial disparities were bigger for co-commissioning than co-delivery. Racial gaps in abilities and resources primarily explained the racial disparities in coproduction, yet the contributing factors varied by race. Finally, the government initiatives had different impacts on improving inequities. Providing information on coproduction did not necessarily improve unequal access for racial minority parents. In contrast, providing translated materials and interpreters effectively alleviated the racial inequities in co-commissioning.

The findings contribute to improving our insufficient understanding of identifying and resolving coproduction’s negative effects on equity. Moreover, the dissertation provides important guides for studying the issues of (racial) inequities and exclusions in coproduction. First, more scholarly attention is necessary to the disparities in coproduction, especially in co-commissioning. Second, research should investigate unequal access and inclusions across various coproduction activities by policy cycle and context. Third, a one-size fits all approach would not work for examining and alleviating the racial inequities in coproduction. Lastly, when assessing effectiveness of coproduction and government initiatives, racial equity should be one of the primary outcomes. The empirical evidence also offers some useful policy implications. Practitioners should address unequal access and inclusions separately for different coproduction activities and racial groups. Especially, they should put more effort into recognizing and improving racial gaps in decision-making coproduction activities, co-commissioning at school, so as not to exclude minority students’ service needs.