Critics of choice argue that it will allow alert and aggressive parents to get the best of everything for their children, leaving poor and minority children concentrated in the worst schools. (Note 1) But choice is not the only mechanism...
moreCritics of choice argue that it will allow alert and aggressive parents to get the best of everything for their children, leaving poor and minority children concentrated in the worst schools. (Note 1) But choice is not the only mechanism whereby this occurs. Alert and aggressive parents work the bureaucracy to get the best for their children. Thus, choice programs should be compared against the real performance of the current public education system, not its idealized aspirations.
For the last two decades, the struggle over school choice has focused on freeing up parents to choose. It continues to this day, with growing success in the forms of public and private voucher programs, charter school laws in 40 states...
moreFor the last two decades, the struggle over school choice has focused on freeing up parents to choose. It continues to this day, with growing success in the forms of public and private voucher programs, charter school laws in 40 states and the District of Columbia, and state and federal laws that require school districts to offer options for children in failing schools. For a long time, it was so difficult to win freedoms for parents that supplyside questions never came up. In localities like New York City, Dayton, Ohio, and Washington, D.C., choice programs were limited to a fraction of all families, and there were enough empty spaces in existing parochial and independent schools to serve most of them. However, as choice programs grow school availability becomes a constraint. In Denver, for example, an open enrollment rule allows every family to choose a public school outside their neighborhood, but the options are so mediocre, and so alike, that few families bother to express a preference. In Seattle, where all families must express a preference, there is no mechanism to create new options. Consequently, hundreds of students are forced to attend schools that were their third or fourth choices.
... These arrangements are under development on a daily basis, so no snap-shot of current practice will be valid for long. Paul Hill and Robin Lake, therefore, seek to assist an ongoing process of problem solving, not to evaluate a fixed...
more... These arrangements are under development on a daily basis, so no snap-shot of current practice will be valid for long. Paul Hill and Robin Lake, therefore, seek to assist an ongoing process of problem solving, not to evaluate a fixed program. ...
Deficient urban schooling remains one of America's most pressing --and stubborn --public policy problems. This important new book details and evaluates a radical and promising new approach to K-12 education reform. Strife and Progress...
moreDeficient urban schooling remains one of America's most pressing --and stubborn --public policy problems. This important new book details and evaluates a radical and promising new approach to K-12 education reform. Strife and Progress explains for a broad audience the ""portfolio strategy"" for providing urban education --its rationale, implementation, and results. Under the portfolio strategy, cities use anything that works, indifferent to whether schools are run by the public district or private entities. It combines traditional modes of schooling with newer methods, including chartering and experimentation with schools making innovative use of people and technology. Urban districts try to make themselves magnets for new talent, recruiting educators and career switchers looking to make a difference for poor children. The portfolio strategy creates interesting new bedfellows: people who think that government should oversee public education align with those advocating choice, competition, and entrepreneurship. It cuts across political lines and engages city governments and civic assets (e.g., philanthropies, businesses, universities) much more deeply than earlier reform initiatives. New York and New Orleans were portfolio pioneers, but the idea has spread rapidly to cities as far-flung as Los Angeles, Denver, and Chicago. Results have been mixed overall but generally positive in places that implemented the strategy most aggressively. Reform leaders such as New York's Joel Klein have been overly optimistic, however, assuming that the strategy's merits would be so obvious that careful assessment would be unnecessary. Serious policy evaluation is still needed.
This paper asserts that instead of assuming that the future of learning has to take place in buildings we happen to have now, districts can let innovations in instruction and learning drive how they provide, design, and use school...
moreThis paper asserts that instead of assuming that the future of learning has to take place in buildings we happen to have now, districts can let innovations in instruction and learning drive how they provide, design, and use school buildings. With this goal in mind, the paper looks at five trends in education and what they imply about the kinds of buildings and spaces districts will need for tomorrow's schools. The five trends are: (1) pressure on schools to perform for all students, not just those who learn best in traditional settings; (2) demands for the personalization of learning, so that every child has a chance to learn and families have choices; (3) new technologies that will change how teachers teach and students learn; (4) periodic shortages of teachers (and school leaders) linked to swings in the economy; and (5) shifts in student population and residency patterns that will affect not only the demand for schools, but also the demands on schools. This paper has three pa...
In the early 1990s, Washington State was in the vanguard of the standards movement. Democratic governor Booth Gardner and leaders of the Washington Roundtable?a coalition of business leaders? agreed to press for a comprehensive statewide...
moreIn the early 1990s, Washington State was in the vanguard of the standards movement. Democratic governor Booth Gardner and leaders of the Washington Roundtable?a coalition of business leaders? agreed to press for a comprehensive statewide education reform package modeled after Kentucky's. David Hornbeck, who drafted the Kentucky con sent decree that started the standards-based reform movement, advised on drafting of the state's reform bill. An omnibus reform package was passed in early 1993. By 1994, the National Business Roundtable rated Washington as one of four states that had enacted the most complete standards-based reform program. Washington political and business leaders intended to transform public education from a bureaucracy controlled by mandates and enforced compli ance into a performance-based system. They envisioned standards-based reform as a rational approach to improving public education. They sought to set standards that define what children need to know and be able to do, develop measurement systems to test performance against those standards, help schools find and use methods of instruction effective enough to allow them to meet the standards, give schools the freedom of action necessary to adjust their methods of instruction to meet student needs, and reward schools that meet standards and punish those that do not. Like proponents of standards-based reform in other states, Washington State policy and business leaders assumed that establishment of a perfor mance-based system would change the behavior of teachers, parents, school administrators, and students.1 Teachers and parents, informed by the stan 199
... Now the same enterprising critics claim charter schools worsen segregation by serving too high a proportion of minority students (Frankenberg, Siegel-Hawley, & Wang, 20107. Frankenberg, E., Siegel-Hawley, G. and Wang, J. 2010. ...
Throughout the black community, one of the most compelling issues is the socialization process of young people. There is a growing feeling of alienation and despondency being exhibited by youth and adults alike. Back To The Future...
moreThroughout the black community, one of the most compelling issues is the socialization process of young people. There is a growing feeling of alienation and despondency being exhibited by youth and adults alike. Back To The Future addresses the issue of Western socialization and offers an African Life Paradigm For Life Cycles Development. Rites of Passage, the vessel for life cycles development, is discussed as a process for the shaping of centered and grounded African American adults.
Abstract: This is the first report from an ongoing study of four urban school districts (New York, New Orleans, Chicago, and the District of Columbia) that are experimenting with new school designs and new ways of holding schools...
moreAbstract: This is the first report from an ongoing study of four urban school districts (New York, New Orleans, Chicago, and the District of Columbia) that are experimenting with new school designs and new ways of holding schools accountable for performance. This report ...
Abstract: The most important burden of charter schools is the need to demonstrate that the instruction they provide actually benefits students. They can hire their own teachers, make their own tradeoffs between spending on administration...
moreAbstract: The most important burden of charter schools is the need to demonstrate that the instruction they provide actually benefits students. They can hire their own teachers, make their own tradeoffs between spending on administration and teaching, locate anywhere in ...
... ERIC #: EJ662728. Title: The Chasm Remains. Authors: Hill, Paul T.; Guin, Kacey; Celio, MaryBeth. Descriptors: Elementary Secondary Education; Faculty Mobility; Low Achievement; Minority Groups; Poverty; Teacher Qualifications; Urban...
more... ERIC #: EJ662728. Title: The Chasm Remains. Authors: Hill, Paul T.; Guin, Kacey; Celio, MaryBeth. Descriptors: Elementary Secondary Education; Faculty Mobility; Low Achievement; Minority Groups; Poverty; Teacher Qualifications; Urban Problems; Urban Schools. ...
Copyright© 1998 by THE BROOKINGS INSTITUTION 1775 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20036 All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data Hill, Paul Thomas, 1943-Fixing urban schools / Paul T. Hill and Mary...
moreCopyright© 1998 by THE BROOKINGS INSTITUTION 1775 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20036 All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data Hill, Paul Thomas, 1943-Fixing urban schools / Paul T. Hill and Mary Beth Celio. p. cm. ...
School choice is growing, due to growth of charter schools, private voucher programs, and No Child Left Behind requirements that school districts offer options to children in low‐performing schools. Growth can bring dangers if choice is...
moreSchool choice is growing, due to growth of charter schools, private voucher programs, and No Child Left Behind requirements that school districts offer options to children in low‐performing schools. Growth can bring dangers if choice is implemented carelessly. Recent research on choice shows that program design and implementation matter: the quality of parent information, the amounts of money that follow children to schools of choice, and rules governing school admissions all help determine whether disadvantaged children benefit from choice. Smart program design can also reduce the risk of harm to children left behind in regular public schools. The article describes a needed research program on doing choice right, which can provide guidance to local leaders charged with choice implementation.