A Critical Look at Choice Options as Solutions to Milwaukee's Schooling Inequities

2011 ◽  
Vol 113 (4) ◽  
pp. 787-810
Author(s):  
Thandeka K. Chapman ◽  
René Antrop-González
Keyword(s):  
High Schools ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
School Choice ◽  
Research Question ◽  
District Court ◽  
Student Diversity ◽  
Market Theory ◽  
Small High Schools ◽  
Urban Districts ◽  
Newspaper Articles

Background/Context The lack of court-ordered support for race-based policies that maintain and create integrated schools has forced communities of color to seek other avenues to obtain equitable education, such as school choice. Individual states and the federal government, as seen in grant provisions through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, are encouraging the expansion of choice at the very time that options for increasing student diversity, particularly racial diversity, are being narrowed by the courts. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The article uses critical race theory to examine the outcomes of specific school reforms, based on market theory models of school choice, that were designed to alleviate schooling inequities in urban districts. Setting The context of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, serves as a microcosm of urban districts that have embraced school choice to create more equitable schooling options. Milwaukee, like most metropolitan areas, has a history of court-ordered desegregation that served as a temporary solution to racially segregated schools. Given the federal and district court turn from supporting race-based desegregation policies in schools, Milwaukee and other metropolitan districts are looking for new models to serve students of color in their districts and cities. Research Design This article is a conceptual paper that incorporates data from a variety of sources to support the authors’ conclusions. Data Collection and Analysis Data for this project were taken from the U.S. Census Bureau, documents from newly created small high schools, such as Web sites and curriculum designs; current newspaper articles discussing issues of small high schools; archival newspaper articles documenting the creation of the 1990 choice and charter programs; professional experiences as a member of the Bill and Melinda Gates institutional selection and small-school team support system; and an empirical study that documents teachers’ attempts to provide curriculum and instruction in newly created small schools. Conclusions/Recommendations In combination, these data sources tell the story of market theory reforms that will continue to struggle to meet reformists’ goals to serve all Milwaukee populations so long as policy makers and the courts continue to deny the irrefutable power that race and class exercise in parental choice in U.S. urban schools.

scholarly journals Exploring the Effects of Creating Small High Schools on Daily Attendance: A Statistical Case Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthijs Koopmans
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
High Schools ◽  
Time Series Analysis ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
Initial Increase ◽  
Post Intervention ◽  
Small High Schools ◽  
Series Analysis ◽  
School Year ◽  
Daily Attendance

Does creating small high schools have a beneficial impact on daily attendance? This question was addressed using time series analysis to examine the case of one urban transfer high school that serves students who previously dropped out of school. This analytical approach is uniquely suitable to examine the dynamical processes characterizing stability and transformation in the system. This school reduced its size from enrolling approximately 900 students up to and through the 2009-2010 school year to about 250 students afterward. We looked at whether attendance was higher after the intervention and whether it was more stable. It turns out that the attendance trajectories over a seven-year period show high volatility prior to the reduction in school size but are more stable afterward. The initial increase in daily attendance at the onset of the intervention is not maintained, but increases are observed later. The study illustrates the relevance of time series analysis for educational policy research as well as the use of complexity theory to fully appreciate the nature of the post intervention changes.

The Role of Single-Sex Education in the Academic Engagement of College-Bound Women: A Multilevel Analysis

2013 ◽  
Vol 115 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Linda J. Sax ◽  
Tiffani A. Riggers ◽  
M. Kevin Eagan
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
High Schools ◽  
Sex Education ◽  
Academic Engagement ◽  
Research Question ◽  
School Level ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Single Sex ◽  
Single Sex Education

Background/Context As opportunities for public and private single-sex education have expanded, the debate surrounding this issue has become more heated. Recent reviews of research on single-sex education have concluded that the evidence is mixed, due in large part to the difficulty of attributing differences between single-sex and coeducational students specifically to the single-sex nature of their experience, as opposed to other differences between single-sex and coeducational schools and their attendees. This study comes at a time of renewed national interest in the value and appropriateness of single-sex education, especially as changes to Title IX have expanded the opportunities to establish single-sex classes and activities, and contributes new data with a focus exclusively on the academic engagement of female students from single-sex and coeducational high schools. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This study addresses whether levels of academic engagement differ between single-sex and coeducational settings. Research Design The study uses self-reported survey data and multilevel modeling to address secondary school-level effects in a national sample of women entering college. Findings/Results The analyses suggest that attendance at a single-sex high school remains a significant predictor of academic engagement even after controlling for the confounding role of student background characteristics, school-level features, and peer contexts within each school. Specifically, women attending all-girls high schools report higher levels of academic engagement across numerous fronts: studying individually or in groups, interacting with teachers, tutoring other students, and getting involved in student organizations. However, these results may also be attributed to other features that differentiate single-sex from coeducational schools, such as smaller enrollments and racial/ethnic diversity of the schools in this study. Conclusions/Recommendations Although the results of this study support the claims that all-female environments provide a unique opportunity for young women to thrive, these results should be interpreted with some caution. Because of the limitations of the study, it is difficult to make definitive inferences about the relationship between single-sex education and academic engagement, and we cannot assert with confidence that school gender alone is responsible for higher academic engagement. The study points the way for future research that further distinguishes the role of individual and school-level attributes and ideally examines this issue using longitudinal data. Finally, given the current expansion of single-sex education in the public schools, future research ought to employ these methodological advances in studies on single-sex public education and should consider the consequences of single-sex settings for both female and male students.

Resegregation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela Grundy
Keyword(s):  
High Schools ◽  
School Choice ◽  
Inner City ◽  
Standardized Tests ◽  
Teacher Turnover ◽  
Drug Trade ◽  
High Poverty ◽  
Social Fabric ◽  
School Rankings ◽  
City Schools

Shows how the end of busing and the advent of school choice sparked widespread resegregation, particularly in inner-city neighborhoods and outer-ring suburbs. Describes the effects of resegregation on West Charlotte, which was left with a high-poverty population of often-transient students as well as high levels of teacher turnover. Explores the fraying social fabric and the rise of the drug trade in the neighborhoods around the school, and the efforts of teachers, families and students to overcome the resulting challenges. Describes the way West Charlotte students contended with the increasingly harsh judgments directed at inner-city schools, in part because of a new emphasis on school rankings based on standardized tests, and in part because a resurgence of negative racial stereotypes focused on inner-city African Americans. Covers the Leandro lawsuit, in which a federal judge termed the education at Charlotte's high-poverty high schools "academic genocide."

Implementing Small Theme High Schools in New York City: Great Intentions and Great Tensions

2006 ◽  
Vol 76 (3) ◽  
pp. 401-416 ◽  
Author(s):  
JACQUELINE ANCESS ◽  
DAVID ALLEN
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
High Schools ◽  
School Reform ◽  
York City ◽  
Small Schools ◽  
Academic Quality ◽  
Small High Schools ◽  
Wide Range

In this article, Jacqueline Ancess and David Allen use New York City as a case study to examine the promises and the perils of the small high school reform movement that is sweeping the nation. They analyze the varying extent to which New York City's small high schools have implemented curricular themes in order to promote academic quality and equity. After identifying a wide range in the level of theme implementation in the city's small schools, Ancess and Allen suggest that small theme high schools have the potential to boost student engagement and achievement. However, the authors also express concern about the manner in which curricular themes may serve as socioeconomic, academic, or racial codes that threaten to merely repackage old patterns of school stratification and segregation.

scholarly journals A Study of School Size among Alabama’s Public High Schools

2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald A. Lindahl ◽  
Patrick M. Cain, Sr.
Keyword(s):  
High Schools ◽  
School Size ◽  
School Quality ◽  
Medium Size ◽  
Public High Schools ◽  
Highly Qualified ◽  
Small High Schools ◽  
Internet Connections ◽  
Standardized Exams ◽  
Education Performance

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the size of Alabama’s public high schools, selected school quality and financial indicators, and their students’ performance on standardized exams. When the socioeconomic level of the student bodies is held constant, the size of high schools in Alabama has relatively little relationship with 11th grade student (both regular and special education) performance on the reading and math portions of the AHSGE. High schools’ average daily attendance rates and pupil-to-computer (and computer with Internet connections) ratios do not vary in accordance with school size. Higher percentages of highly qualified teachers are found in Alabama’s largest high schools. There was very little difference in the percentage of teachers with a master’s degree or above across school size categories. Very little difference exists across size categories in regard to mean expenditures per pupil (range = $7,322 to $7,829). However, districts of the large high schools exert over twice the effort of those with small high schools (3.2 mills to 1.5 mills) and approximately 50 percent greater local effort than the districts of the medium-size high schools.

GUIDANCE IN SMALL HIGH SCHOOLS

1933 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 9-16
Author(s):  
Knute O. Broady ◽  
Elgin D. Clason
Keyword(s):  
High Schools ◽  
Small High Schools

The Effect of Junior High School Teachers' Motivation and Willingness to Change on the Diversity of Their Teaching Methods

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. 1160
Author(s):  
Hanan Abu Zeid ◽  
Nabil Assadi ◽  
Tareq Murad
Keyword(s):  
High Schools ◽  
Junior High School ◽  
Teaching Methods ◽  
Junior High ◽  
Research Question ◽  
English Teachers ◽  
Junior High Schools ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
Willingness To Change ◽  
High Motivation

This study attempts examine the influence of motivation and willingness of   teachers to change on the diversity of teaching methods. The research question is: What is the influence of junior school teachers' motivations and willingness to change on the diversity of their teaching instructions? The participants of the study are 50 English teachers of Junior High Schools in Northern Israel. The research instruments were three questionnaires. The research’s findings revealed a significant influence of English teachers of Junior High Schools willingness to change on the diversity of teaching methods; the higher the willingness to change, the diversity in teaching modes increases. Another significant effect was also found between the level of teaching motivation and diversity of teaching methods; teachers with high motivation level reported diversification in teaching methods. A final significant effect of level of general motivation and willingness for change was also found; the willingness for change among teachers of high motivation increased. The main research conclusion is that willingness to change, which is connected to motivation, influences the diversity of teaching methods. Therefore, in order to assimilate changes in teachers’ working modes, like diversifying their teaching methods or in any other way, there is a need to encourage and nurture their motivation.

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