A Historical and Political Look at the Modern School Choice Movement

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-21
Author(s):  
Stephanie R. Logan

School choice in the United States can be traced back to the start of civil society when wealthy families selected a school based on educational philosophy, location, or religious tradition. As common schools emerged, larger portions of the population were able to gain access to education. However, many discovered that quality public schools were not a reality for all students. In response, some looked to school choices within and outside of the public school sector. This literature review chronicles school choice efforts to emerge following the 1954 Brown decision and highlights liberal and conservative political heritages of school choice in the United States.

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1968 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-311
Author(s):  
T. E. C.

The beginning of all growth studies in this country occurred less than a century ago when the Boston School Committee approved the following order permitting Henry Pickering Bowditch, Professor of Physiology at the Harvard Medical School, to measure and weigh children in the Boston public schools. This document is one of the great, and I believe little known, landmarks in modern pediatrics.1 In School Committee, March 9, 1875 Ordered, That permission be given to Prof. Henry P. Bowditch, of Harvard University, to ascertain the height and weight of the pupils attending the public school, through such an arrangement as the respective chairman and the headmaster, or masters, may deem most convenient.


2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 91-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth U Cascio ◽  
Ethan G Lewis

We examine whether low-skilled immigration to the United States has contributed to immigrants' residential isolation by reducing native demand for public schools. We address endogeneity in school demographics using established Mexican settlement patterns in California and use a comparison group to account for immigration's broader effects. We estimate that between 1970 and 2000, the average California school district lost more than 14 non-Hispanic households with children to other districts in its metropolitan area for every 10 additional households enrolling low-English Hispanics in its public schools. By disproportionately isolating children, the native reaction to immigration may have longer-run consequences than previously thought. (JEL H75, I21, J15, J24, J61, R23)


2020 ◽  
pp. 153660062097345
Author(s):  
Morganne Aaberg

In this study I examined archival material relating to music lessons that aired on the Indiana School of the Sky during its inaugural season in the 1947–1948 school year. The Indiana School of the Sky was an educational radio program intended for use in the public schools and produced by Indiana University students and professors, in partnership with the State Department of Education. The purpose of this study was to illuminate details of the Indiana School of the Sky music program during its inaugural season in 1947–1948, such as the staff, repertoire, teaching strategies, and program structure. Of particular interest was Dorothy G. Kelley, who served as supervisor of the Indiana School of the Sky music episodes during its inaugural season, and was the first female to join the faculty of the Music Education Department at Indiana University. A secondary purpose was to examine the intersection of education and technology in the late 1940s through the lens of the Indiana School of the Sky and to afford contemporary music educators the opportunity to reflect on how they use current technologies in their classrooms. This study found that the program employed three main teaching strategies: singalong, call and response, and listening. Indiana University music and music education students performed in many music episodes alongside Kelley, and 34% of compositions that aired during the 1948–1949 school year comprised of music by composers from the United States, or folk music originating in the United States. Other countries represented by either composer or folk tradition included Australia, Austria, Czechoslovakia, England, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Mexico, Russia, and Spain.


1997 ◽  
Vol 91 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Schneider ◽  
Paul Teske ◽  
Melissa Marschall ◽  
Michael Mintrom ◽  
Christine Roch

While the possible decline in the level of social capital in the United States has received considerable attention by scholars such as Putnam and Fukuyama, less attention has been paid to the local activities of citizens that help define a nation's stock of social capital. Scholars have paid even less attention to how institutional arrangements affect levels of social capital. We argue that giving parents greater choice over the public schools their children attend creates incentives for parents as “citizen/consumers” to engage in activities that build social capital. Our empirical analysis employs a quasi-experimental approach comparing parental behavior in two pairs of demographically similar school districts that vary on the degree of parental choice over the schools their children attend. Our data show that, controlling for many other factors, parents who choose when given the opportunity are higher on all the indicators of social capital analyzed. Fukuyama has argued that it is easier for governments to decrease social capital than to increase it. We argue, however, that the design of government institutions can create incentives for individuals to engage in activities that increase social capital.


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