School Reform and School Choice

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrienne D. Dixson ◽  
Camika Royal ◽  
Kevin Lawrence Jr. Henry
Keyword(s):  
School Choice ◽  
School Reform

Online Learning in the School Reform Movement

2011 ◽  
pp. 1375-1381
Author(s):  
David B. Glick
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
School Choice ◽  
School Reform ◽  
Reform Movement

Since the early 1980s a school reform movement has been underway that has led to new standards, new choices for students, and new forms of accountability. In the last few years, online learning has become a significant factor in this school reform and school choice landscape, and its influence is expected to continue to grow (Edwards, Chronister & Bushweller, 2002).

School Reform and School Choice

2021 ◽  
pp. 120-147
Author(s):  
Adrienne D. Dixson ◽  
Camika Royal ◽  
Kevin Lawrence Henry
Keyword(s):  
School Choice ◽  
School Reform

Strategic Thinkers and Positioned Choices: Parental Decision Making in Urban School Choice

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (7) ◽  
pp. 1135-1170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Ellison ◽  
Ariel M. Aloe
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
School Choice ◽  
School Reform ◽  
Urban Communities ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Urban School ◽  
Political Empowerment ◽  
New Politics ◽  
Urban School Reform ◽  
Parental Decision Making

The economic logic of urban school reform holds that giving parents school choice options in an educational marketplace will lead to systemic improvements that will both resolve historical inequalities in American public schooling and will politically empower parents and urban communities. This article explores the economic logic of urban school reform policies that conceptualize parents as rational consumers of educational services and that seek normative justification for school choice as a mechanism to resolve educational inequalities and as a form of political empowerment. We do so through a qualitative research synthesis of five studies investigating the lived experiences of predominantly working-class parents of color as they navigate urban school choice. The findings from this synthesis suggest that the economic logic at work in the new politics of education obfuscates the complexity of the lived experiences of parents in urban communities. Parents hold nuanced views of urban school choice that reflect their positionality, report a limited or circumscribed form of empowerment, and express a preference for equitable learning opportunities in their locally zoned public schools.

Assessing the literature on school reform from an entrepreneurship perspective

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 383-403 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Garen
Keyword(s):  
School Choice ◽  
School Reform ◽  
Local Knowledge ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Incentive Pay ◽  
Public School Teachers ◽  
Teacher Incentives ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Alternative Approach

Purpose Enabling and incentivizing organizations to act based on their local knowledge is an important aspect of entrepreneurship. The significance of local knowledge in the context of schools is well recognized, but very little research has been done to investigate how to provide discretion and incentives to schools to use this knowledge. The purpose of this paper is to build a model to guide this understanding for policy makers who may wish to foster entrepreneurship for schools and also use it to critique the literature and provide an alternative approach. Design/methodology/approach The paper applies fundamentals of principal-agent theory to the ownership and governance of schools, the use of teacher incentive pay, and school reform efforts. Focus is on use of teacher incentives and on school choice initiatives. Findings The author found that many public school teachers will have attenuated incentives, but mandates to increase test score rewards may be counterproductive. Institutional reform via school choice seems more promising. The author identifies several institutional features that are expected to induce more entrepreneurial and productive activity by schools. The author discusses and critiques school reform efforts in this regard, including Tiebout competition, charter schools, voucher programs, and use of “best practice.” Originality/value Reform efforts often lack in addressing critical aspects of institutional empowerment and incentives, and research in this regard also is mostly absent. The author contends, however, that dealing and addressing such issues is a key to effective reform.

scholarly journals Arizona Education Tax Credit and Hidden Considerations of Justice

2000 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele S. Moses
Keyword(s):  
School Choice ◽  
School Reform ◽  
Educational Reform ◽  
Tax Credits ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Tax Credit ◽  
Crucial Issue ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Recent Movement ◽  
Credit Law

The current debate over market-based ideas for educational reform is examined, focusing specifically on the recent movement toward education tax credits. Viewing the Arizona education tax credit law as a voucher plan in sheep's clothing, I argue that the concept of justice underlying the law is a crucial issue largely missing from the school choice debate. I question the libertarian conception of justice assumed by voucher and tax credit advocates, and argue instead that a contemporary liberal democratic conception of justice ought to undergird attempts at school reform. A call for educators and policymakers to concentrate energies on efforts to help needy students rather than on efforts to channel tax dollars toward self- interested ends concludes the article.

School Reform and the Maturing of Online Learning

2011 ◽  
pp. 1828-1835
Author(s):  
David B. Glick
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
School Choice ◽  
School Reform ◽  
Standardized Tests ◽  
School Type ◽  
National State ◽  
Rigorous Evaluation ◽  
Grade Levels ◽  
Curriculum Instruction ◽  
Local Levels

been underway that has led to new standards, new choices for students, and new forms of accountability. In the last few years, online learning has become a significant factor in this school reform and school choice landscape, and its influence is growing fast (Edwards, Chronister, & Bushweller, 2002). Standards, school choice, and accountability are three facets of school reform that are inextricably linked together. The logic goes something like this: start by defining what students should know and be able to do at various grade levels. These learner expectations have gone by several names, most of which have developed political connotations that flavor our perceptions: outcomes, objectives, or standards. For the purposes of this article, I will use the currently favored term “standards.” After standards are established at the national, state, or local levels, choices can be created that allow students to achieve these standards in a way that is most suitable for them. This has led to a large increase in options for students in curriculum, instruction, and school type. The increase in choices has in turn led to the need for greater accountability. More rigorous evaluation needs for students, teachers, and schools have led to new forms of assessment, more standardized tests, and greater scrutiny of schools (Elmore, 2000).

School Choice and Choice Schools: Resisting, Realizing, or Replacing Brown?

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martha Minow
Keyword(s):  
School Choice ◽  
School Reform ◽  
School Desegregation ◽  
Business Leaders ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Personal Liberty ◽  
Local Schools ◽  
Poor Students ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Individual

To school desegregation activists in the 1960s, school choice plans represented one of a series of tactics of avoidance or obstruction. Yet choice programs became part of school desegregation remedies and then became initiatives for varied school reforms. Political alliances and clashes around the issue of school choice color public perceptions even more than the actual effects of school choice on students’ achievement or social integration. School choice can enable both self-segregation or student mixing across many lines of difference. As a tool of school reform, school choice continues to hold promise and risks for those seeking equality and integration within schools while enhancing pluralism and respect for differences in society as a whole. Yet some forms of school choice could undermine equality goals unless they are accompanied by direct efforts to maintain and enforce these goals. Widespread perceptions that American schools are failing have fueled a major nationwide movement for school reform since the early 1980s. At the forefront have been business leaders who—worried about American competitiveness and the qualifications of the workforce for jobs requiring increasing technical skills—have brought conceptions of competition and innovation to the school reform initiatives. Parents and teachers, seeking greater control of local schools, have also energized the movement. Challenging established school bureaucracies and political arrangements, these reformers have pushed for performance standards, voucher systems to promote competition and consumer choices, site-based management, and other opportunities for innovation at the level of the individual school rather than the district or statewide system. One of the key themes pursued by a range of parents, teachers, business leaders, and other advocates as a motor for reform is parental choice. This concept combines a market-style consumer sovereignty idea with notions of personal liberty. School choice stimulates competition among providers, as parents look for benchmarks for assessing quality. As a result, states and localities have initiated institutional innovations. These include magnet and pilot schools, which draw students from an entire district by offering a special focus. Vouchers permit poor students to use public funds to pay tuition in private schools.

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