School
Choice, Charter Schools, and Education Vouchers
Websites
Trends
and Issues: School Choice -- An article
that provides useful background and an overview of proposals and
perspectives.
Coverage
of School Choice in Education Week -- a good overview statement
and lots of articles and links.
Coverage
of the Voucher Topic in Education Week -- a good overview
statement and lots of articles and links.
Coverage
of Charter Schools in Education Week -- a good overview statement
and lots of articles and links.
Can
Competition Really Improve Schools? -- an article that presents
both sides of the debate over school choice, including recent
evidence that raises questions.
Create
Charter Schools The Reduce Segregation -- an excellent 2009
article that offers overview and review of much of the charter
school research -- includes links to a number of good studies.
Informing
the Debate -- a 2009 Harvard/MIT study that compares the performance
of students in Boston's charter, pilot, and traditional schools.
While some charter schools do better than the city's regular public
schools, some do not.
Failed
Promises: Assessing Charter Schools in the Twin Cities --
a 2008 study that found that students in Minneapolis/St. Paul
charter schools either did less well than similar students in
public schools or the same as those students.
Study
Shows Better Scores for Charter Schools -- a 2009 study of
New York City Charter Schools, which compared charter school students
with students who had applied to those schools but by lottery
had not gotten in, found that the charter school students scored
better on a number of standardized tests.
Guv
Quietly Signs School Voucher Bill -- an article from the Salt
Lake Tribune, Feb. 13, 2007, about the governor of Utah signing
legislation to create a statewide voucher system that had it been
implemented would have become the most expansive voucher system
in the country. Shortly after the governor signed this bill the
state electorate voted against a statewide voucher system.
Education
Week's Coverage of June 2002, Supreme Court Decision
-- articles about the precedent setting decision in Zelman v.
Simmons-Harris that ruled school vouchers are not unconstitutional.
Rethinking
School's Coverage of the Supreme Court's Voucher Decision
-- Rethinking Schools, an education journal opposed to vouchers,
offers a critical point of view on the June 2002 decision of the
Supreme Court.
The
Prospects for Education Vouchers After the Supreme Court Ruling
-- in June 2002, newspapers were full of headlines about how the
U.S. Supreme Court had approved vouchers for America’s schools.
In fact, the Supreme Court had only considered the legal status
of a small voucher program in Ohio, the Cleveland Scholarship
and Tutoring Program. This report discusses the meaning and significance
of the High Court's ruling.
Charter
Schools And Race: A Lost Opportunity for Integrated Education
-- a 2003 report by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University
that documents that "charter schools are largely more segregated
than public schools."
Study:
No Academic Gains From Vouchers for Black Students -- an article
about a study that found no gains for African American students
involved in a privately funded voucher program in New York City.
Charter
Schools and Inequality: National Disparities in Funding, Teacher
Quality, and Student Support -- a 2003 report by researchers
from Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), a collaborative
effort between the University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford
University -- it reports that "charter school educators are
failing to acquire federal money to assist students from low-income
families, that many teachers in charter schools do not have full
credentials, and that quality differs among types of charter schools."
Georgia
District Challenges State Charter Panel in Court -- an article
explaining a 2009 case in which a Georgia School District is legally
contesting the state charter school legislation that requires
them to pay a local charter school for each of the district's
students who attends that school. The decision in this case may
establish an important precedent.
National
Charter School Research Project - Achievement Studies -- an
organization that promotes the development of charter schools
and presents research favorable to the movement.
Free
Market Policies and Public Education: What Is the Cost of Choice?
-- An article from Phi Delta Kappan.
School
Vouchers and Student Achievement: Recent Evidence, Remaining Questions
-- a 2008 review of the research which found that, "The best
research to date finds relatively small achievement gains for
students offered education vouchers, most of which are not statistically
different from zero. Further, what little evidence exists regarding
the potential for public schools to respond to increased competitive
pressure generated by vouchers suggests that one should remain
wary that large improvements would result from a more comprehensive
voucher system. The evidence from other forms of school choice
is also
consistent with this conclusion."
School
Vouchers and Students with Disabilities -- a 2003 report by
the National Council on Disability about whether vouchers will
benefit or harm the education of students with disabilities.
How
Do Vouchers Affect Educational And Social Equity and Civil Rights?
-- information and perspective raising questions about the impact
of vouchers on equity issues, especially as these concern students
with disabilities.
Panel
Reports Concerns On Special Education Vouchers -- a federal
panel raises questions about vouchers because of their likely
impact on students with disabilites.
Cleveland
Voucher Program Evaluation -- an ongoing study of the impact
of the Cleveland Voucher Program on academic performance -- in
recent years this study has found no significant difference in
academic performance between voucher and non-voucher students.
DC
Vouchers: First Year Flaws and Failings -- a critical report
about the first year of the school voucher program in the District
of Columbia.
Public
School Choice: Issues and Concerns for Urban Educators --
a summary discussion of school choice and recommendations for
making choice more equitable.
School
Choices -- an organization in favor of choice and vouchers.
Private
School Vouchers: Myth vs. Fact
-- an article critical of vouchers.
People
for the American Way
-- perspective of a group opposed to vouchers.
The
National Education Association
-- perspective of another group opposed to vouchers.
An
Article by Stanford Professor, Martin Carnoy
-- a critical article.
School
Vouchers: The Wrong Choice for Public Education
-- a critical article.
American
Federation of Teachers
-- a critical view of vouchers.
The
SEED School -- an interesting charter public school idea in
Washington, DC, that involves students living at the school during
the week. In both 2004 and 2005 100% of SEED School graduates
went to college.
The
SAGE Program -- The Student Achievement Guarantee in Education
(SAGE) program has been proven to improve student achievement
in schools serving low-income communities. It does this through
a reduction in class size, longer school hours, collaboration
with community organizatins, rigorous curriculum and high standards
for teachers. When compared with the use of vouchers, this program
produces higher levels of achievement through school reform rather
than school choice.
The
Preuss School -- a successful charter middle and high school
dedicated to providing a rigorous college prep education for motivated
low-income students who will become the first in their families
to graduate from college -- affiliated with the Univ. of California,
San Diego.
Vouchers
and Educational Freedom: A Debate
-- a debate over whether vouchers would lead to greater freedom
of choice or trap private schools in a web of subsidy and regulation
that would destroy their independence and quality.
Books
and Articles
Andre-Bechely,
L. 2005. Could It Be Otherwise? Parents and the Inequalities
of Public School Choice. Routledge.
Arum, R. 1996.
Do Private Schoos Force Public Schools to Compete? American
Sociological Review, 61(1): 29-46.
Bracy, G.
2002. The War Against America's Public Schools: Privatizing
Schools, Commercializing Education. Allyn and Bacon.
Brighouse,
H. 2000. School Choice and Social Justice. Oxford Univ.
Press.
Chubb, J.
& Moe, T. 1990. Politics, Markets, and America's Schools.
Brookings Institution.
Corwin, R.
& Schneider, J. 2005. The School Choice Hoax: Fixing Americas
Schools. Praeger.
Dillon, S.
2004. Collapse of 60 Charter School Leaves Californians Scrambling.
New York Times, Sept. 17.
Fuller, B.
& Elmore, R. 1996. Who Chooses? Who Loses? Culture, Institutions,
and the Unequal Effects of School Choice. Teachers College
Press.
Gill, B.,
Timpane, M. Ross, K. & Brewer, D. Rhetoric Versus Reality:
What We Know and What We Need to Know About Vouchers and Charter
Schools. Rand Corporation.
Good, T. &
Braden, J. 2000. The Great School Debate: Choice, Vouchers,
and Charters. Lawrence Erlbaum.
Goldhaber,
D. & Eide, E. 2002. What Do We Know (and Need to Know) about
the Impact of School Choice Reforms on Disadvantaged Students?
Harvard Educational Review, 72(2): 157-176.
Greene, J.
P. et al., 1998. School Choice in Milwaukee: A Randomized Experiment.
In P. Peterson and B. Hassel (Eds.) Learning from School Choice.
Brookings Institution.
Holme, J.
2002. Buying Homes, Buying Schools: School choice and the Social
Construction of School Quality. Harvard Educational Review,
72(2): 177-205.
Howe, K. &
Welner, K. 2002. School Choice and the Pressure to Perform: Deja
Vu for Children with Disabilities? Remedial and Special Education,
v. 23 (4): 212-221.
Levin, H.
1998. Educational Vouchers: Effectiveness, Choice and Costs. Journal
of Policy Analysis & Management, Summer, v.17 n3 p. 373.
Mendez, T.
2004. Can Competition Really Improve Schools? Christian Science
Monitor, Sept. 7, p. 12.
Miner, B.
2000. No One Really Knows How Children in Milwaukee's Voucher
Schools Are Faring. The Nation, June 5, v. 270, p. 23.
Peterson,
P. & Campbell, D. (Eds.) 2002. Charters, Vouchers, and
Public Education. Brookings Institution Press.
Rethinking
Schools. 2000. Selling
Out Our Schools,
Rethinking Schools.
Rosen, G.
2000. Are School Vouchers Un-American? Commentary, Feb.
v109, p. 26.
Rouse, C.
1998. Private School Vouchers and Student Achievement: An Evaluation
of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program. Quarterly Journal
of Economics, 113: 553-602.
Samuels, C.
& Reid, K. 2005. Ohio OK's Vouchers for Pupils in Low-Rated
Schools. Education Week, July 13.
Schorr, J.
2002. Hard Lessons: The Promise of an Inner City Charter School.
Ballantine.
Wells, A.
1993. Time to Choose: America at the Crossroads of School Choice
Policy. Hill and Wang.
Wells, A.
2002. Where Charter School Policy Fails: The Problems of Accountability
and Equity. Teachers College Press.
Witte, J.
2000. The Market Approach to Education: An Analysis of Americas
First Voucher Program. Princeton Univ. Press.
Film/Video
The Bottom Line, 2001 (Stone
Lantern Films) -- a documentary about the movement toward vouchers
and charter schools that raises questions about the consequences
for democratic principles of education