Abstract: The relevance of the public-choice model of decision making for school desegregation is tested by comparing the desegregation effectiveness of voluntary plans, which depend on parents choosing magn...

Abstract: The question posed in this paper is: How do public schools, which are supposed to be universally accessible moral communities, engage in patterns of systematic exclusion? Through three case studies of public secondary schools, in each of which issues of exclusion of groups of students have arisen, this analysis pierces educational ideologies of “merit,” “choice,” and “tradition” as they have justified moral exclusion from public education.

Abstract: School reform embraced the American psyche in the 1980s, and waves of initiatives emerged to revitalize and improve a system perceived as not meeting the country's needs (Murphy, 1990; Plank & Ginsberg, 1990). Today, ideas such as school choice, for-profit schools, site-based management, participatory decision-making, teacher empowerment, school restructuring, and an array of other reforms fill the educational lexicon as reformers seek alternative means for better educating the nation's youth. Indeed, even the President of the United States has set six national goals for education, while a private corporation, the New American Schools Development Corporation, embarked on a several hundred million dollar effort to come up with "break-the-mold" designs for schools.

Abstract: Since the mid 1950s, Peru's education policies have been designed to raise skill levels and make education available to more of the population. Those policies rested mainly on expanding the number of schools and as a result, school enrollment rates and attainment levels rose. However, an apparent parental preference to educate sons more than daughters meant that boys' schooling levels rose more quickly than girls'. Policies were not enough to bring girls' schooling even with boys', especially in rural areas. School quality, measured crudely by the supply of textbooks and the number of teachers, appears to have improved the schooling of women. Peru's education policies have reduced the direct costs associated with going to school. However, time allocation patterns reveal that the opportunity cost to the family of school attendance could be an effective barrier to further improvements in school enrollment and continuation rates. Even at a young age, girls - especially in rural families - participate in the labor market and contribute substantially to productive work at home.

Abstract: This report describes state educational standards in effect for the 1989–90 school year and is the third report in a series that has tracked state standards since 1984–85. The first part of the report summarizes state educational standards for the 1989–90 school year and the changes that took place across the states between 1984–85 and 1989–90. The second part of the report contains individual profiles of each of the 50 states. These profiles present more detailed information on student standards (testing, high school graduation requirements, attendance, and other policies); teacher standards (teacher preparation, certification and relicensing, and staff development); school and school district standards (minimum length of the school year and school day, and curriculum requirements); and public school choice programs.

Abstract: Part 1 Perceptions and perspectives: parents' perceptions of schools and schooling perspectives on parental participation in schooling. Part 2 Duties, rights and power: basic rights and duties school choice parent power parent interest groups. Part 3 Communication and dialogue: communicating information developing dialogue partnership projects in children's reading partnership projects in writing and mathematics parents and other adults in school home-school liasion and pupil behaviour.

Abstract: The 1988 Education Reform Act allows schools to ‘opt out’ of LEA control and become ‘grant‐maintained’ by central government. This measure has provoked considerable controversy. Its supporters claim that it will increase parental choice and improve standards; its critics say that it will further fragment the education service and reintroduce selection. This paper examines the background to the measure and discusses five research tasks for those, like the authors, who are concerned to assess its significance and monitor and evaluate its effects. 1. This paper was first presented at an Education Reform Act Research Network Seminar held in the Faculty of Education, Bristol Polytechnic, on Thursday 30 November 1989. Parts of the paper draw on the authors’ research proposal to the Economic and Social Research Council, J. Fitz and D. Halpin (1989), and work subsequently supported by one of its grants (Award No. R0000231899). A number of colleagues, including Geoff Whitty, Len Barton, Gill Crozier, Paul Croll, I...

Abstract: Excellence in schools may be at the cost of equity. The dilemma cannot be ignored.

Abstract: In this article we develop an economic model of the provision of educational services in a metropolitan area that accounts for the number of school districts and the ability of significant numbers of families to relocate. We then use the results to evaluate the current system of public education and alternative proposals for reform. Each is evaluated in terms of its efficacy in promoting efficiency and equity goals and its ability to inculcate common social values. We argue that, compared to the current system, voucher programs will not necessarily promote efficiency and also will tend to increase racial and social segregation. Minischools and competitive contracting-out schemes, in contrast, may be able to improve efficiency without adverse equity consequences and may aid in the promotion of common social values.

Abstract: Some teachers would not send their children to the schools in which they taught because of school quality, school discipline, school desegregation.

Abstract: This paper examines trends towards more central regulation of schools and greater decentralization of authority to schools, teachers, and parents. It examines policy change in these areas in the United Kingdom and the United States.

Abstract: Interest in educational reform has grown in recent years as it has become apparent that improvements in public education have not been achieved at a sufficient rate. Yet, as Finn (1987) concludes, "mandated reforms seldom produce results" (p. 65). Moreover, public education increasingly is viewed as bureaucratic, monopolistic, and unresponsive; thus it has been declared that the quality of public education in this country can only be enhanced through competition, i.e., choice (Cole, 1989; Finn, 1987; Kalderie, 1987). "Letting people vote with their children's feet" has come to be considered an acceptable method of encouraging schools to offer more effective instruction (Hechinger, 1989). Through school choice, it has been proffered, successful schools would be allowed to flourish and poor schools would be forced to improve or go out of business. The purposes of this article are: (1) to provide an overview of school choice strategies, (2) to examine the possible impact of choice on African American and poor children, and (3) to review recently passed legislation in the state of Wisconsin which allows for state-funded private school choice for a selected number of poor and minority children.

Abstract: This article will provide a practical, legislative view of the development of the Wisconsin Parental Choice Plan mandated for the city of Milwaukee. Our intent here is to place this initiative within the context of the pressing educational needs of African American children. During the past three years, the debate around choice has been both encouraging and troubling: encouraging because African American parents have demanded greater participation in the educational decisions governing their children, and troubling because in many school districts it has become the principal focus of educational reform. Ideally, choice should follow a school restructuring program which ensures that: (1) all students have quality alternatives from which to choose, (2) all families are fully informed of their educational options, and (3) every student has physical and cultural access to the schools they choose. The choice initiative has been embraced avidly by Wisconsin's governor Tommy Thompson. During the 1988 and 1989 legislative sessions, Thompson proposed a voucher system that would allow Wisconsin parents to send their children to the schools-including public and private schools (both sectarian and nonsectarian)-that they felt best suited their children's needs. After extensive debate these plans (at the initiative of Senator Gary R. George, Senate Co-chair of the Joint Committee on Finance) were deleted from the state budget. Nonetheless, they were strongly supported by a sizeable segment of Milwaukee's low-income African American community in the sixth senatorial district that George represents. Though the philosophy underlying choice-parental empowerment-is one with which we strongly agree, we have not supported legislation permitting vouchers because of our concerns that vouchers might contribute significantly to the demise of public education. We have rejected the idea of school choice through vouchers programs for the following reasons, many of which have been noted by the Honorable

Abstract: the advocates and opponents of the voucher/choice concept are adamant about their views on the subject. Where do you stand? the authors offer a questionnaire that allows readers to examine their own views about vouchers and choice.

Abstract: The findings of a pilot study of Pennsylvania's School Performance Incentive (SPI) program are presented in this report School level incentive policies as elements of the entrepreneurial context of educational restructuring and an organizational model for an incentive-based merit system are also discussed The study examines the effect of SPI on school outcome measures upon which monetary rewards were contingent and on school personnel behavior Test performance data from 2,584 schools and dropout rates of 1,132 schools that qualified and did not qualify for rewards were analyzed by year Personal and telephone interviews with teachers, principals, and superintendents in 13 elementary and secondary schools were also conducted Analysis of performance data found no evidence of an incentive effect on school pe:formance measures and/or on personnel behavior Interviews indicated that SPI outcomes may be due in part to insufficient information disseminat"on and communication and to attitudes of disinterest and hostility It is concluded that two of the three state program goals have been achieved: annual cash rewards for significant educational improvement; and improved collegial participation, but that the third goal, further school performance improvement, has not been achieved Comprehensive tesearch, organization, and favorable political attitudes are needed for successful reform initiation An attached article describes an incentive-based merit system model Tables and a list of 18 references are included (LMI) * Reproductions supplIed by EDRS are the best that can be made * from the original document * *