Abstract: Private schools and vouchers. Are these the magic bullets to transform - or annihilate - what some critics say is a monopolistic, bureaucratic, and ineffective public school system in America? The people do not think so. This is a central finding of the 1996 Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools. No matter how the question is asked, people oppose using tax money to support nonpublic schools. They also reject privatization of the basic instructional function of the schools, though they approve privatizing such ancillary services as transportation and maintenance. Moreover, the public flatly rejects the idea that the public schools should be replaced by a system of private and/or church-related schools. While the public rates the local public schools as substantially less successful than their nonpublic counterparts, those closest to the situation - the parents of public school children - rate the public schools in their communities slightly higher than they rate the nonpublic ones. Americans also believe that government and school leaders are committed to school improvement. This is especially true, they think, of public school teachers. A summary of other major findings of the 1996 Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup poll follows: * Forty-three percent of people give their local public schools high marks, assigning them a grade of A or B, with almost eight in 10 giving them a C or higher. Two-thirds (66%) of parents assign a grade of A or B to the public school their oldest child attends. * The importance the public attaches to its schools is reflected in the fact that people, by a margin of 64% to 25%, believe it is more important for the federal government to improve public education than to balance the federal budget. * The public believes that the Democratic Party is more interested than the Republican Party in public school improvement and gives President Clinton more credit than the Republican Congress for school improvement. The public also believes that the Republican Party is more likely to take actions favorable to private schools than is the Democratic Party. * People rate their local teachers highest in commitment to public school improvement, but they also give high marks to their school superintendents, school boards, governors, and legislators. * If more money were available for public schools, then curriculum improvement, technology, and more teachers and staff would top the public's list of spending priorities. * When the public is asked the purpose of the public schools, using an open-ended question, answers relating to economic self-sufficiency are most frequently given. However, when the public is asked about the purposes of the schools, aided by a list of potential purposes, "good citizenship" becomes the most frequent response. * Eighty percent of the public believes it is important to provide the public schools with access to global electronic communications systems such as the Internet. * As indicated in previous polls, the public has gradually come to accept the idea of a longer school day or year, with the 1993 survey showing for the first time slight majority support for lengthening the amount of time spent in school. The current poll shows that, while the public supports the idea for high school students by a wide margin, it is evenly divided on a longer school day or year for elementary school students. * While 64% of respondents favor retaining compulsory attendance laws, a surprising 30% would eliminate them. * Overwhelmingly, the public approves of racial mixing in the public schools, and larger percentages than in earlier polls express the belief that integration has improved the quality of education for blacks (61% to 27%). Although less than a majority (45%) think that integration has improved the quality of education for whites, the percentage who feel this way has doubled since the first survey on the subject in 1971. …

Abstract: A voucher system that would enable parents to choose freely the schools that their children attend is the most feasible way to improve elementary and secondary education in the US. Such a voucher system will encourage privatization of a sizeable fraction of educational services. That will unleash the drive, imagination and energy of competitive free enterprise to revolutionize the education process. The competition will froce goverment schools to improve in order to retain thier clientele. Except for a small group who have a vested interest in the present system, everyone would win: parents, students, teachers, taxpayers, private entrepreneurs and, above all, the residents of the central cities.

Abstract: This study of a school choice plan in St Louis, Missouri - which allowed black students to attend suburban schools - reveals the ugliness and beauty of race relations. It describes the resistance of suburban white educators and the courage of the black students who crossed the colour line.

Abstract: Course sequences are strands of courses in particular content areas that span a student's educational career. Courses that are differentiated and sequentially organized, such as mathematics and science course sequences, create opportunities for positional advantages in a school's curricular structure. When students make a nonroutine change of schools – that is, transferring to a school outside of the regular attendance zone – they are at risk of changing their positional advantage. Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988–94 (NELS:88–94), we examine the educational outcomes of sequences and explore curricular dislocations within the context of school choice. We find that the strongest predictors of 12th-grade mathematics and science course sequences are a student's course sequences at 10th grade. With regard to outcomes, students in higher mathematics and science sequences show greater achievement gains. Furthermore, students in higher mathematics sequences are less likely to have behavior problems and are more likely to graduate from high school and attend college. Students who make a nonroutine change of schools are more likely to be in lower course sequences than students who do not transfer. Thus, course sequences in mathematics and science are tangible experiences with real consequences for students' lives during and beyond high school and are sensitive to transitions which disrupt the continuity of students' high school careers.

Abstract: Recent moves in many parts of the world to restructure and deregulate state education have sought to link significant degrees of institutional autonomy with an emphasis on parental choice and competition, thereby creating 'quasi-markets' in education This paper discusses such developments as part of a neoliberal project for education in two of the contexts in which these policies have so far been taken furthest-England/Wales and New Zealand It compares five aspects of policy in these countries, namely school autonomy, diversity and choice, private sector involvement, privatised provision and accountability mechanisms It argues that the rhetoric of neoliberal schooling policies is far removed from their reality, as governments confront the classic tension between fiscal imperatives and the need for legitimation It points to the need for new political ways forward in a situation where there appears to be little creative thinking about alternatives to the policies of the New Right

Abstract: This article discusses some of the effects of the creation of an educational market, based on parental choice of school, on ethnic minority students. It notes that from the 1960s to the 1980s educational policy and practice changed slowly to accommodate minority students more successfully and principles of social justice and equity in education began to be regarded as important. However, the new market framework which encourages competition and separation has begun to affect the education of minority students in mainly negative ways. The urban location and social class position of most minority students disadvantages them in a situation of market competition, as does the effect of the devolution of funding to schools. Minority students are less likely to be sought after as ‘desirable’ commodities by schools and more likely to be excluded. The market also encourages ethnic and racial segregation as white parents are now able openly to choose schools with few or no minority students, but black and ...

Abstract: In this book, distinguished scholars discuss recent controversial innovations - charter schools, contracting arrangements, and choice - designed to liberate educators from burdensome bureaucratic controls and raise the level of opportunity for all children. The authors focus on the problems in cities, where far too many children have been denied access to quality institutions. Various essays explore the lessons to be learned from Catholic schools, site-based management, and private entrepreneurs, as well as specific developments in three cities - New York, Milwaukee, and Chicago. The contributors, though realistic about the political and institutional obstacles that stand in the way of meaningful change, foresee the demise of the "one size fits all" approach to schooling. They envision a system of schools that is dynamic, diverse, performance-based, and accountable - one that is supportive of professionals, responsive to creativity, intolerant of failure, and committed to high educational standards for all children.

Abstract: This paper examines the Cleveland Scholarship and Tuition Program (CSTP), a program initiated in 1996 that was the first in the U.S. to offer state-funded scholarships that can be redeemed at both secular and parochial schools. To gather information about the program, a telephone survey of 2,020 CSTP applicants, 1,006 of which did not enroll in the program, was conducted. Analysis of the data revealed five major findings. First, parents reported that their decision to apply for a scholarship was largely motivated by academic concerns. Second, a relatively small proportion of nonrecipients claimed that an inability to secure admission to a preferred private school,was an important reason in their decision not to participate in the program. Third, parents of scholarship recipients who previously attended public schools were much more satisfied with every aspect of their choice school than applicants who did not receive a scholarship but attended public school instead. Fourth, choice schools did well at retaining students in the program, both within the school year and from one school year to the next. Finally, preliminary test scores in mathematics and reading show large gains for CSTP students attending the Hope schools. Overall, the findings support future choice initiatives, though special funding arrangements and further programming will be necessary for disabled and other special-needs students. (Contains 15 tables that present research data.) (RJM) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. Lessons From the Cleveland Scholarship Program Conducted under the auspices of Harvard University's Program on Education Policy and Governance, Jointly Sponsored by the Taubman Center on State and Local Government at the Kennedy School of Government and the Center for American Political Studies in the Department of Government.

Abstract: This paper considers the role of girls' schools in the UK education market and, concomitantly, the positioning and 'value' of girls in the education market place. Themarketing and public presentations of two schools are examined and the messages and impressions presented to parents are analysed. The relationships of these schools to their 'competitors' are also explored. These are set against the 'choices' and choice-making of a sample of local parents considering the possibility of single-sex schooling for their daughters. It is argued that the current conditions of competition in the UK education market offer some advantages to girls but that these advantages have to be set against the continuing contradictions and oppressions of single-sex schooling.

Abstract: Choice of school remains a hot topic in UK educational politics. This paper focuses on one point of choice which is of considerable political and theoretical interest; that is, parents choosing between state and private schools. Here comparison between the systems, the use of cultural resources and the role of principles and interests in choice‐making are all to the fore. The paper employs ideas and concepts from Bourdieu's work Distinction (1986) to develop further analysis of parental choice introduced in earlier published work. The central argument of the paper is that choice is a key mechanism in the uneven accumulation and reproduction of cultural capital through education. 1On the cusp: parents choosing between state and private schools in the UK: action within an economy of symbolic goods

Abstract: The paper examines the educational reforms relating to school choice that were introduced in England and Wales by Conservative governments during the 1980s and 1990s. The political background is outlined and the reforms themselves are examined. We evaluate the extent to which choice has increased, and for whom, and whether the Conservative goverments' stated intention of increasing standards of educational achievement has been met. We conclude that although the range of schools from which parents can choose has increased in some areas, the scope for curricular diversity is constrained by the national curriculum. Insofar as choice has increased, the beneficiaries are more likely to be from higher socio-economic groups. There has also been a fragmentation in the process of school admissions which appears to be exacerbating inequities. While performance at the end of compulsory and post-compulsory secondary education has improved, it is not clear to what extent this can be attributed to the reforms. The adve...

Abstract: This article explores the discourses of choice in the context of the current, and international, public policy debates about providing freedom of choice for parents as consumers in the education market place. In particular it explores the public and private discourses of choice to illustrate the argument that mothers as parents are not 'free to choose' but act within a range of constraints. We term these both structural and moral constraints and offer evidence about them as experienced by mothers over time in relation to bringing up children, from resources to negotiations about relationships and expectations about both the nature of family life, employment and their children's place within the future. It also offers some evidence from our various research studies of mothers from their perspectives, about the processes of choice, in the context of both structural and moral constraints, including issues about involvement in their children's education and schooling. Consideration is also given to m...

Abstract: The term ‘privatisation’ is capable of many different interpretations where education is concerned. For many on the far right of the political spectrum, it embraces all those measures designed to work towards a situation where, eventually, all schools will be in private ownership and parents will be supplied with educational vouchers or ‘credits’ to spend at the schools of their choice. Yet it can also be broadened to cover all those initiatives which have the effect of blurring the boundaries between the private and state sectors. While privatisation in the purest sense has not so far been achieved, developments since 1979 have created a situation where there is considerable state support for private institutions, where state schools find themselves increasingly reliant on support from local businesses and where schools are pitted against one another in a cut‐throat competition to attract pupils.

Abstract: The work of Ball, Bowe and Gewirtz is probably the most important research to be published on the implications of recent ‘school choice’ reforms in England and Wales. One of their most notable conclusions points to the relationship between social class and school choice. Their conclusions are challenged on methodological grounds. First, it is not clear that their qualitative method can support the generalisation about class and choice which they make. However, even as regards more modest conclusions, difficulties arise with the operationalisation of their concepts. For the details of how particular families are fitted into their analytical framework raises severe problems. This leads to their judgements about the allocation of families to categories being controversial, hence undermining even localised conclusions about social class and school choice. Drawing on this analysis, general lessons are sketched for the conduct of qualitative research and its reporting to the research community.

Abstract: In the 1992 White Paper on ‘Choice and Diversity’, the British government identified specialisation rather than selection as the main direction for secondary education. Four years later, its latest Education Bill was promoting both. Yet it had earlier distinguished between them on the grounds that specialisation gave choice to parents whose demand for different kinds of secondary schooling had been suppressed in Local Authority ‘monopolies’, whereas selection gave (or returned) choice to schools. In this paper, the extent to which specialisation is the acceptable face of selection is explored through an analysis of government initiatives from the Assisted Places Scheme and its recent expansion to the current encouragement of schools to ‘select by ability or by aptitude for particular subjects’. It is argued that in the English system of secondary schooling, both the causal relationship asserted between choice and diversity and the likelihood of specialisation without selection are highly question...

Abstract: The 1996 education White Paper on self‐governance confirms the government's long‐standing commitment to diversify educational provision and to employ grant‐maintained schools to take that agenda forward. This paper considers the extent to which self‐governing schools have contributed to diversification of the system and argues that there is little evidence that they have provided programmes which are innovative or mould breaking. Why this is the case is explored through interviews with headteachers of nine grant‐maintained schools. It suggests that school responses are crucially shaped by the headteachers’ interpretations of the conflicting demands of national policy frameworks and local competitive markets in education. In curriculum terms they show a propensity to consolidate their schools’ identities around what the schools have done in the past rather than embrace the opportunities to modernise presented through the government's funding priorities.

Abstract: There are plenty of examples of small, self-governing schools of choice that successfully serve high-risk students in both the public and the private sector If we pose the problem differently, their examples can offer systemic solutions. To do so we need to rethink how public institutions are held accountable. We need, for example, to rely on instruments of accountability that are consistent with our ends: increasing the intelligent and responsible behavior of the people closest to (and including) the learners. In New York City, an experiment in developing such a systemic alternative is currently under way with support from the Annenberg Foundation. Unless we find a way to match what we know works on a small scale with what we do on a large scale, we are likely to end up concluding that public education itself is the culprit.

Abstract: This article argues that, to be truly understood, South Africa's new Language in Education Policy (LiEP) must be examined in the context of both historical and recent developments. It provides this background discussion and focuses on the LiEP as it presently affects curricula, classroom practices, institutional restructuring, subject choices in South African schools, and the rights of South African parents and students. It also addresses the educational and extra-educational tensions associated with the LiEP, inhibiting factors impeding its implementation, initiatives and activities deserving of priority consideration, and models for effecting meaningful change in this policy area. INTRODUCTION Although there are many languages in South Africa, official and nonofficial, two major language battles, with two competing language groups in each case, loom most prominently. On one side are the nine local languages of the African majority that were recently granted official status: isiNdebele, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda, and Xitsonga. On the other are English and Afrikaans, the two former official and privileged languages. One contention is whether, with the advent of Black majority rule in the recently democratized nation, the African languages "deserve" their newly elevated status. Contesting this are Afrikaans speakers, who also rage against what they perceive as the diminished position of their language and the superior position that seems to have been given to English by South Africans of British descent and Africans alike. It should be noted, however, that statements alleging that the status of Afrikaans has receded are typically more an expression of fear than fact, depending on which side of the political fence one sits. Additionally, resistance to the official use of African languages as languages of instruction has surfaced among South Africa's African majority, many of whom contend that their children should be exposed to and immersed in English, which is rapidly becoming the language of commerce and politics in South Africa, as early as possible. Other observers have pointed out the unchanging status of the nation's minority and majority language groups from the previous regime to the present, noting that the South African economy remains in the hands of the powerful White minority. They argue that it has not been possible to level the playing field insofar as African languages are concerned because written texts in some languages, like isiXhosa, have been available since the early 19th century, while other languages such as isiNdebele have existed in written form for fewer than 15 years. Into this fray in 1997 stepped the Language in Education Policy (LiEP)-or the Language Policy in Education, as it is known in some quarters-part of contemporary South African society's efforts to distance itself from its apartheid origins and spirit (Republic of South Africa Department of Education [RSADE], 1997b). The present article argues that, to be truly understood, the LiEP must be examined in the context of both historical and recent developments in South African society. Included among these developments are the following: (1) the first democratic elections in South Africa, held in 1994, and the subsequent installation of a more truly representative Black-majority government, a Black President, a Black Minister of Education, and a Black Director-General of Education, along with the integration of the nation's previously segregated education departments; (2) the country's 1996 adoption of a new Constitution (RSA, 1996b), its founding provisions, and Bill of Rights, along with the passage that same year of the omnibus South African Schools Act (SASA), which provides a "uniform system for the organisation, governance and funding of schools" and amended and repealed laws relating to schools (RSA, 1996a, p. 2); (3) the generation of national educational policy documents such as the 1995 White Paper on Education and Training (RSADE, 1995a) and the 1996 Education White Paper 2: The Organisation, Governance and Funding of Schools (RSADE, 1996a), both of which document the new government's intentions and proposals for the education and training in the democratic era; (4) the creation in October 1995 of the Pan-South African Language Board, whose mission includes promoting and creating conditions for the development, use of, and respect for all official languages, nonofficial languages of native inhabitants, and sign language; (5) the exodus, since 1991, of Black students from exclusively African township schools, where African languages are the primary languages of instruction; to the formerly allWhite, Indian, and Colored city schools, where English or Afrikaans is the language of instruction; (6) the increasing acceptance and promotion in recent years, in both the Constitution and recent education policy documents, of multiculturalism and multilingualism as assets and valuable resources in the educational process; (7) the 1995 institution of a uniform senior high school national examination system that prescribes the same examination procedures, dates, times, and questions for all learners at the school exit level (grade 12); (8) the creation in February 1995 of the National Commission on Higher Education, which in December 1996 released its Green Paper on Higher Education Transformation (RSADE, 1996d) which served as the basis for the Higher Education Act (RSA, 1997) (passed in December 1997) and which challenged South African colleges' and universities' resistance to broadening the number of official languages of instruction used at institutions of higher education; (9) the return to South Africa's schools of large numbers of exiled citizens and other learners who do not speak any African languages; and (10) other corrective developments in the country, both educational and noneducational, such as name changes of rivers, suburbs, and airports to reflect and honor the multicultural and multilingual heritage of the nation; removal of apartheid-stigmatized statues and pictures from government properties; changes in the governance and programming of the South African Broadcasting Corporation; the growth and spread of adult basic education and training; and the establishment of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF), the new Department of Education's integrated approach to education and training that "[links] one level of learning to another and [enables] successful learners to progress to higher levels without restriction from any starting point in the education and training system" (RSADE, 1995a, p. …

Abstract: values are made explicit. In this paper, I look back on a programme of research on parental choice which I carried out more than 10 years ago and explain how this was related to the policy agenda at the time. After summarising the main findings, the research is subjected to some criticism-in particular for its parochialism and its failure to adopt a comparative perspective. The paper then reviews policy developments in Scotland and England since that time, describes the current policy agenda and indicates how further research might respond to this. It concludes that the key policy issue to which research should now be addressed is the relationship between choice and diversity and argues that this should be studied comparatively across a number of different educational systems through research which seeks to investigate the implications of each principle for the other and for other societal values.

Abstract: The Call for Reform There is a widespread public concern regarding the status of American schooling Media reports daily chronicle these various concerns: violence in schools; lack of parental input; falling SAT/ACT scores; failure to adequately compete with foreign countries; lack of professionalism and ability of teachers; and decreasing graduation rates, especially in the urban centers of the country If these reports are true, it would seem that everyone and everything is at the heart of the demise of public education Although there is little disagreement that the above conditions prevail in today's schools, no reform movement thus far has had any significant lasting effect Perhaps we are not making progress because we have not truly identified the goal of education in America as we approach the year 2000 We just keep trying "flavor of the month" innovations in a desperate search for a solution Wagner (1993) discussed this lack of systemic reflection, which he deemed fundamental to long-term improvement, as resultant from not having any real incentive to change from the status quo He asserts that there are five essential areas that must be examined regarding school improvement initiatives: vision and core values, the schools' strengths and weaknesses, priorities and strategies for change, goals, and needed skills and resources Before undertaking another reform, we need to know what we want from schooling and systemically reflect on the process for change Since the early 1970's American education has been at the forefront of public policy analysis In the ensuing decades, we have witnessed a parade of panels, task forces and commissions, each pressing for reform of education Subsequently, these groups promulgated a spate of critical documents in the 1980's followed with more than 200 state commissions and task forces reporting the demise of public education in the United States The rhetoric of these reports was often accusatory and strident One of the major reports, A Nation At Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform, (Commission for Excellence in Education, 1983) discussed education in terms of war and surrender It is not surprising, nor is it inappropriate, that the educational enterprise is a major target for public scrutiny The very heart of our democratic form of government rests on the maintainance of an educated and informed citizenry Policy analysts at the federal and state level continually assert that the schools are no longer producing the type of educated students needed to sustain our country and, therefore, that the nation is in peril The current demands for school choice, charters and privatization lend credence to the assertion that there is a lack of support for the public system of education This unrest has been bubbling for many years and is now at a critical watershed In an effort to respond to the reports detailing the failure of schooling in America, educational reform was initiated with great energy and determination The first wave of restructuring efforts to increase the quality and effectiveness of the educational enterprise was comprised of public policy mandates and inducements This wave was characterized by adherence to the Industrial Age classical model of management (Taylor, 1911) This turn of the century Scientific Management model became the widely used standard for the development of now obsolete "factory" schools Wave one was authoritarian, teacher centered, competitive, it stressed uniform minimum standards, accountability and was single pathed and linear (Sergiovanni, 1993) In the quest for excellence, we measured, standardized, and narrowed the curriculum Monitoring both teacher and student output was the hallmark of this period, little attention was paid to critical thinking or reasoning, instead focusing on measurable minimum standards These coercive initiatives did little to change either the functioning or the public perception of the status of American schools …

Abstract: This study applies Hirschman's concepts of satisfaction, voice, and valuing product quality to study parents' attitudes toward three forms of school choice: intradistrict options, interdistrict transfers, and public/private school vouchers. Findings reveal three different patterns: Parents who are more likely to participate in intradistrict options have more opportunities to express voice and invest more in educational quality. Parents who are more likely to use vouchers also have more opportunities to exercise voice and invest in educational quality, but they are also less satisfied And parents who are more likely to seek interdistict transfers are simply less satisfied with their children's schools.

Abstract: Foreward. Introduction. Major Summary Points. Israel. School Autonomy in a centralized system: the case of Israeli secondary education (H. Ayalon). Sponsored autonomy and misguided choice: the rise and fall of an educational endeavor (K. Benyamini). School choice as a bargain in the sectarian educational system (M. Chen). School autonomy and parental choice: steps in local educational planning (F. Haymann et al.). Parental choice as leverage toward social change in education: two schools in Jerusalem (T. Horowitz). Educational opportunities, parental choice, community structure and mobility: the case of the Arab community of Jaffa (O. Ichilov, A.E. Mazawi). The function of evaluation in school autonomy (D. Nevo). Autonomy and choice as school strategies for peripheral communities in Israel (A. Yogev). United States. Politics, markets, and equality in schools (J.E. Chubb, T.M. Moe). The design of schools as output-driven organizations (J.S. Coleman). School choice and the creation of community (P.W. Cookson). Creative non-compliance (S. Fliegel). Schools of choice and the revival of urban community (C.L. Glenn). Parental choice: consequences for students, families and schools (E. Goldring et al.). Possibilities, problems, and progress: early lessons from the charter movement (J. Nathan). Great Britain. School autonomy and parental choice: circumscribed realities of reform (V. Williams). The Netherlands. Raising the effectiveness of schooling and learning by enlarging school autonomy: the case of The Netherlands (H.G.L.C. Lodewijks). Canada. Constraints on parents' involvement in school (A.J.C. King). Author index. Subject index.

Abstract: This paper explores the question of school choice with particular reference to politics in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, and how these have been viewed by Glenn, in particular.

Abstract: We use a sample of tenth-graders drawn from the National Education Longitudinal Survey (NELS) to test for peer-group influences on the propensity to engage in five different activities: drug use, alcohol drinking, cigarette smoking, church going, and the probability that the student will drop out of school in the future. We find strong evidence of peer-group effects at the school level for all activities analyzed. These effects remain after controlling for several personal and school characteristics, family background variables, and several measures of parental behavior and involvement in the youth's daily life. Tests for bias due to endogenous school choice yield mixed results. We find evidence of endogeneity bias for two of the five activities analyzed (drug use and alcohol drinking). On the whole, these results confirm the findings of previous research concerning interaction effects at the neighborhood level.

Abstract: Introduction (M.T. Hallinan). Achievementoriented School Design (J.S. Coleman). Reforming Education: A Critical Overlooked Component (A.C. Kerckhoff). Lessons from Catholic High Schools on Renewing Our Educational Institutions (A.S. Bryk). Ideology and Organizations: Private Education in PostCommunist Poland (B. Heyns). School Choice in New York City: Preliminary Observations (P. Cookson, Jr., C. Lucks). Lost in Translation: Applying Total Quality Management to Schools, Colleges, and Universities (A.M. Pallas, A. Neumann). Creating Linkages in the High SchooltoWork Transition: Vocational Teachers' Networks (J. Rosenbaum, S.A. Jones). Talking and Working Together: Conditions for Learning in Complex Instruction (E. Cohen et al.). Local Constraints on Opportunity to Learn Mathematics in High School (J. Manlove, D. Baker). Tracking Students for Instruction: Consequences and Implications for School Restructuring (A. Gamoran, M.T. Hallinan). Academic Challenge, Motivation, and Self Esteem: The Daily Experiences of Students in High School (B. Schneider, S. Knauth). Overview (M.T. Hallinan). Index.