The responses of Professors Heckman and Elmore to this author's critique of the ASCD's "Public Schools of Choice" monograph reinforce her original reservations. The ASCD report overlooks the urgency of the present context and the inadequacy of alternatives to choice, makes unfeasible research demands, denies its own bias, and makes questionable…

A case is made for public schools of choice based on major strands of evidence from the perspective of students, parents, and teachers. This is followed by a brief overview covering the extent of schools of choice, the nature of their support, their organizational features, and their accomplishments. The critical feature of the school choice issue…

Reviews some of the forms school centralization has assumed, some of the problems following in its wake, and a few of the solutions undertaken to date. Optional (nontraditional) schools are singled out as a promising answer to governance difficulties. (Author/MLF)

As suggested by standard indicators--truancy, dropout rates, graffiti, vandalism, violence--youngsters in small schools rarely display the anger at the institution and its inhabitants that typifies Columbine and many other comprehensive high schools. Educators must cultivate learning communities and qualities (like empathy and compassion)…

Recent research shows that students at all grade levels, especially at-risk youngsters, learn more in small schools; small schools are more violence-free; and bonds created in small schools are likely to influence students' post-high-school behavior. Success is attributed to small schools' human scale, more willing students, more committed…

Today, the division of large schools into subschools or subunits is often recommended as the answer to a number of problems in education. This paper examines the several forms of school-downsizing efforts and the somewhat diverse purposes for which they are being established. The data come from a review of literature and an evaluation of 22…

Offers a fictionalized account of the development, within an elementary school, of four distinctive schools-within-schools. Questions and issues arising in developing such programs are discussed; the theme of each of these four is described, and advantages that staff find in the arrangement are presented. (Author/JB)

The history of the school choice idea is briefly traced, and then some contemporary family choice models are examined in detail. "Tracking" was the major choice mechanism in public schools prior to recent efforts to expand the options. The alternative movement within individual schools began in the late 1960's, with many forms…