School choice policies, a fixture of efforts to improve public education in many cities, aim to enable families to choose a school that they believe will best meet their child's needs. In New York City, choice and the development of a diverse portfolio of options have played central roles in the Department of Education's high school reform…

This paper reports findings from an empirical study examining the influence of student background and educational experiences on the development of career choice capability. Secondary school students attending years 9-12 (N = 706) in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, were invited to participate in an online survey that sought to examine factors…

Three arguments regarding racial equity have arisen in the school choice debate. Choice advocates charge that choice will improve access to quality schools for disadvantaged minority students (Chubb & Moe 1990; Coons & Sugarman, 1978; Godwin & Kemerer, 2002; Viteritti, 1999). Critics argue that choice is unlikely to benefit minority…

One crucial decision that middle schoolers (and their families) make is where they will attend high school. Many districts employ school choice systems designed to allow students to pick a high school that will meet their needs and interests. Yet most students prefer high schools that are close to home, and for youth in low-income neighborhoods,…

Background: Political devolution occurred in the UK in 1998-99, following many years in which some degree of policy administration had been devolved to the four nations. Since devolution, all four countries of the UK have pursued increasingly divergent education policies. This is true in England in particular, where diversity, choice and…

This report contains the main findings from the New Zealand Council for Educational Research's (NZCER's) 2012 national survey of secondary schools. The survey draws on responses from more than half the country's secondary school principals and from hundreds of teachers, parents and members of boards of trustees, and was carried out in July and…

This study explores the academic self-efficacy and School-Image among higher secondary school students, on a sample of 652 XIth standard students drawn from Kerala, adopting proportionate stratified random sampling. The data was collected using Academic Self-Efficacy Scale and School-Image Scale. Significant difference exist in School-Image of…

The mechanism design approach to student assignment involves the theoretical, empirical, and experimental study of systems used to allocate students into schools around the world. Recent practical experience designing systems for student assignment has raised new theoretical questions for the theory of matching and assignment. This article reviews…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate how students at Henry Lord Middle School in Fall River take into consideration their initial college and career aspirations when making their decision for high school. Self-efficacy theory, critical theory, and a literature review related to high school decision-making inform the analysis of…

The purpose of this descriptive study is to examine the factors that influenced parents in a school district in Delaware when they selected a high school for their child. This study also sought to examine the sources of information that parents used. Also examined was the impact of socio-economic status in the high school selection process. A…

Over the past 15 years, federal, state, and local officials have pursued a broad range of reforms aimed at ensuring that the nation's public school system is more accountable--that it delivers a rich, full education for children in communities across the country. New research from the Kettering Foundation and Public Agenda suggests that there are…

The Swedish education system has undergone major restructuring since the early 1990s. The new policy, including e.g. decentralisation, accountability, school choice and a tax-funded voucher system, has led to an expanding "school market". This article explores how upper secondary school principals perceive the increased competition among…

More than twenty-five years after the release of "A Nation at Risk," our federal government continues to explore innovative ways to close the achievement gap. The goal of this phenomenological study was to describe four students' experiences with one school choice option in South Carolina, public Montessori. The purpose of the study was…

It is possible that private schools in Australia may soon become the major providers of education at the senior secondary level. In this paper I describe the context for public and private schooling and report trends that point to the likelihood of such an outcome. The complex arrangements for public and private funding make Australia a rare…

Policies that give parents the ability to exercise private-school choice continue to proliferate across the country. On Capitol Hill, however, recent Congresses have not implemented policies to expand private-school choice although many Members of Congress exercise school choice for their own families. A Heritage survey of the members of the 111th…