From tuition vouchers for private schools to charter schools to voluntary transfer programs within and between public school systems, school choice has been at the center of the school reform debate for two decades. But with the voucher movement unable to sustain much momentum, charter schools still serving a small percentage of the nation's…

In the last three decennia, many governments have introduced market mechanisms in education. They have done so by enhancing parental choice and encouraging school competition, through policies like abolishing catchment areas, creating voucher programmes and setting up charter schools. These market mechanisms have given rise to fierce debates in…

This article highlights the contrasting views between presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama on school choice and teacher issues. Senator McCain, R-Arizona, has pledged to direct federal money to alternative teacher-certification programs, give parents more direct access to supplemental educational services, and expand private school…

While there are no reliable counts of single-gender schools in the first half of the 20th century, best estimates are that most were schools for white boys. Many of the girls' schools that did exist early on served as "finishing" schools rather than preparation for college. In the 1960s and 1970s, the civil rights and feminist movements…

The passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2001 brought new urgency to the task of turning around low-performing schools. While many schools have been identified as needing improvement under NCLB, only a small percentage have failed to make progress for long enough--six years--to be subject to restructuring, the most serious consequence…

This report presents findings on the implementation of parental choice options from the first year of the National Longitudinal Study of "No Child Left Behind" (NLS-"NCLB") and the Study of State Implementation of Accountability and Teacher Quality Under "No Child Left Behind" (SSI-"NCLB"). The report uses…

The argument for national curriculum standards sounds simple: set high standards, make all schools meet them, and watch American students achieve at high levels. It is straightforward and compelling, and it is driving a sea change in American education policy. Unfortunately, setting high standards and getting American students to hit them is…

In this report, the author presents the results of the Heritage Foundation's 2007 parental choice survey of Members of Congress, conducted to determine the percentage of Members of Congress that practice private school choice. It was found that the percentage of Members of the 110th Congress who practice private school choice is disproportionate…

The National Association of State Directors of Special Education has published documents on home schooling and various aspects of the charter school movement, but not on other types of school choice such as vouchers. This Project Forum document focuses on voucher programs that are specifically designed to provide public funds for parental…

The author, writing on behalf of Hoover's Koret task Force on K-12 Education, presents a convincing case that, despite the controversy it has ignited, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law is making a positive difference and should be renewed. He outlines ten specific lessons and recommendations that identify the strengths and weaknesses of NCLB and…

Online learning and our current system of local education governance are at odds with one another, to say the least. In this paper, John Chubb examines how local school district control retards the widespread use of instructional technologies. He argues that the surest way to break down the system's inherent resistance to technology is to shift…

A major debate among education reformers over how best to reduce the achievement gap broke out during the 2008 presidential campaign. Most advocates on both sides backed Barack Obama, but they urged him to pursue different policies. The Education Equality Project (EEP) supported a continuation of accountability and other school-focused reforms.…

Several recent education reform measures, including the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), couple school choice with accountability measures to allow parents of children in under-performing schools the opportunity to choose higher-performing schools. We use the introduction of NCLB in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District to determine if…

For all the debate over the effectiveness of the No Child Left Behind Act, researchers and policymakers say that, despite the law's flaws, it has successfully identified 1,200 public schools that need help, some of them desperately so. Now the question is: How can the federal law be changed to make sure such schools get that help? As Congress…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine nine states' policy responses to the Unsafe School Choice Option between 2002 and 2007. These states had 199 schools designated as "persistently dangerous schools" since 2002. Unsafe School Choice Option is one of the school choice options of the No Child Left Behind law that required…