This book examines various aspects of school segregation and their complex interrelations with policy, structure, and context in diverse settings. It advances the understanding of the causes, processes and consequences of school segregation around the globe. Topics examined include student sorting between schools in marketized systems; the effects…

Since the 1980s, education in Canada has been through a process that led to school choice, targeting the improvement of students' performance through school competition. These policies fostering an education quasi-market became an ideal framework for the expansion of IB schools. Since the Diploma Programme of the International Baccalaureate (IBDP)…

Many countries are struggling to reconcile greater flexibility in school choice with the need to ensure quality, equity and coherence in their school systems. This report provides an international perspective on issues related to school choice, especially how certain aspects of school-choice policies may be associated with sorting students into…

In this paper we examine the public charter school movement in the Province of Alberta, Canada over the past 20 years to determine how charter school policy and regulations have limited and controlled the impact of charter schools on public education. Specifically we focus on the extent to which charter schools in Alberta fulfilled the aims and…

"The Wiley Handbook of Home Education" is a comprehensive collection of the latest scholarship in all aspects of home education in the United States and abroad. This book presents the latest findings on academic achievement of home-schooled children, issues of socialization, and legal argumentation about home-schooling and government…

This article introduces the research initiated by Cardus on private religious Protestant and Catholic schools in North America and provides an overview of the succeeding articles presented in this special section of the "Journal of School Choice". Through mixed method study by multiple research teams the inquiry was designed to seek to…

This paper describes how a locally developed school ranking system affected student enrolment patterns in British Columbia over time. In developing an annual school "report card" that was published in newspapers and online, the Vancouver-based Fraser Institute created a marketplace for school choice by devising an accountability scheme…

In the course of educational expansion, student populations have become more diverse. This paper represents an international literature review on the topic of first-generation students (FGS), i.e. students whose parents have not obtained a higher education qualification. On the basis of more than 70 research articles and reports on FGS from…

The province of Ontario has two publicly funded school systems: secular schools (known as public schools) that are open to all students, and separate schools that are open to children with Catholic backgrounds. The systems are administered independently and receive equal funding per student. In this paper we use detailed school and student-level…

Using student achievement data from British Columbia, Canada, this study is an exploration of the differences that lie within the private school sector using hierarchical linear modeling to analyze the data. The analysis showed that when controlling for language, parents' level of educational attainment, and prior achievement, the private school…

This paper presents a psychosocial analysis of interview data of three Canadian, middle-class, Jewish mothers engaged in processes and practices of "school choice". We consider how middle-class, white identity intersects with Jewish ethnicity. We also examine how commitments to Canadian ideals of multiculturalism sit in contradiction…

Concerned that public schooling leads to mediocrity rather than meritocracy, many middle-class parents are seeking other options such as private schools, alternative public schools, and charter schools to develop their children's academic, creative, and athletic talents. Based on a mixed method investigation of school choice among parents (N =…

School systems aspire to provide equal opportunity for all, irrespective of socio-economic status (SES). Much of the criticism of recent school reforms that introduce accountability, autonomy, and choice emphasizes their potentially negative consequences for equity. This report provides new evidence on how national features of accountability,…

The myths, politics, and realities of public school choice in Canada are explored. With the crisis of confidence in the public education system that has been documented in recent years, parents are seeking to ensure academic success for their children through choice of schools, under the theory that there is no universal best school model. Public…

In this article, the authors discuss why ranking has become so popular in schools. Those who promote ranking believe that it provides information to help parents and students choose a "good school"; that it puts pressure on the underperforming school to improve; and that it provides an opportunity for a school to be scrutinized through a…