This essay, written from the point of view of a social researcher with a direct personal involvement in the cases studied, discusses how public schools, as universally accessible moral communities, engage in patterns of systematic exclusion. Through three case studies of public secondary schools in which groups of students have been situated…

Compares parental behavior in two pairs of school districts to analyze the effects of choice on the formation of social capital in inner-city and suburban school districts: one with considerable choice and one without much choice. Findings indicate school choice stimulates parental involvement and can do this in both suburban and urban settings.…