Drawing on data collected during the second year of a longitudinal qualitative study that followed over 10 Latino/a bilingual students, this article foregrounds the experiences of participants during their sixth-grade year. The principle data sources included structured and unstructured interviews with teachers and students, school observations,…

Excellence in education might best be achieved if a wide variety of educational options were made available to satisfy the broad diversity of student needs, if parents were allowed free choice among schools, and if parents, teachers, and principals worked together to make each school responsive to its unique constituency. (PGD)

Public school choice sounds egalitarian, but questions of funding and equity raise the possibility of an excuse for racial segregation. Questions what will happen to equality as well as to quality in public education if proponents of school choice succeed in shifting revenues away from poor schools. (MLF)

School choice can revitalize school programs by giving teachers the freedom to be creative and by breaking down the barriers of segregation. However, choice can create new kinds of inequalities and can lull people into believing educational problems are solved. Cites successful school choice plans. (MLF)

This article compares Reagan's and Thatcher's redirection in school policy. Devices of "privatization" include the effective schools movement, devolution of authority, and magnet schools, and the new buzz words are "choice" and "competition." The challenge in school reform is to decentralize, deregulate, and even…

Discusses the record of magnet schools in increasing and equalizing student opportunity, building educational quality, and improving student learning. (SR)

Discusses questions about Massachusetts magnet schools, including (1) reaching parents who do not choose magnets; (2) how the school affects different groups of children; (3) how equity is embodied in life at school; (4) how magnet schools achieve unity; (5) whether parent choice leads to parental empowerment; and (6) why the magnet schools have…

Claims of success in Minnesota's open enrollment plan are exaggerated. Transfer requests are based on convenience and location rather than on the quality of education. Using the open market technique means that handicapped or other high risk students will be less desirable commodities. Public funding for private schools will be advocated. (MLF)

The one-size-fits-all public schools inherited from the nineteenth century can be transformed if parents have the right to choose schools their children will attend. Schools of choice will improve both the attitudes and performance of students. Teachers and administrators will be more professional, and school boards can meet their responsibilities…

Research on requests to transfer to magnet schools in Montgomery County, Maryland, suggests that racial factors play a strong role in school choice. The paper argues that unfettered choice still has the potential to exacerbate racial separation, even in relatively liberal and progressive settings like Montgomery County. (SM)

Discusses background, rationale, and current trends in school choice. Where implemented carefully with parent participation, choice plans have increased public support and student achievement and provided curriculum differentiation, cohesiveness, autonomy, and small size as benefits. However, school choice raises some equity problems, including…

Criticizes national education reports that call for a return to authoritarian schools in order to achieve excellence. Extolls the strengths and achievements for which magnet schools are responsible. (MD)

Canada's public schools may be neglecting average students by failing to give them the structure and care their parents think desirable. A "soft" form of school choice, such as British Columbia's traditional schools option, allows greater parental influence. As parents gain more influence in schools, they must take more responsibility…

In many urban areas, educators rely on magnet schools to strike a delicate balance between the need to create opportunities for equity in education and the need for parents to have greater choice among schools. But, are magnet schools successful? This document considers whether they fulfill the promises of high achievement and desegregation in…

School choice means instant empowerment for those who receive it, and it significantly alters the relation of chooser and chosen. Six distinguishable sets of positive and negative dynamics that the provision of choice in schools seems to set in motion are discussed. (BJV)