The paper investigates public and private primary school choice criteria in urban settings by taking an unconventional and supplementing perspective which scarcely has been taken up by research, despite being interconnected with the topic at hand. Instead of analyzing parents' criteria for schools deemed good, which would be the conventional way,…

There exists a debate about how to increase the academic success of African American and Latino/a students coming from high-poverty communities. At the center, is the extent of influence market-based school choice policies should have in the context of education reform. This study focused on a high-achieving, public charter with a…

The racial achievement gap has persisted in the decades since "Brown v. Board," despite large-scale investment in school reform. Accordingly, some administrators and politicians are reconsidering integration policies as a means of addressing the gap. This study examines one Chicago community's discussion of such integration policy.…

This paper describes the problems and challenges faced by nontraditional magnet schools in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The first magnet schools that opened in 1986 and 1991 were based on the Paideia model proposed by Adler (1982). Due to a high level of parent demand, the school district closed three of the poorest performing schools and reopened them…

The decisions parents make regarding their children's education are not based solely on the academic quality of the school. Therefore, initiating a parental-choice educational program will not necessarily improve the overall level of education that American children are currently receiving. An area of concern is children who are economically…

Voucher proposals are flourishing nationwide, pushed by the fact that too many children are trapped in failing schools, and there is a great deal of disagreement about educational vouchers. This paper traces the history of voucher programs and describes some voucher programs in different cities (Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Cleveland, Ohio) and in the…

In the late 1990s, three privately funded school voucher programs for students from low-income families were established in the Dayton, Ohio metropolitan area, New York City, and Washington, D.C. Additional programs were created in Dayton and Washington, D.C. and in 1999, the Children's Scholarship Fund, a nationwide school choice scholarship…

In this study, parents' reasons for school choice were explored at four inner-city school sites by means of a questionnaire distributed to parents by their children. The sample for this study consisted of the parents of over 2,300 students who attend the four schools studied. All are inner-city Catholic high schools located in four different…

Issues related to educational equity and charter schools are discussed, and evidence is presented from a national study of equity in charter schools. Three standards of equity are discussed, and the equity provisions of state charter legislation are reviewed. To supplement existing studies of charter school demography, researchers at New York…

Hypothesizes that a student assignment plan, such as that approved for Boston (Massachusetts), can be an effective method of using school choice to achieve both educational quality and racial balance. Urges the federal government to increase funds for demonstration planning projects and comparative studies to test the plan's effectiveness. (FMW)

This paper explores issues related to magnet schools and racial diversity, reviewing research on magnet schools that underscores the importance of analyzing how effective magnets are in reducing racial isolation, how these data differ across districts, and what accounts for these differential effects. The paper also includes findings from a 3-year…

Educational choice has been found to result in greater satisfaction across schools by social class, race, and prior achievement. However, few studies have attempted to examine stratification effects across choice and non-choice schools by family educational involvement (FEI). Utilizing survey data from the base year of the National Education…

This research explored the politics of educational choice through a case study of one public school testing the limits of difference in the British Columbia (Canada) school system in the 1990s. The Fine Arts elementary school was created by the school board based on pedagogical ideas from teachers. This fine arts magnet offered teachers a great…

This paper provides an update on how some new charter schools have fared during the first year of operation under Pennsylvania's charter school legislation (PA Act 22, June 1997). Data should facilitate an examination of the degree to which the legislation supports or inhibits the entrepreneurial school reform practice of charter schools. Twenty…

The focus of this study is the effects of a School Improvement Plan (SIP) on an urban elementary school. The school's regular education teachers were required to participate in one of five committees designed to prepare the SIP, which specified goals for improvement and the strategies for reaching them. Classroom observations were used by the…