An ongoing struggle for affordable housing in Southern California has led many predominately White, middle, and upper middle- class families to seek home ownership in divested urban communities. This phenomenon, known as gentrification, can benefit a community by increasing property values, but often comes at a cost to longstanding, Black and…

Policy makers in California intend to provide free preschool to all 4-year-olds solely within public schools by 2026, becoming the nation's second largest single pre-K program in the United States after Head Start. This initiative builds on the state's existing Transitional Kindergarten (TK) option that has served a modest share of 4-year-olds…

In recent years, districts have paid special attention to the common practice of "district hopping," families bending geographic school assignment rules by sending a child to a school in a district where the child does not formally reside-usually to a district that is more desirable because of higher performing schools or greater…

This article brings together ethnographies of two privileged educational settings in the United States--a private school in California's Central Valley following the progressivist Sudbury model, and an affluent New England boarding school's summer enrichment program. Each of these institutions serves as an alternative to and/or extension of…

This article outlines different forms of education privatization operating globally, examines their prevalence within the United States, and analyzes whether student marginalization and segregation occurs at the local level. We analyze six U.S. districts with higher saturation levels of charter schools, the most predominant type of privatization…

Charter schools are a popular option in school choice reform. Parents often choose to enroll their children in charter schools because they are disenchanted with traditional public schools. Many charter schools are independent from local school districts and promise to be innovative when implementing their curriculum. Despite charter schools'…

Many school districts and high schools provide well-designed pathways that combine rigorous academic instruction with technical education and real-world experience into a career-themed program of study. This Linked Learning approach helps districts and high schools prepare all students for both college and career, not just one objective or the…

Dramatic changes in the higher education landscape and the recent recession have intensified the challenges students face in postsecondary enrollment and completion. In response, some states, communities, and institutions have developed "postsecondary opportunity programs (POPs)"--comprehensive college access and success programs…

This Framework is intended for use by school districts and their community partners as they plan and adopt systems of quality pathways. The Critical Elements that make up the Framework are intended to deepen and clarify the district's thinking about how to build the infrastructure that supports the design, implementation, and sustainability of a…

Beyond the need for many school districts to pull out of the death spiral of declining enrollment, educational leaders throughout California must foster a culture of change and accelerate creative self-renewal to provide students with an education for the world ahead. Businesses demand and expect much more from public education as the global…

Getting a sound education is important to a student's ability to make a good living in a field they will enjoy. For many students graduating from high school, that includes high quality career technical (or vocational) education tailored to a specific job. In California, such programs are available in a wide range of fields, from healthcare to the…

This document examines the implications and feasibility of school-voucher programs for the California education system. Following the executive summary and introduction, section 2 describes privately provided voucher programs, specifically: the Educational CHOICE Charitable Trust (Indianapolis, Indiana); The Children's Educational Opportunity…

The Parental Choice in Education Initiative was defeated by California voters in a statewide special election in November 1993. The stated purpose of the initiative was to enable parents to choose their children's schools. This document summarizes the provisions of the initiative, analyzes its policy and fiscal impact, and reviews supporting and…

Among the major concerns surrounding school-choice programs is their potential to stratify students along the dimensions of race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic class. The latest among four U.S. Department of Education national evaluations of charter schools reports no evidence that charter schools are predominantly white or that they segregate…

School choice, as one avenue toward educational reform, must be placed in context, according to this brief policy analysis. Prepared mainly for policymakers in California and stressing implications for public education in California, the report briefly discusses five samples of school choice: (1) magnet schools; (2) charter schools; (3) open…