This article reports the findings of a study on the nature of parent-school engagement at an academically selective public high school in New South Wales, Australia. Such research is pertinent given recent policies of "choice" and decentralization, making a study of local stakeholders timely. The research comprised a set of interviews…

One crucial decision that middle schoolers (and their families) make is where they will attend high school. Many districts employ school choice systems designed to allow students to pick a high school that will meet their needs and interests. Yet most students prefer high schools that are close to home, and for youth in low-income neighborhoods,…

In comparing one public school to another, discussions frequently include talk concerning the socio economics of a school or district, which then leads to talk about the advantages that one socioeconomic setting has over another. Educators tend to agree that low academic achievement frequently associated with a low socioeconomic status is a…

School-Parent Compacts are a component of school-level parental involvement policies, and must be developed by the school, teacher, and parents as a description of how parents, the entire school staff, and students themselves will work together for improved student academic achievement. This District of Columbia Public Schools School Year…

This article begins to unpack the complex effects of the policies of both the small schools and choice on students with special needs. Drawing on qualitative data collected throughout the 2008-2009 academic year and a range of quantitative data from New York City's public high schools, the author shows that while small schools and choice are…

Since 1994, the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) has provided funding to new charter schools through Charter School Program (CSP) grants designed to provide support for the planning and implementation of effective new charter programs. Grants are awarded to state education agencies, which then provide funding to approved charter schools through…

Study of five Catholic, four single-focus public, and four multifocus public magnet urban high schools show varying patterns of parental involvement and differing degrees of shared decision making among parents and teachers. Partnership was more evident in the Catholic schools and least apparent in the single-focus schools. (SLD)

A study was conducted to determine the association among variables representing parent and school demographics, parents' opinions of the school, their reasons for choosing it, and their willingness to support the school in various ways, including the level of tuition they would pay. Data were collected from a stratified sample of 10 high schools…

The Philadelphia Education Longitudinal Study (PELS) on the transition to ninth grade in Philadelphia highlights the high school choice process, course failure rates during ninth grade, and parents' responses to the transition to high school. The PELS study followed a city-wide random sample of public school students from the summer after eighth…

The Richmond (California) Unified School District's System for Choice allows parents and students to select from a variety of programs designed to satisfy diverse interests and needs. This publication describes offerings at De Anza High School, a Paideia school. De Anza is the only high school in the district that offers Classical Studies, a…

Schools of choice are fast becoming part of the national debate on educational reform. This study, part of a larger study of schools and families, examined how the work context of teachers and opportunities for parent involvement differ under different choice arrangements, and investigated aspects of the sociobureaucratic context of teachers' work…

New York City's Special Education School Articulation Program, which fosters informed student and parent choice about available high school program options, is described. Initial program objectives for the 1990-91 school year included hiring of school articulation coordinators and development of specific articulation plans by middle and high…

Teacher empowerment and parent participation in school decision making have become dominant themes in the current debate over school restructuring. The literature suggests that as teachers become empowered, they may tend to view parents more as clients of education rather than as partners, thereby introducing a potential conflict into the social…

Describes the school choice program and its implementation in Minnesota. The Post-Secondary Options program offers public high school students the chance to take courses in other high schools or colleges. The High School Graduation Incentive Program helps students work out their educational problems and graduate from high school. (JB)

Across OECD countries, governments are seeking policies to make education more effective while searching for additional resources to meet the increasing demand for education. The 2010 edition of "Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators" enables countries to see themselves in the light of other countries' performance. It provides a rich, comparable…