The Illinois Early Learning Project (IEL) is funded by the Illinois State Board of Education to provide information resources on early learning and training related to implementing the Illinois Early Learning Standards for parents and for early childhood personnel in all settings. The IEL tip sheets offer suggestions to parents and early childhood…

Examines the effects of high school choice on high risk students in four large urban school districts. Finds that with the exception of some magnet school programs, admissions procedures and program consequences usually operate to the detriment of students at risk. (FMW)

Analysis of a state-wide survey and in-depth interviews with 15 home school families in Oregon reveals that the impetus for home schooling may be tied to the effects of contemporary culture on personal belief. Characteristics of religious and New Age home school families are discussed. (BJV)

A study of three London local education authorities explored the dynamics of British education markets. Findings showed that the market is a middle-class mode of social engagement; parental choice is class- and race-informed; schools are increasingly oriented toward meeting middle-class parents' perceived needs; and secondary schooling is becoming…

Explains and analyzes open-enrollment plans, current open-enrollment legislation, and the Omaha (Nebraska) School District's attempt to balance goals of integration and open enrollment. Provides recommendations for educational and legislative reform in the area of public school choice. (198 references) (MLF)

In an interview, the former president of the University of Notre Dame, Reverend Theodore M. Hesburgh, discusses prejudice in the Catholic church and Catholic education, Black English, Afrocentricity, school choice, innercity education, progress in civil rights in the United States, and immigration. (MSE)

Argues for the importance of high school principals taking charge of their schools. Examines the following obstacles to effective leadership: historical developments in education in the last decades, union influence, legal problems, paperwork burdens, and lack of community and parent support. Also discusses the symbolic role of principals. (JB)

Argues that school choice plans should be limited to public schools. A system of controlled choice overcomes many problems associated with school choice. District 4 of the New York City public schools offers an example of how greater choice for parents has reinvigorated innercity schools. (SLD)

Explores the legal aspects of choice programs affecting the education of children with disabilities. Concludes that states that have enacted choice programs have not designed the admissions processes nor the funding systems to eliminate discrimination against children with disabilities. (41 footnotes) (MLF)

Reviews the performance of large school districts, particularly those of New York City, and argues that their relatively poor performance is caused by fundamental tensions among effective school practices and the nature of large systems. Alternative means of encouraging school independence are considered, and the most noteworthy of these are…

Business should participate in school reform but has too narrow a perspective to guide it. Nationalizing education through comparative testing is a move to cut spending for social services, to increase accountability and efficiency without increasing financial responsibility or equity. Imposing private-sector rules on public education undermines…

Provides an overview of recent British educational policy regarding "specialization" (school choice given to parents) and "selection" (student placement by ability or interest, controlled by the school). Specifically discusses the Assisted Places Scheme, a program granting need- and ability-based scholarships to academically…

Considers the extent to which grant-maintained schools (state-supported but self-governing) in Britain have contributed to the diversification of the system. Argues that the private schools have yet to provide programs that are innovative or ground breaking. Includes excerpts from interviews with nine grant-maintained school headmasters. (MJP)

Argues that much of the recent scholarship on school choice, marketization, and diversity has ignored issues of gender. Provides an overview of several recent studies examining gender issues and parents' perspectives on school choice. Maintains that gender is a significant, if often, contradictory factor in these decisions. (MJP)

While school choice offers inner-city parents a means of educating their children well, it represents further deterioration of society's commitment to educating all students. This paper describes: the push for private school choice; parent choice in context (historical context and failures of desegregation); and segregationist strategies and…