The Charter School of San Diego (California) began operations in the 1994-95 school year. Its program and facilities previously operated as one of the city's alternative education programs designed to provide individualized support for holistic engagement of students, many of whom enrolled because of difficulties at comprehensive schools. The…

Research conducted during the last decade supports the notion that educational reform must be comprehensive and systemic. This paper summarizes major issues and trends in the management of elementary-secondary education. The synthesis is designed to promote an understanding of how broad in scope systemic reform must be. Twelve chapters present…

This document contains the 1995 report card for Colorado education, which provides information about how Colorado public schools have performed and are moving toward meeting district, state, and national education goals. Section 1 contains a message from Bill Randall, Colorado Commissioner of Education. Section 2 presents Colorado's model for…

This paper presents findings of a study that examined the role of economic, social, and logistical factors on Ethiopian parents' decisions whether or not to enroll their children in public primary school. Data were obtained from a survey of four rural regions in Ethiopia--130 households per region. Findings indicate that parents made enrollment…

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…

Opponents of school choice argue that economically advantaged families will get the best schools, and socioeconomic and racial segregation will only increase. If choice allows better matching of child to school, then parent information levels can critically affect the outcome. Very few data are available that directly confirm the presence or…

A child's success in school is often determined by the level of involvement of the family in his or her education. This newsletter presents articles on helping parents collaborate in the schooling process. The title article describes the "universal controlled" public school choice allowed in several Massachusetts school districts, and a…

Evaluation of the coordination of vocational education and programs provided under the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) included a survey of Florida's 24 service delivery areas (SDAs). The assessment was designed to provide a "snapshot" of the services provided to JTPA clients through educational institutions and on-the-job training…

Fifteen years after the release of the landmark education report, "A Nation at Risk," a number of the nation's most prominent education reformers, business leaders, and policymakers met at an event sponsored by the Center for Education Reform, Empower America, the Heritage Foundation, and the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation. To discuss the…

This report is the third in a series of research reports on a 4-year study of private and public school-choice programs in San Antonio, Texas. Two choice programs are the focus of the study. The first program is the Children's Educational Opportunity Foundation, which provides partial scholarships to low-income children for use in private and…

Recent evidence suggests that low-income, inner-city parents favor school choice. African-American and Latino parents' preferences regarding choice were analyzed. Inner-city parents' school choices occur within a context constrained by Anglo and middle-class strategies of containment. The paper examines minority dissatisfaction with the public…

In March 1990, the Wisconsin legislature passed into law the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program. Its enactment made Wisconsin the only state in the nation with a private school voucher plan. Litigation concerning the constitutionality of the program has involved the following actions: (1) the Wisconsin Supreme Court refused to hear the case; (2)…

This volume is a collection of 27 essays, grouped into 4 parts, on the theme of parental involvement in education. The first section, "Parental Choice and School Involvement," contains a history of parental choice and school involvement and discussions of current efforts to increase parent participation and the school choice debate. In…

This paper describes the use of tuition tax credits and vouchers as political alternatives of choice and competition in a progressive society. School and public administration theorists identify two distinct finance models: the rational and the political. The first part of this paper examines and describes these two models. The next part…

This paper addresses school choice, one proposal to address parental involvement concerns, focusing on historical background, definitions, rationale for advocating choice, implementation strategies, and implications for minorities and low-income families. In the past, transfer payment programs such as tuition tax credits and vouchers were…