Are Parental School Choices and Education Policy Goals Compatible?

Session Submission Type: Symposium

Abstract

School choice, i.e. the freedom to choose a school other than the neighborhood public school, has been proposed for two large-scale policy purposes – either to achieve voluntary desegregation through magnet programs, or to use market forces to drive school improvement. School choice as a strategy toward these policy goals will succeed only if the choices made by individual families are congruent with the policy goals. This symposium will present four studies that use varied methodologies to examine the reasons for parental choice. Two discussants will respond to the studies – the first being a major scholar studying school choice and the other an administrator responsible for a large and well-established system of choice in an urban district.

Sub Unit

• Division L - Educational Policies and Politics / Section 4: Market Based Reforms and Fiscal Issues

Chair

• Stephen J. Schellenberg, Saint Paul Public Schools

Papers

• Factors Driving School Choice in an Urban District - Stephen J. Schellenberg, Saint Paul Public Schools

• Do Parents Get What They Want? An Investigation of Alignment Between Parent Preferences and Actual Characteristics of Chosen Charter Schools - Marc L. Stein, Johns Hopkins University

• Distinctive Schools and the Policy Outcomes of Choice - Terri S. Wilson, Southern Illinois University - Carbondale

• Complicating Effects of School Choice on Metro-Area School Integration Efforts - Allison Mattheis, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

Discussants

• Luis Alberto Huerta, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Jill Cacy, Saint Paul Public Schools