Margaret C. Wang - School choice or best systems: what improves education?

Cover

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What Improves Education?

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School Choice or Best Systems

What Improves Education?

Edited by

Margaret C. Wang
Temple University Center for Research in Human Development
and Education

Herbert J. Walberg
University of Illinois at Chicago

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The final camera copy for this volume was prepared by the editors.

Copyright 2001 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by photostat, microfilm, retrieval system, or any other means, without prior written permission of the publisher.

Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers
10 Industrial Avenue
Mahwah, NJ 07430

Cover design by Kathryn Houghtalin Lacey

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

School choice or best systems: What improves education? / edited by Margaret C. Wang
and Herbert J. Walberg.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 0-8058-3486-9 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 0-8058-3487-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. School choiceUnited States. 2. Educational changeUnited States. 3. School
improvement programsUnited StatesCase studies. I. Wang, Margaret C. II.
Walberg, Herbert J., 1937

LB1027.9.S535 2001
379.1110973dc21

00069168

CIP

Books published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates are printed on acid-free paper, and their bindings are chosen for strength and durability.

Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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Margaret C. Wang
Temple University Center for Research In Human Development and Education

Herbert J. Walberg
University of Illinois at Chicago

The chapters in this book provide an overview of research and practical applications of innovativeeven radicalschool reforms being implemented across the nation. The original versions of the chapters were presented and discussed at an invitational conference cosponsored by the Johnson Foundation and the National Center on Education in the Inner Cites and the Laboratory for Student Success at Temple University Center for Research in Human Development and Education. On the basis of intensive discussions and debate, the authors revised their papers, which constitute the main body of this book.

We invited to the conference education leaders and scholars known for their differing views. Also represented were parents, teachers' union leaders, principals, superintendents, and state and federal officials. The overall goals were to provide a national forum for examining findings from the latest and most significant research on school reform and to showcase school systems and programs that appear to be effective in achieving student success.

In addition to addressing the key issues framed by the commissioned papers, conference participants devoted much time to participating in small work groups. They discussed what is known from research and practical applications of the various reform strategies and their

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implications for next-step recommendations to advance schools' capacity for achieving student success.

Despite their differing opinions, the conference participants respectfully heard views sharply different from their own. They made constructive suggestions for improved policies and research that would be more definitive with respect to opposing views.

Many approaches to school reform were discussed. They may be characterized as lying along a continuum of parental choice versus best systems. Near one extreme are publicly and privately funded scholarships that allow parents to choose and even govern schools for their children. Near the other extreme are centralized state or district systems that specify uniform goals, policies, and programs for each school. The chapters in this book describe these alternatives and a range of intermediate forms. These alternatives are referred to as school choice and best systems.