The School Choice Hoax: Fixing America's Schools

by Ronald G. Corwin, E. Joseph Schneider

Overview

This book argues that the autonomy granted to choice schools has been a counterproductive dead end. Its authors see no proof that freedom has produced the outstanding results that charter school advocates promised. Nor has the competition from charter schools spurred the improvement in public schools that charter advocates predicted. Instead, charter schools and education vouchers promoted competition among schools that should be cooperating. Overburdened public school districts are faced with rivalry from schools that are merely duplicating conventional programs and competing for some students while ignoring others. Since choice schools are not meeting the expectations touted by their advocates, the authors maintain that they should be planned, monitored, and operated by school districts.

The federal government is devoting millions of dollars to charter and voucher programs that currently require parents to abandon regular public schools. The goal of the authors of The School Choice Hoax is to expose the misleading hyperbole that has been driving the school choice movement and to show how charter schools can become more effective and useful to public school districts. Both authors have been following the school choice movement for over a decade. Together they bring to the topic an unusual blend of academic and practical knowledge derived from long, successful careers as a sociologist (Corwin) and former Deputy Executive Director of the American Association of School Administrators (Schneider). The authors have formed their conclusions from years of research and analysis and have devoted a great deal of attention to making sensible recommendations designed to make school choice models more useful to public schools. This book will be helpful to parents who are faced with the prospect of making choice work better.

The authors' conclusions have been carefully drawn from, and documented with, current research derived from years of neutral observation. Throughout, the book is packed with observations about school choice that will inform parents, politicians, and other community members about the advantages and disadvantages of choice schools. The authors offer explanations that will help the average citizen understand and appraise overblown claims by advocates. They also provide detailed reviews of other reforms, some of which are already infused in existing choice models.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275986957
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	08/30/2005
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

Ronald G. Corwin is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Ohio State University. He also served as director of basic research in the U.S. Department of Education. He has been a vice president of the American Educational Research Association and has held elected positions in the American Sociological Research Association. Author or co-author of 15 books and two dozen contributed chapters, he also edited a series of books on educational research. His work has appeared in the American Sociological Review and other sociological jourbanals, including Sociology of Education for which he served as an associate editor.

E. Joseph Schneider serves as Distinguished Senior Fellow, National Policy Board for Educational Administration, Washington, D.C., and was the Deputy Executive Director of the American Association of School Administrators (AASA). He has also served as President of Leadership Development Resources, an educational consulting company based in Arlington, Va. From 2000-2004 he was Executive Secretary of the National Policy Board for Educational Administration, a coalition of ten national education associations. For 15 years he was the CEO of a Washington-based education association that represents university-based research centers and nonprofit educational agencies.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Preface
The School Choice Quagmire: Anomalies within the Movement and the Models
Claims for Charter Schools and School Vouchers: An Assessment
How to Improve Charter Schools: Clues from Open Enrollment, School-Based Management, The Coalition of Essential Schools, and Small School Initiatives
Why Choice Schools Should Be Specialized: Charter Schools and Vouchers Schools within a Planned Division of Labor
Plight of the Poor and Minority Student in an Uncaring Society: Using District-Operated Charter Schools to Improve Poverty Schools
Conclusions
Selected Bibliography
Tables

What People are Saying About This

Joseph J. Cirasuolo

"Based on an honest and well researched description of education for poor children in this country, the authors have recommended strategies for systemic change to solve the problem. If you're really serious about closing the achievement gap, you have to read this book."

Anne Turnbaugh Lockwood

"The authors have advanced a novel, persuasive argument for a new and unique use of charter schools within school districts in ways that could make them model schools. This is must-reading for school administrators who are grappling with issues presented by disparities between schools in their districts and searching for equitable solutions that will make their districts shine."

Editorial Reviews

As the debate about the effects of school choice policies rages on, Corwin and Schneider offer a pragmatist's solution to the school choice hoax. These two Washington insiders argue that the public has been deceived by false promises that suggest the nation's worst schools will be fixed by school choice. They point to evidence that suggests the choice movement has not, and cannot, fix US schools. Rather than reject school choice altogether, the authors argue for vouchers and charter schools (two popular and contentious forms of choice) to be combined into an integrated approach. This approach, which would put choice schools under the supervision of districts, would draw on the lessons learned from older reforms that have demonstrated success: the small schools initiatives, school-based management, magnets, networks of schools, and specialized alternative schools. Corwin and Schneider bring together insights and arguments that have been advanced on both sides of the choice debate….. General readers and practitioners.” —Choice

From the Publisher

The title, The School Choice Hoax, sums up the thesis of this well-researched and informative book....Corwin and Schneider do a thorough review of the schools' performance, with plenty of data to support their evidence.

School Administrator

The authors have advanced a novel, persuasive argument for a new and unique use of charter schools within school districts in ways that could make them model schools. This is must-reading for school administrators who are grappling with issues presented by disparities between schools in their districts and searching for equitable solutions that will make their districts shine.

Anne Turnbaugh Lockwood

As the debate about the effects of school choice policies rages on, Corwin and Schneider offer a pragmatist's solution to the 'school choice hoax'. These two Washington insiders argue that the public has been deceived by false promises that suggest the nation's worst schools will be fixed by school choice. They point to evidence that suggests the choice movement has not, and cannot, fix U.S. schools. Rather than reject school choice altogether, the authors argue for vouchers and charter schools (two popular and contentious forms of choice) to be combined into an integrated approach. This approach, which would put choice schools under the supervision of districts, would draw on the lessons learned from older reforms that have demonstrated success: the small schools initiatives, school-based management, magnets, networks of schools, and specialized alternative schools. Corwin and Schneider bring together insights and arguments that have been advanced on both sides of the choice debate. This novel approach is interesting, if not empirically well-supported. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers, graduate students, faculty, and practitioners.

Choice Reviews

Based on an honest and well-researched description of education for poor children in this country, the authors have recommended strategies for systemic change to solve the problem. If you're really serious about closing the achievement gap, you have to read this book.

Joseph J. Cirasuolo

The title, The School Choice Hoax, sums up the thesis of this well-researched and informative book....Corwin and Schneider do a thorough review of the schools' performance, with plenty of data to support their evidence.

January 2009 School Administrator

As the debate about the effects of school choice policies rages on, Corwin and Schneider offer a pragmatist's solution to the 'school choice hoax'. These two Washington insiders argue that the public has been deceived by false promises that suggest the nation's worst schools will be fixed by school choice. They point to evidence that suggests the choice movement has not, and cannot, fix U.S. schools. Rather than reject school choice altogether, the authors argue for vouchers and charter schools (two popular and contentious forms of choice) to be combined into an integrated approach. This approach, which would put choice schools under the supervision of districts, would draw on the lessons learned from older reforms that have demonstrated success: the small schools initiatives, school-based management, magnets, networks of schools, and specialized alternative schools. Corwin and Schneider bring together insights and arguments that have been advanced on both sides of the choice debate. This novel approach is interesting, if not empirically well-supported. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers, graduate students, faculty, and practitioners.

Choice

As the debate about the effects of school choice policies rages on, Corwin and Schneider offer a pragmatist's solution to the 'school choice hoax'. These two Washington insiders argue that the public has been deceived by false promises that suggest the nation's worst schools will be fixed by school choice. They point to evidence that suggests the choice movement has not, and cannot, fix U.S. schools. Rather than reject school choice altogether, the authors argue for vouchers and charter schools (two popular and contentious forms of choice) to be combined into an integrated approach. This approach, which would put choice schools under the supervision of districts, would draw on the lessons learned from older reforms that have demonstrated success: the small schools initiatives, school-based management, magnets, networks of schools, and specialized alternative schools. Corwin and Schneider bring together insights and arguments that have been advanced on both sides of the choice debate. This novel approach is interesting, if not empirically well-supported. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers, graduate students, faculty, and practitioners.

CHOICE