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

Promotional Information

"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, Author of The Charter Schools Decade "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, Ed.D., Past President--AASA

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 journals, 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.

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*