School Choice Policies and Outcomes

Empirical and Philosophical Perspectives

Edited by Walter Feinberg & Christopher Lubienski

Subjects: Education Policy And Leadership, Philosophy Of Education, Public Policy, Social Context Of Education, Educational Assessment And Evaluation
Paperback : 9780791475720, 250 pages, July 2009
Hardcover : 9780791475713, 250 pages, October 2008

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Table of contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction          
Walter Feinberg and Christopher Lubienski

1. Common Schooling and Educational Choice as a Response to Pluralism
Rob Reich

2. Educational Equality and Varieties of School Choice
Harry Brighouse

3. Evidence, the Conservative Paradigm, and School Choice
Kenneth R. Howe

4. Intergenerational Justice and School Choice
Kathleen Knight Abowitz

5. The Politics of Parental Choice: Theory and Evidence on Quality Information
Christopher Lubienski

6. Social Class Differences in School Choice: The Role of Preferences
Courtney A. Bell

7. Managers of Choice: Race, Gender, and the Political Ideology of the β€œNew” Urban School Leadership
Janelle T. Scott

8. Where Does the Power Lie Now? Devolution, Choice, and Democracy in Schooling
Liz Gordon

9. Parental Choice: The Liberty Principle in Education Finance in Postapartheid South Africa
Bekisizwe S. Ndimande

10. The Dialectic of Parent Rights and Societal Obligation: Constraining Educational Choice
Walter Feinberg

List of Contributors
Index

Provides a clear assessment of all sides of the school choice debate.

Description

Perhaps no school reform has generated as much interest and controversy in recent years as the proposal to have parents select their children's schools. Opponents of school choice fear that rolling back the government's role will lead to profit-driven financial scandals, sectarianism, and increased class and racial isolation. School choice advocates believe that state provision, oversight, and regulation stifle entrepreneurial creativity. The contributors to this volume not only provide a clear assessment of the logic and evidence supporting the different sides of the debate but also unmask the assumptions about the relationship between markets, government, and educational achievement. Their message is that neither markets nor government alone will guarantee freedom, equality, achievement, or community. If choice is to improve education and advance equality, then educational policy cannot be placed on automatic and left to the "free" market. Rather, choice policy must be deliberately directed toward meeting these goals, and this book shows how that could be accomplished.

At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Walter Feinberg is Professor of Philosophy of Education, and Christopher Lubienski is Associate Professor of Educational Organization and Leadership. Feinberg is the author (with A. Belden Fields) of Education and Democratic Theory: Finding a Place for Community Participation in Public School Reform, also published by SUNY Press, and For Goodness Sake: Religious Schools and Education for Democratic Citizenry.

Reviews

"[School Choice Policies and Outcomes] includes both empirical and philosophical considerations of school choice, which is examined within the context of values, such as equality, liberty, and pluralism." β€” CHOICE

"The book makes a contribution to the contemporary discourse on school choice and will be useful as a textbook for courses in educational policy and politics." β€” Mary Anne Linden, University of Portland