In this article, we examine a growing phenomenon: the growth of seemingly conservative sentiments among some of the least powerful groups in this society.

The article examines three schools and explores their governance, organization, finance, ownership, and admissions, characteristics the research literature indicates distinguish public from private schools. The authors demonstrate that there are emerging forms of school organization that are neither clearly public nor private, but of a third hybred type, or quasi-public organization.

While research on choice-based school reform has proliferated in recent years, little attention has been paid to examining how teachers themselves view choice-based reforms or what shapes their attitudes. We use a survey of teachers in Arizona, the state with the nation's most developed system of school choice, to explore how key personal and contextual traits influence teachers' attitudes toward charter schools and school vouchers. Our results can help shed light on how teachers will respond to the spread of school choice, and the likely prospects and effects of choice-based reform.

School choice proponents have hypothesized that market-based education reform will compel traditional public schools to become more effective. We explore this hypothesis by examining how the introduction of the Cleveland voucher experiment in 1995 affected the administration and leadership of the city’s public schools.

An introduction to the issues in the Cleveland Voucher Case

A look at some of the educational issues likely to arise in the wake of the Zelman decision.

A skeptical view on the impact of the Zelman decision.

With the changes of successful litigation against vouchers curtailed in federal court, the battlefield shifts to the states where significant constitutional and public policy hurdles await school choice proponents.

The recent Supreme Court decision could dramatically change education politics. The new politics call for those who are concerned about the potential risks of choice to engage in debates to improve, rather than prevent, choice.

A view of the Zelman decision as an extension of existing practice.

Vouchers have suddenly become a more realistic political option. It is now imperative to focus debate on the core issue of whether voucher programs can improve education achievement. The available evidence from the U.S. and other countries suggests that they are not likely to do so.

We think it unlikely that voucher programs will prove to be a significant part of the solution to the educational problems facing many urban school districts, but they may nonetheless become a significant part of the educational landscape in coming years.

Initial reactions to the ruling have likened it to the 1954 Brown decision in its scope and implications for American schooling. Don’t believe the hype. It is unlikely that Zelman will have the profound impact of Brown

This is a transcript of an interview with Professor Milton Friedman, one of the most fervent and most effective advocates of free enterprise of the last century.

Examining Arizona, the state with the nation's most developed system of choice, we explore how personal traits, including race, tenure, partisanship, and familiarity with charter schooling, influence teachers' attitudes toward charter schools and school vouchers.

This paper looks at the Charter School of Education at California State University Los Angeles and discusses the processes of chartering, the dynamics of such an organizational and cultural change, and the theoretical and practical implications for the reform effort.

The study compares the arguments of charter school advocates to those of the common school reformers regarding definitions of “public” education. It questions claims that charter schools are public schools; instead, seeing them as a form of privatization.

This exploratory study of 17 charter schools examines instructional and organizational practices used by the schools in their start up years. The authors discuss both strengths that supported their development and challenges that impeded progress.

How do district schools respond to competition from charter schools? To explore this question, we examine four small Arizona school districts which lost from a tenth to a third of enrollment to charter schools in a short time period.

This study reveals that greater autonomy for teachers is accompanied by expanded roles and responsibilities in deregulated schools.

The author considers how grantseeking among urban public school teachers has introduced selected teachers to the central tenets of the privatization movement while simultaneously excluding teachers of color and those whose native language is not English.

Based on interviews with policy makers in six states, this article examines the policies of charter school reform and maintains that the apparent bipartisan support for these more autonomous schools masks opposing viewpoints about the purpose of this reform.

The authors in this study found that charter schools have greater levels of parent involvement, but this involvement may be due to selectivity in the kinds of families participating in charter schools.

An examination of the sources of support for a K-12 voucher program.

Privatization and the prospect of increasing the racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic homogeneity of American schools

Research on requests to transfer to magnet schools in Montgomery County, Maryland, suggests that racial factors play a strong role in school choice. This paper argues that unfettered choice still has the potential to exacerbate racial separation, even in relatively liberal and progressive settings like Montgomery County.

This article explains briefly the provisions of Goals 2000, emphasizing its support of ongoing educational change at the state and local levels and state flexibility to develop diverse approaches to reform. To illustrate this flexibility, the article describes reform activities in Vermont, Delaware, and Oregon, and explains how these states are using initial Goals 2000 funds.

An introduction to the Teachers College Record symposium on Politics, Markets, and America's schools. Explores the impact of race and class on parents and students' freedom to choose.