Tuesday, October 12

Keeping School Choices Traditional

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Topic Brief
Panelists
Polls
Focus Point Discussions
Library Items
Summary

Topic Brief

In this topic, we will share information about those school choice options that are focused on keeping school choices traditional – magnet schools, open enrollment policies, and the public school choice provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act. We will explore the goals for these options as well as the strengths and the weaknesses of the various approaches in meeting these goals.

Panelists

Paul Hill, Research Professor, University of Washington
Dianne Piche, Executive Director, Citizens’ Commission on Civil Rights
David Plank, Professor, Michigan State University
Susan Uchitelle, Regional Educational Consultant and Chair, Confluence Academy Charter Schools

Focus Point Discussions

Magnet Schools

To facilitate public school desegregation, many states and school districts have created magnet schools, which provide specialized curriculums and instructional approaches to attract students from a variety of neighborhoods in a metropolitan area.

* Have magnet schools facilitated the desegregation of public schools?
* What are the achievement levels of students who attend magnet schools as compared to students at non-magnet schools?
* Should policymakers continue to focus magnet schools on desegregation efforts or should they focus them on a different role in the public education system?

Open Enrollment

To one degree or another, open-enrollment policies allow a student to transfer to the public school of his or her choice. There are two basic types of open-enrollment policies in place across the country – intradistrict and interdistrict. Intradistrict policies allow a student to transfer to another school within his or her school district. Interdistrict policies allow a student to transfer to a school outside his or her home district.

* How effective are open enrollment policies in facilitating the transfer of students to different schools within and outside their home school district?
* A major consequence of inter-district choice in several states has been increasingly intense competition among districts as they strive to attract students and the revenues they bring. What are the benefits of such competition? What are the costs?
* How should open enrollment policies address the transportation of students from their home to their chosen school, particularly if the new school is in a different district?
* How should open enrollment policies address the funding of students who choose a school different than their assigned school, particularly if the new school is in a different district?

NCLB Public School Choice Requirements

Under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), school districts are required to offer students who attend schools that do not make "adequate yearly progress" for two consecutive years the option to transfer to higher-performing schools in the district. But two years after NCLB was enacted, it appears that only a small percentage of the students eligible to transfer are doing so.

* What is happening in districts around the nation regarding NCLB public school choice requirements? Will these early results change in the future?
* How many students are transferring to a different school because of this provision?
* What are the major barriers to student transfers?
* How can districts, states, and the federal government do to address these barriers?

Library Items

Choosing Better Schools: A Report on Student Transfers Under the No Child Left Behind Act Cynthia G. Brown, Citizens’ Commission on Civil Rights, May 2004 y 2004. This report found that school choice was used more extensively than previously reported, but requests were greater than actual transfers. It also found that access to choice options is directly related to state and district policies and practices

Evaluation of the Magnet Schools Assistance Program, 1998 Grantees: Final Report American Institutes for Research, U.S. Department of Education, 2003. This report provides an evaluation of the Magnet Schools Assistance Program. It is based on data collected from the 57 projects that received three-year awards in the summer of 1998.

School Choice Policies: How Have They Affected Michigan's Education System David Arsen, Plank, D., Sykes, G., The Education Policy Center at Michigan State, July 2002. This report investigates how school choice policies have changed Michigan's education system. It looks at the responses of traditional school districts, and how choice policies have changed relationships among school districts and other actors in the educational system.

School Choice: Doing It the Right Way Makes a Difference National Working Commission on Choice in K12 Education, The Brookings Institution, November 2003. In this report, the National Working Commission on Choice in K-12 Education explores how choice works and examines how communities interested in the potential benefits of new school options could obtain them while avoiding choice's potential damage.