Student Diversity, Choice, and School Improvement

by Willie, Charles V.

• ISBN13: 9780897898485
• ISBN10: 0897898486
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-12-30
• Publisher: Praeger Pub Text

Summary

Diversified schools, in which students of various racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic characteristics are balanced, have a positive contextual effect on achievement for all groups as compared with schools with homogeneous student bodies that tend to help affluent, white students and harm poor students and students of color. Most studies of school reform offer single-variable solutions such as choice, autonomy, or standards. This nationwide study shows how a better and more permanent reform outcome is achieved when choice, diversity, and school improvement are introduced simultaneously. The authors advise school districts convicted for operating segregated schools on how to make all schools "schools of choice" that must compete for students who enroll in them. They suggest ways of empowering parents and professional educators and discuss how all school districts--urban, rural, large, and small--can achieve both excellence and equity in all schools. School systems reluctant to use racial fairness guidelines in the enrollment process are advised to use socioeconomic fairness guidelines, because the absence of any enrollment fairness guidelines tends to result in the return to segregation and a dual school system helpful to a few, but harmful to many students.

Author Biography

CHARLES V. WILLIE is The Charles Wiliam Eliot Professor of Education Emeritus, Harvard Graduate School of Education.RALPH EDWARDS is Visiting Associate Professor and Senior Research Associate, Northeastern University.MICHAEL J. ALVES is Senior Equity Specialist, Education Alliance, Brown University.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Part I: Public School Choice and Educational Outcomes	1	(76)
Introduction	3	(18)
Principles and Assumptions of Controlled Choice	21	(15)
Lee County: A Success Story in Controlled Choice	36	(12)
Controlled Choice in Cambridge	48	(13)
Elements of Effective Parent Information Centers	61	(16)
Part II: School Reform Strategies and Student Improvement	77	(72)
Effective Instructional Programs	79	(20)
The Relationship between Student Body Diversity and Student Achievement	99	(17)
Multiracial, Attractive City Schools: Controlled Choice in Boston	116	(24)
Race, Socioeconomic Status, and Academic Achievement: An Analysis of Their Interactive Effects	140	(9)
Part III: Conclusions and Recommendations	149	(10)
Conclusions	151	(8)
Appendix A: Legal Memorandum	159	(10)
Appendix B: Memorandum on Transportation	169	(2)
Appendix C: Memorandum by the Authors Regarding Ways of Creating an Effective Controlled Choice Plan	171	(4)
Index	175