Some subscribers to Phys-L might be interested in a recent post"The
Contentious Controversy Over School Choice" [Hake (2013)]. The
abstract reads:
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ABSTRACT: Contentious controversies over school choice are exhibited in e.g.:
a. Eighty-one comments (as of 13 Feb 2013 08:15-0800) on Diane
Ravitch's (2013) blog entry "An Economist Explains the Problem with
Choice" at <http://bit.ly/11r9xCJ>.
b. Two long threads initiated by my post "Economist Kern Alexander
Explains the Problem with School Choice" [Hake (2013a) at
<http://bit.ly/WIdRH5>. On 13 Feb 2013 08:15-0800 the threads had
grown to (a) over 40 posts on Phys-L list with OPEN archives at
<http://bit.ly/Ve9Sof>; and (b) 26 posts on the Physoc list at
<http://bit.ly/Y7k7rg> (to gain access you may need to obtain a
password by typing your email address into a slot).
c. Andrew Maul's (2013)"Review of Charter School Performance in
Michigan" at <http://bit.ly/WHiO6R>. The abstract reads in part: "The
Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford
University conducted an analysis of the differences in student
performance at charter schools and traditional public schools in the
state of Michigan. In contrast to the majority of prior evidence
regarding charter effects in the U.S. which tends to show no impact,
the study finds an overall small positive effect of being in a
charter school. . . . . . . . even setting aside issues with the
study's methods, the actual magnitudes of the effects reported are
extremely small."
d. Gene Glass's (2011) "Charter Schools: Making Public Schools
Private" at <http://bit.ly/YXwZmO>. Glass ends with: "It is difficult
to see that anything other than the White voting public's desire to
simultaneously cheapen public education and create quasi-private
schooling for their children is driving, in its larger part, the
charter school movement."
e. Linda Darling-Hammond's (2010b) "Restoring Our Schools" at
<http://bit.ly/VSI9fy>. Darling-Hammond writes: "Race to the Top
requires that states expand charters but fails to assure quality and
ensure access, despite evidence from the largest national study to
date (conducted at Stanford University's Hoover Institution) that
charter schools more frequently underperform than outperform their
counterparts serving similar students; evidence from a UCLA study
indicating that charters exacerbate segregation; and evidence from
many studies that charters serve significantly fewer special
education students and English-language learners."
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REFERENCES [URL shortened by http://bit.ly/ and accessed on 13 Feb 2013.]
Hake, R.R. 2013. "The Contentious Controversy Over School Choice,"
online on the OPEN! AERA-H archives at <http://bit.ly/YdSVsX>. Post
of 13 Feb 2013 11:23:04 -0800 to AERA-H and Net-Gold. The abstract
and link to the complete post are being transmitted to several
discussion lists and are also on my blog "Hake'sEdStuff" at
<http://bit.ly/Y98lN6> with a provision for comments.