1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910825186703321

Autore

Buckley Jack <1972->

Titolo

Charter schools : hope or hype? / / Jack Buckley and Mark Schneider

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Princeton, N.J. ; ; Oxford, : Princeton University Press, c2007

ISBN

1-282-45853-1

9786612458538

1-4008-3185-7

Edizione

[Course Book]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (358 p.)

Classificazione

DV 2850

Altri autori (Persone)

SchneiderMark <1946->

Disciplina

371.010973

Soggetti

Charter schools - United States

Privatization in education - United States

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Figures -- Tables -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The Evolution of Charter-School Choice in the District of Columbia -- 3. The Panel Study -- 4. Are Charter-School Students Harder to Educate than Those in the Traditional Public Schools? -- 5. Shopping for Schools on the Internet Using DCSchoolSearch.com -- 6. What Do Parents Want from Schools? It Depends on How You Ask -- 7. School Choice and the Importance of Parental Information -- 8. How Do Parents Access and Process Information about Schools? -- 9. Satisfaction with Schools -- 10. Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? Parental Satisfaction over Time -- 11. Building Social Capital in the Nation's Capital: Can School Choice Build a Foundation for Cooperative Behavior? -- 12. Do Charter Schools Promote Citizenship among Students? -- 13. Charter Schools: Hype or Hope? -- Notes -- References -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Over the past several years, privately run, publicly funded charter schools have been sold to the American public as an education alternative promising better student achievement, greater parent satisfaction, and more vibrant school communities. But are charter schools delivering on their promise? Or are they just hype as critics contend, a costly experiment that is bleeding tax dollars from public schools? In this book, Jack Buckley and Mark Schneider tackle these



questions about one of the thorniest policy reforms in the nation today. Using an exceptionally rigorous research approach, the authors investigate charter schools in Washington, D.C., carefully examining school data going back more than a decade, interpreting scores of interviews with parents, students, and teachers, and meticulously measuring how charter schools perform compared to traditional public schools. Their conclusions are sobering. Buckley and Schneider show that charter-school students are not outperforming students in traditional public schools, that the quality of charter-school education varies widely from school to school, and that parent enthusiasm for charter schools starts out strong but fades over time. And they argue that while charter schools may meet the most basic test of sound public policy--they do no harm--the evidence suggests they all too often fall short of advocates' claims. With the future of charter schools--and perhaps public education as a whole--hanging in the balance, this book supports the case for holding charter schools more accountable and brings us considerably nearer to resolving this contentious debate.