Choice

Learning from School Choice. Paul Peterson, Bryan Hassel. Brookings Institution Press, 460 pages. 1998.

While educators, parents, and policy-makers are still debating the pros and cons of school choice, it is now possible to learn from choice experiments in public, private, and charter schools across the country. This book both examines the evidence from these early school choice programs and looks at the larger implications of choice and competition in education.

Central-City School Systems: Time for Experimentation. Paul Peterson. Brookings Newsletter. 1998.
What Evaluation Has to Say About School Choice. Paul Peterson. Philanthropy, 12(4), 23-25. 1998.
Race Relations & Central City Schools. Paul Peterson, Jay P. Greene. The Brookings Review, 16(2), 3-37. 1998.

Some say U. S. race relations are improving; others say not. Some say that affirmative action has fostered racial progress; others say not. But almost all Americans, liberal or conservative, agree that in the long run racial equality can be fully achieved only by eliminating disparities in the average educational performances of blacks and whites. Most Americans, we submit, would go so far as to say that if the next generation of blacks and whites acquire similar academic skills, the remaining barriers to racial equality could well slip away of their own accord.

The Effectiveness of School Choice in Milwaukee: A Secondary Analysis of Data from the Programs Evaluation. Paul Peterson, Jay P. Greene, Jiangtao DuIn Paul E. Peterson and Bryan C. Hassel, Eds.. Learning from School Choice. Brookings Institution Press, 335-356. 1998.
Under Extreme Duress, School Choice Success. Paul Peterson, Chad NoyesIn Diane Ravitch and Joseph Viteritti, Eds.. New Schools for a New Century: The Redesign of Urban Education. Yale University Press. 1997.

The Wisconsin state legislature enacted in 1995 a large- scale voucher program offering a choice among both religious and secular schools to thousands of Milwaukee children living in low- income families. The program will not come into effect unless the Wisconsin state supreme court rejects a challenge to its constitutionality. Until such time, low income families seeking alternatives to the city's public schools must choose within the confines of a more limited plan set up in 1990. The Milwaukee story is hardly a "best practice" tale that educators love to relate.

A Report Card on School Choice. Paul Peterson. Commentary, 29-33. 1997.

The problems in American education are endemic. For example, compare math and science performance by students in the United States with that in other countries. The Third International Mathematics and Science Study ("TIMSS"), reporting on tests administered in 1995 to half a million students in forty-one countries, compares the math performance of U.S. students in fourth, eighth, and twelfth grades with that of students abroad. Math tests are thought to be especially good indicators of school effectiveness, because math, unlike reading and language skills, is learned mainly in school.

School Choice in Milwaukee. Paul Peterson, Jay P. Greene, Chad Noyes. Public Interest, No. 125, 38-56. 1996.
The New Politics of Choice. Paul PetersonIn Diane Ravitch and Maris Vinovskis, Eds.. Learning from the Past. John Hopkins University Press. 1995.
Are Big City Schools Holding their Own?. Paul PetersonIn John Rury, Ed.. Seeds of Crisis. University of Wisconsin. 1993.
Monopoly and Competition in American Education. Paul PetersonIn William H. Clune and John F. Witte, Eds.. Choice and Control in American Education. Palmer, 47-78. 1990.