Student Diversity, Choice, and School Improvement

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Charles V. Willie, Ralph Edwards, Michael J. Alves

Book Code: G848

ISBN: 0-89789-848-6

ISBN-13: 978-0-89789-848-5

DOI:

192 pages, figures, tables

Bergin & Garvey Paperback

Publication: 12/30/2002

List Price: $23.95 (UK Sterling Price: £13.95)

Availability: In Stock

Media Type: Paperback

Also Available: Hardcover

Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4

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Reviews:

These researchers and reform designers do an excellent job of putting their arguments into layman's terms. Admirably, they spell out how an effective choice plan not only targets desegregation, but also develops and repairs the least desired schools in a district, and how this improvement-which temporarily deprives capital from already resource-rich schools-can be made palatable to all stakeholders.
—Multicultural Review December 2003

Description: 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.

Table of Contents:

Preface
Student Assignment Practices and Educational Outcomes
Introduction
Race, Socioeconomic Status and Academic Achievement: An Analysis of their Interactive Effects
Lee County: A Success Story in Controlled Open Enrollment
Parent Information Centers and Student Assignment
School Improvement and Educational Reform
School Improvement
Achievement and Student Body Diversity
Student Assignment and School Improvement Models and Recommendations
Student-Assignment, School-Improvement, and Systemic-Enhancement Models
Recommendations


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