Teachers College Press Choosing Charters: Better Schools or More Segregation?

Do charter schools strengthen students’ educational experience? What are their social costs? This volume brings together a group of premier researchers to address questions about the purposes of charter schools and the role of public policy in shaping the educational agenda. Chapter authors explore topics seldom encountered in the current charter school debate, such as the challenges faced by charter schools in guaranteeing students civil rights and other legal protections, the educational and social implications of current instructional programs designed specifically for low-income and minority students, the use of charters as school turnaround agents, and other issues that lie at the intersection of education, politics, and social policy. Readers across the political spectrum, both supporters and critics of charter schools, can use this book to inform public policy about the ways in which charters affect diversity and inequality and the potential to devise policies that mitigate the most troublesome social costs of charter schools. Review "Iris Rotberg and Joshua Glazer have assembled a thought-provoking and timely volume on the topic of charter schools' impact on diversity in education. The heterogeneity of a school's student body is considered in terms of many different dimensions, including race, ethnicity, income, disability status, English language proficiency, culture, and religion, setting the stage for future research studies to continue tracking whether traditional public and public charter schools are becoming isolated along these lines. The contributing authors tackle tough questions, such as whether charter schools do an adequate job of supporting and serving students with special educational needs, the ways in which a school's approach to student discipline can shape the composition of its student body, and the financial impact of chartering on district schools with significant fixed costs. A strength of the book's approach is that the various contributors consider this issue at the intersection of other contemporary education reforms, including personalized learning models enabled by education technology and the 'achievement school district' model, which has been implemented in Tennessee, North Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Nevada."--Teachers College RecordReaders across the political spectrum, both supporters and critics of charter schools, can use Choosing Charters to inform public policy about the ways in which charters affect diversity and inequality and the potential to devise policies that mitigate the most troublesome social costs of charter schools.--Sir Read A Lot About the Author Iris C. Rotberg is a research professor of education policy and Joshua L. Glazer is an associate professor of education policy. They are both at the Graduate School of Education and Human Development at The George Washington University, Washington, DC.