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What Are the Outcomes of Choice Programs?. Casey D. Cobb Center for Education Policy Analysis Neag School of Education University of Connecticut presented at the “Who Chooses Schools and Why?” conference October 11, 2005 http://www.trincoll.edu/depts/educ/css.
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What Are the Outcomes of Choice Programs? Casey D. Cobb Center for Education Policy Analysis Neag School of Education University of Connecticut presented at the “Who Chooses Schools and Why?” conferenceOctober 11, 2005http://www.trincoll.edu/depts/educ/css
What are the goals of American education? • To prepare students for our democracy • To prepare students for jobs • To prepare students to compete for social positions
What are the values underlying these goals? • Excellence (e.g., academic achievement) • Equity (e.g., desegregation) • Efficiency (e.g., system-wide innovation) • Community (e.g., civic engagement) • Liberty (e.g., choice itself)
Why is research on school choice so problematic and uncertain? Research evidence is mixed and ideologically charged
Why is research on choice so uncertain? • Example 1: Do charter schools improve academic achievement? Source: Economic Policy Institute
Why is research on choice so uncertain? • Example 2: Do magnet schools reduce minority isolation? Source: MSAP 2003 Evaluation; Goldring & Smrekar
Why is research on choice so uncertain? • Example 3: Do higher levels of school choice competition increase academic outcomes? • Review of 41 studies: • 38% show positive relationship between competition and public school achievement • Overall effect is mild to modest Source: Belfield & Levin
Why is research on school choice so uncertain? • Research can be ideologically charged • Context matters • Methodologies inexact and imprecise • Disagreement over appropriate outcomes
How should we proceed on understanding the values and outcomes of choice programs? Are we asking the right questions? What do we want to know?