What Could be Wrong With ‘School Choice?
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http://www.nationofchange.org/what-could-be-wrong-school-choice-1391012083
In the same Politico story cited above, Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) recently said the week to raise awareness about school choice was about raising education quality.
“School choice,” he said, “puts pressure on our whole education system to improve.”
Don’t tell that to the parents in Milwaukee. Education historian Diane Ravitch recently reviewed the results from that school district’s long experience with choice and found its program had not produced any academic advantages, at least that could be measured by test scores.
To be fair to Milwaukee, Ravitch found the same to be the case for Washington, D.C.’s choice program, which produced “no conclusive evidence” it had affected student achievement.
If choice was the answer, she concluded, “Milwaukee should be at the top of the nation’s urban districts. But it is near the bottom. Why? Because choice is not the answer.”
