A random sample of over 13,000 students participating in 4 of Minnesota's school choice programs during the 1989-90 school year were surveyed in 4 areas: (1) background and family participation; (2) reasons for participating and decision making; (3) sources for program information; and (4) satisfaction/expectations. The survey was performed to…

American schools, despite recent education reform measures, still fail to provide many of our nation's children with the education that they need and deserve. In conjunction with the other changes, programs of choice can play a central and critical role in improving America's schools. This booklet, divided into two sections, reports on the…

In this monograph, the author presents a history of court decisions that outlawed public school segregation, reviews these decisions, and examines the problems of decision implementation that followed. The texts of some of the opinions delivered by the various courts are presented. Various relevant concepts are also set out in the context of their…

A rejoinder by the Chairman of the Department of Sociology-Anthropology, Tougaloo College, to an article by Nancy St. John in the January-February issue of Integrated Education." (JM)

Arena models developed by T. Mazzoni relating to policy innovation are applied to the passage of open enrollment legislation in Ohio. The macro arena was relatively inactive, but a shift from the subsystem to the leadership arena occurred, partially validating Mazzoni's revised model. (SLD)

Examination of two types of school choice programs in Milwaukee (Wisconsin) reveals that the exercise of choice is a function of the type and design of the choice program. Comparison of the voucher private school and interdistrict public school choice programs (Chapter 220) shows that both are providing additional educational opportunities. (SLD)

A short synopsis of five regional meetings on school choice and follow-up activities is offered in this report. The meetings were held in fall 1989 in East Harlem, New York; Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota; Charlotte, North Carolina; Denver, Colorado; and Richmond, California. Three sections of the report provide a review of choice activities that…

A study was conducted within the Dade County (Florida) Public Schools to determine why large numbers of Black students were using the racial majority to minority transfer option, and, in particular, transferring from Van E. Blanton Elementary And Horace Mann Junior to Miami Shores Elementary and North Miami Junior schools. From a list of 471…

Argues that the data show that black parents will opt for integration if given the chance, and white parents can be drawn to integrated schools with attractive curricula: Open Enrollment can reasonably be expected to produce significant integration without the political and moral costs of coercion. (Author/JM)

THE NEW YORK CITY BOARD OF EDUCATION HAS INSTITUTED A NUMBER OF PROGRAMS TO ACHIEVE ETHNIC BALANCE IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. HOWEVER, THE PROBLEMS OF RACIAL INTEGRATION, WHICH RESULT FROM HOUSING, MOVEMENT OF WHITE POPULATION, GROWTH OF NONPUBLIC EDUCATION, AND THE DIFFERENTIAL RATE OF ETHNIC CHANGE IN THE VARIOUS BOROUGHS, REFLECT A CONDITION OF THE…

This paper examines the policy implications of school choice opportunites in the public sector, based on a study of the school choice behavior of a group of public school parents residing in areas where they were permitted to choose which of two dissimilar schools their child would attend. Data were gathered through interviews with 48 mothers who…

Families choose schools; and they choose programs within schools. Yet the processes, contingencies, and outcomes of families' choices of schooling have not been systematically examined. In this paper, the social science literature on families' choices of schooling is reviewed. Treating this choice as a special case of consumer choice, the paper…

Rather than seeing the "self-selection" factor in private school enrollment as a flaw in Coleman's study, the author views this element of private choice and commitment to learning as the key to effective education and discipline. One of three theme articles: "Reflections on the 1981 Coleman study."(SJL)

A comprehensive review of educational choice literature and selected programs compose part 1 of this report. "Educational choice" is a catchall term encompassing a variety of strategies to grant parents the freedom to select schools, educational programs, or sets of courses based on the specific interests and needs of their children.…

This report examines the status of school desegregation efforts in Southern and Border States immediately before and after the May 1968 U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that school districts must abandon ineffective freedom-of-choice plans. Separate sections devoted to events in each state contain specific detail describing the political, legislative,…