The typical method of presenting supply and demand in high school classes often leaves students with an impression that markets are simple and function effortlessly. In reality, the effectiveness of markets depends on the quality of complex institutions such as private property and property-rights enforcement. Students often do not realize that…

The supplemental educational services (SES) provision of No Child Left Behind introduces a federally mandated after-school tutoring intervention in schools that fail to make adequate yearly progress. This article examines market dynamics in relationship to the law's goals of expanding access to and improving the quality of after-school…

As part of its agenda to promote choice, diversity and parent power in education, New Labour is aiming to develop a system of independent non-fee paying state schools. It is envisaged that control of the governing arrangements in such schools will shift from the local authority and be delegated to a range of external partners and sponsors drawn…

Analyses of private higher education should consider the increasingly important for-profit sector in many countries. Yet information on the for-profit sector has been quite limited. Even in the United States, where for-profit higher education is well-established, only recently have researchers turned their attention to studying its scope and…

The proliferation of high-quality independent charter schools is constrained by the shortage of founders committed to evidence-based school designs and possessing the broad-ranging skills to make good on their audacious plans. The time and energies of such exceptional leaders are deployed over years in building schools that rarely reach more than…

This article explores how the law currently influences accountability in three different privatization contexts: (1) private schools operated independently of the state; (2) public schools operated by private organizations under charter or subcontract with government entities; and (3) private schools participating in publicly-funded voucher…

This paper provides a detailed examination of "contracting," a type of privatization, and is intended to clarify the issues surrounding decisions to privatize public services. Privatization introduces competition among market participants as a means of generating revenue, spurring development of an industry, and/or improving the quality of…

This newsletter focuses on matters related to the privatization of education in different contexts around the world. Over the past few years, the International Institute for Educational Planning has carried out a number of studies in a wide range of contexts to identify what the real-life experiments in school organization are, why they have…

Concerned about the deadening effects of standardization imposed by monopolistic education bureaucracies, policymakers in many different countries endorse economic-style mechanisms of consumer choice and competition between autonomous providers as the key elements of "market-driven" education. The reasoning behind this approach is that market…

Increasingly, education systems are being privatized through various changes to organizational structures, to school management, and to funding mechanisms. Yet education remains publicly funded and therefore accountable to taxpayer preferences through voting mandates. This paper investigates the determinants of political support for the…

Provides a feminist critique of the literature on parental involvement and school choice. Two research studies demonstrate mothers' critical importance in their children's education at home and at school. Mothers normally invest more time and energy than fathers in child-rearing and school associations. Working-class boys' underachievement may…

The entrepreneur behind the Edison Project and Channel One shares his observations about the unfairness of public school critics, the "tyranny" of operational demands, and the promise of national school companies for underemployed teachers and research and development ventures. Praising public schools for being receptive to new concepts,…

Notes how the British Army's Officer Corps, based on elitism and financial standing, brought the British Empire to its knees. Argues that privatization--a for-profit market system to ration out education--would have a similar effect. Suggests that charter schools (with considerable autonomy but still held accountable by the chain of command) are…

Describes the Broward County (Florida) Research and Evaluation Department's assessment of a Sylvan Learning Systems remedial reading program employed in two district schools during 1993-94. Sylvan staff adequately equipped both sites, appropriately used diagnostic tests for placing students, implemented motivation and direct-instruction…

Public school districts signing on with private companies to provide services need to set up contracts with performance standards. Provides seven general advice tips about what to include in contracts and case studies of what three school districts have done in setting up contracts with private companies. (MLF)