The Education Gap
Vouchers and Urban Schools
Publication Year: 2006
The voucher debate has been both intense and ideologically polarizing, in good part because so little is known about how voucher programs operate in practice. In The Education Gap, William Howell and Paul Peterson report new findings drawn from the most comprehensive study on vouchers conducted to date. Added to the paperback edition of this groundbreaking volume are the authors' insights into the latest school choice developments in American education, including new voucher initiatives, charter school expansion, and public-school choice under No Child Left Behind. The authors review the significance of state and federal court decisions as well as recent scholarly debates over choice impacts on student performance. In addition, the authors present new findings on which parents choose private schools and the consequences the decision has for their children's education. Updated and expanded, The Education Gap remains an indispensable source of original research on school vouchers. "This is the most important book ever written on the subject of vouchers." John E. Brandl, dean, Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota "The Education Gap will provide an important intellectual battleground for the debate over vouchers for years to come." Alan B. Krueger, Princeton University "Must reading for anyone interested in the battle over vouchers in America." John Witte, University of Wisconsin
Published by: Brookings Institution Press
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication Page
Table of Contents
Download PDF (52.2 KB)
pp. vii-
Preface
Download PDF (49.6 KB)
pp. xi-xv
In the fall of 1990, the nation’s first publicly funded urban school voucher program was launched in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Disturbed by rising dropout rates and a long history of student underachievement in Milwaukee’s public schools, an unusual alliance of conservative Republicans ...
Acknowledgments
Download PDF (46.9 KB)
pp. xvii-xix
During the past six years, we have profited from the advice and assistance of a large number of talented, hardworking individuals. To begin, we wish to thank the principals, teachers, and staff of the private schools in New York City, Dayton, and Washington, D.C., ...
Chapter 1: School Choice and American Democracy
Download PDF (129.8 KB)
pp. 1-27
Liberty, Equality, Education—the very woof of America’s social fabric. All three had been spun into sturdy strands by the time the Constitution was ratified, laid down after the Civil War, and tightened by twentiethcentury political discourse and social practice. ...
Chapter 2: Evaluation Voucher Programs
Download PDF (130.4 KB)
pp. 28-55
In 1990, the only data available on school choice came from an experimental public program conducted during the early 1970s in Alum Rock, California; and even this program did not give families a voucher to attend private schools. But in the next few years, new publicly and privately funded voucher programs ...
Chapter 3: Seeking and Using a Voucher
Download PDF (145.6 KB)
pp. 56-89
Skimming—the practice of recruiting and selecting talented, committed people for whatever the task at hand—is part and parcel of modern life. And for good reason. Restaurants that have lively, intelligent servers tend to thrive. High-tech firms that employ hard-working personnel with a sophisticated knowledge ...
Chapter 4: Attending Urban Schools
Download PDF (111.5 KB)
pp. 90-113
At Welton Academy—the all-boys preparatory school portrayed in the 1985 movie Dead Poets Society—bagpipes play while students with names like Knox, Cameron, Neal, and Todd shuffle into the auditorium at the beginning of each semester to recite the 150-year-old institution’s motto: “Tradition, honor, discipline, excellence.” ...
Chapter 5: Social Consequences
Download PDF (118.8 KB)
pp. 114-139
Big rocks make big splashes. The exact size of the splash depends also on the speed at which the rock is traveling and the depth of the pond. But one thing is for certain: the impact is greatest at the point where the rock strikes the water—the undulating waves gradually fade away. And so it is with most social interventions. ...
Chapter 6: The Urban Test Score Gap
Download PDF (133.1 KB)
pp. 140-167
Switching to a private school changed the educational experiences of inner-city low-income students in important ways. Compared with their peers in public schools, voucher students were taught in smaller classes located in much smaller schools. They received more homework assignments, faced fewer disruptions, ...
Chapter 7: Satisfaction with Urban Schools
Download PDF (92.1 KB)
pp. 168-184
Most Americans appear to have serious reservations about the current state of public education. Eighty percent of all adults interviewed in a 2000 national Gallup poll gave public schools a grade of C or lower. Their assessments change, however, when they are asked about the schools in their community ...
Chapter 8: Vouchers and Urban Schools
Download PDF (115.6 KB)
pp. 185-208
Our evaluations of the national Children’s Scholarship Fund voucher program and the programs in New York City, Dayton, Washington, D.C., and San Antonio have revealed a generally consistent set of findings—many positive, many neutral, a few negative. Private schools were smaller than public ones. ...
Appendix A: Response Rates
Download PDF (58.2 KB)
pp. 209-216
Appendix B: Construction of Survey Indexes
Download PDF (40.6 KB)
pp. 217-219
Appendix C: Test Scores of Applicants to Voucher Programs
Download PDF (38.1 KB)
pp. 220-221
Appendix D: The Noisy Data Problem
Download PDF (41.0 KB)
pp. 222-224
Notes
Download PDF (198.6 KB)
pp. 225-266
Index
Download PDF (60.9 KB)
pp. 267-275
E-ISBN-13: 9780815736868
E-ISBN-10: 081573686X
Page Count: 323
Publication Year: 2006
Edition: revised edition
