Candace WilliamsDoes school choice lessen the achievement gap?Tutorial Date: October 15, 2007

ProblemAn achievement gap persists between black, Hispanic, and white students. An analysis of the 2002 NationalAssessment of Education Progress (NAEP) found that black and Hispanic 12

graders perform worse than white8

graders on core skills (Thernstrom). Writing is the only subject where the percentage of students who achieve“below-basic” (the lowest level of achievement on the test) is less than 40% - blacks test at the lowest levels in 5out of 7 subjects tested, including 70% at the lowest level of math and 75% at the lowest level of science(Thernstrom). Thernstrom goes as far to say that “The employer hiring the typical black high school graduate (or the college that admits the average black student), is, in effect, choosing a youngster who has made it onlythrough the 8

grade. He or she will have a high school diploma, but not the skills that should come with it”.There is evidence that suggests that the achievement gap has been increasing since the late 1980s (Perie, Moran,& Lutkus, 2005).School ChoiceSchool choice is a major issue in debates about the achievement gap because of the

de facto

segregation of schools created by the recent growth of non-white student populations and the choice of some parents to placetheir children in segregated schools. Clotfelter found that in 2000, more than 70% of black students attendedmajority non-white schools.Proponents of school choice believe that putting less restriction on school markets will reduce segregation andachievement gaps because market competition will push underperforming schools to improve. Expanded optionswould also allowed for less-advantaged populations to choose less-segregated and higher-quality schools. Theycite evidence that disadvantaged students who take advantage of new schooling options are likely to attainhigher test scores and other benefits (Hoxby, 1994; Neal, 1997; Howell & Peterson, 2002).Most opponents of school choice believe that school segregation is a cause of the achievement gap. They saythat students will sort themselves into high-quality schools based on race, motivation, and socioeconomicadvantage, leaving less-advantaged students concentrated in lower-quality education environments. They citeevidence that the racial profile of a school influences parental choice (Levin, 1998; Witte, 2000; Lankford &Wckyoff, 2005; Bifulco & Ladd, 2006).There are many proposals to increase school choice. Most of these proposals include a combination of vouchersand charter schools. A charter school is an autonomous public school that is exempt from many regulations buthas to produce certain results promised in a charter (example: higher test scores). Nonprofit organizations,universities, or government entities usually establish charter schools. Right now, 39 states have charter school provisions. There are about 2,700 schools that serve 700,000 students nationwide. New Zealand is aninternational example of wide use of charter schools: all regional school boards have been abolished and each public school is independent. A voucher grants parents a sum of money to pay for the education of their child ata school different than the one they were assigned. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) makes children eligible for vouchers if the Title I school that they attend does not make adequate yearly progress for two consecutive years.Under NCLB, public charter schools are a school-choice option.Charter Schools: The Case of Wisconsin and North CarolinaStudies of charter schools have shown mixed results. The Wisconsin Charter Program is an important model for charter school systems because Wisconsin was one of the first states to create charter school legislation. The program was established in 1993 with 20 schools. Now, there are 188 schools that serve 30,000 students. A2007 by Witte, Weimer, Shober, and Schlomer found that charter school students outperformed traditionalschool students. A 2007 Great Lakes Center study used the same datasets but compared demographically similar