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This volume of essays examines the empirical evidence on school choice in different countries across Europe, North America, sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. It demonstrates the advantages which choice offers in different institutional contexts, whether it be Free Schools in the UK, voucher systems in Sweden or private-proprietor schools for low-income families in Liberia. Everywhere experience suggests that parents are ‘active choosers': they make rational and considered decisions, drawing on available evidence and responding to incentives which vary from context to context. Government educators frequently downplay the importance of choice and try to constrain the options parents have. But they face increasing resistance: the evidence is that informed parents drive improvements in school quality. Where state education in some developing countries is particularly bad, private bottom-up provision is preferred even though it costs parents money which they can ill-afford. This book is both a collection of inspiring case studies and a call to action.

Aydin Gürlevik setzt sich mit der Frage auseinander, warum bestimmte Eltern Privatschulen präferieren und dem staatlichen Schulangebot den Rücken zukehren. Die Originalität seiner Untersuchung liegt zum einen in der dokumentarischen Rekonstruktion von elterlichen Orientierungen und Erfahrungen beim Übergang in eine Privatschule; zum anderen besteht sie in der zusammenführenden Theorieintegration von vier konkurrierenden Forschungsperspektiven, die sich auf die Reproduktion von Bildungsungleichheit beziehen: Insbesondere mit der zentralen Erkenntnis, dass Eltern immer sowohl an institutionelle Strukturierungen als auch an biografische Einflüsse und rationale Vorgehensweisen gebunden sind, erhält die schulbezogene Ungleichheitsforschung mit dieser vorliegenden Studie neue Impulse und theoretische Innovation.

This book enriches empirical and theoretical understandings of how school choice and school segregation are generated by the construction and negotiation of ethnic divisions by placing emphasis on feelings of belonging and we-ness as important structuring forces that guide and restrict students'school choices.

The parents of second language children are often seen but not heard in schools. This book is unique in addressing the many issues facing parents of children whose first language is different from that of the school classroom. Drawing on teaching theory, the book provides these parents with a wealth of practical information, guidelines and checklists, enabling them to ask schools intelligent and challenging questions to test whether their children's linguistic diversity is really being properly catered for. The theory review and best practice guidelines should be of value also to teacher trainers, teachers, administrators and policy makers. They provide an accurate analysis of important issues together with pragmatic pointers towards improving educational practice so that all children growing up in a school's multicultural society will be guaranteed what they deserve: Equal Rights to the Curriculum.

This review of research in school choice adapts Sen's theory of Capability developing a more complex theoretical framework for understanding education markets. This gives those most affected by the perceived failure of public education a better explication of the tension between the rhetoric of public good and the reality of everyday disadvantage.

How can the education of our nation's children be improved? Vouchers and charter schools aim to improve education by providing families with more choice in the schooling of their children and by decentralizing the provision of educational services. While supporters argue that school choice is essential to rescue children from failing schools, opponents claim that it may destroy America's public education system. The authors undertake an exhaustive and critical view of the evidence on vouchers and charter schools. The book is a useful, unbiased primer for all those interested in this controversial topic.