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The goal of this report is to formulate a true alternative to the current form of governance for public education. Based on studies of governance in other large decentralized service organizations and of local educational reform efforts, the report concludes that there is a real alternative. The alternative allows the schools to be operated by a variety of public and private organizations, based on school-specific contracts that would define each school's mission, guarantee public funding, and establish standards and procedures for accountability. The report argues that contracting creates positive performance incentives for school staffs; ensures that public funds are spent at the school level; and deflects pressure for the overregulation of schools. Following the summary, acknowledgments, and introductory chapter, chapter 2 makes the basic case that the present governance system in urban schools is failing. Chapter 3 provides an overview of the existing governance arrangements in urban public education, linking many of the failures of the schools to the governance structure. Chapter 4 sketches an alternative governance system based on contracts between local public authorities and schools or groups of schools. The disadvantages of two other widely discussed alternative forms of governance--one based on total privatization of ownership and one based on rigorously aligned performance standards, testing, and training--are analyzed in the fifth chapter. The final chapter offers suggestions as to how states and local communities can move toward contracting and how state and federal governments can promote governance reforms. The appendix contains a brief paper describing the views of a focus group on the provision of support functions in restructured Chicago public schools. (Contains 99 references.) (LMI)

America's education system faces a stark dilemma: it needs governmental oversight, rules and regulations, but it also needs to be adaptable enough to address student needs and the many different problems that can arise at any given school--something that large educational bureaucracies are notoriously bad at. Paul Hill and Ashley Jochim offer here a solution that is brilliant for its simplicity and distinctly American sensibility: our public education system needs a constitution. Adapting the tried and true framework of our forefathers to the specific governance of education, they show that the answer has been part of our political DNA all along. Most reformers focus on who should control education, but Hill and Jochim show that who governs is less important than determining what powers they have. They propose a Civic Education Council--a democratic body subject to checks and balances that would define the boundaries of its purview as well as each school's particular freedoms. They show how such a system would prevent regulations meant to satisfy special interests and shift the focus to the real task at hand: improving school performance. Laying out the implications of such a system for parents, students, teachers, unions, state and federal governments, and courts, they offer a vision of educational governance that stays true to--and draws on the strengths of--one of the greatest democratic tools we have ever created.

Deficient urban schooling remains one of America's most pressing--and stubborn--public policy problems. This important new book details and evaluates a radical and promising new approach to K-12 education reform. "Strife and Progress" explains for a broad audience the "portfolio strategy" for providing urban education--its rationale, implementation, and results. Under the portfolio strategy, cities use anything that works, indifferent to whether schools are run by the public district or private entities. It combines traditional modes of schooling with newer methods, including chartering and experimentation with schools making innovative use of people and technology. Urban districts try to make themselves magnets for new talent, recruiting educators and career switchers looking to make a difference for poor children. The portfolio strategy creates interesting new bedfellows: people who think that government should oversee public education align with those advocating choice, competition, and entrepreneurship. It cuts across political lines and engages city governments and civic assets (e.g., philanthropies, businesses, universities) much more deeply than earlier reform initiatives. New York and New Orleans were portfolio pioneers, but the idea has spread rapidly to cities as far-flung as Los Angeles, Denver, and Chicago. Results have been mixed overall but generally positive in places that implemented the strategy most aggressively. Reform leaders such as New York's Joel Klein have been overly optimistic, however, assuming that the strategy's merits would be so obvious that careful assessment would be unnecessary. Serious policy evaluation is still needed.

Bei der Rational-Choice-Theorie handelt es sich nicht nur um eine Handlungstheorie, sondern um ein soziologisches Paradigma, welches das individuelle Handeln als sozial verursacht betrachtet und in ihm zugleich das Explanans für kollektive Prozesse sieht. Der vorliegende Band gibt einen kompakten Überblick über diese zentrale soziologische Denktradition.Vorgestellt werden die wichtigsten Prämissen, Theorien und Anwendungen des Ansatzes. Thematische Schwerpunkte sind: Soziologie als erklärende Wissenschaft, Logik der soziologischen Erklärung, anthropologische Prämissen der Handlungstheorie, Situationsdefinition und Handlungswahl, sozialwissenschaftliche Anwendungsbeispiele.

Paul T. Hill examines the real-world factors that can complicate, delay, and in some instances interfere with the positive cause-and-effect relationships identified by the theories behind school choice. He explains why schools of choice haven't yet achieved a broader appeal and suggests more realistic expectations about timing and a more complete understanding of what must be done to make choice work.

The expert contributors to this volume tell how state laws and policies have stacked the deck against charter schools by limiting the number of charter schools allowed in a state, forbidding for-profit firms from holding charters, forcing them to pay rent out of operating funds, and other ways. They explain how these policies can be amended to level the playing field and give charter schools--and the children they serve--a fairer chance to succeed.

This collection of papers reviews the national debate over school choice, examining the benefits for parents, children, and schools and showing how properly designed choice programs can prevent the harmful outcomes choice opponents fear. The papers discuss why choice must be addressed in the context of the real-world performance of public schools, review the facts on segregation by race and social class in actual voucher programs, and examine the claim that schools and families are harmed when left behind by those who take advantage of new options. The seven chapters are: (1) "Introduction" (Paul T. Hill); (2) "Baselines for Assessment of Choice Programs" (Paul T. Hill and Kacey Guin); (3) "Who Chooses? Who Uses? Participation in a National School Voucher Program" (Paul E. Peterson, David E. Campbell, Martin R. West); (4) "A Supply-Side View of Student Selectivity" (John E. Chubb); (5) "Will Quality of Peers Doom Those Left in the Public Schools?" (Eric A. Hanushek); (6) "How School Choice Affects the Achievement of Public School Students" (Caroline M. Hoxby); and (7) "The Structure of School Choice" (Terry M. Moe). (SM)

This book examines charter school accountability in theory and in fact. It attempts to explain how new forms of accountability for public education actually work. Information comes from a study of 150 schools and 60 authorizing agencies in six states (Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, and Michigan). Extensive case studies of internal accountability relationships were conducted in 17 of the 150 schools. These data were supplemented with data from a nationally representative survey of charter schools. Chapter 1, "Charter Schools and Accountability," introduces the issue. Chapter 2, "Charter Laws and Politics," focuses on constraints and opportunities for accountability, four charter school theories, and inconsistent laws. Chapter 3, "Internal Accountability," discusses internal accountability, governing boards, accountability to families and teachers, and relationships with authorizers. Chapter 4, "Authorizing Agencies," looks at charter authorizing agencies starting from scratch. Chapter 5, "Accountability to Others," focuses on voluntary associations and involuntary relationships. Chapter 6, "Recommendations," discusses how key actors can improve school accountability. Chapter 7, "Learning from Charter School Accountability," explains why chartering needs standards, what chartering can add to standards-based reform, and redefining accountability in public education. (Contains 67 endnotes.) (SM)