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Dr. Caroline Hoxby and
the Last Decade for Education Reform
Education/Nancy Salvato |
September 16, 2005
- I’ve always enjoyed professors who could make their
topic interesting and user friendly. They take a subject and discuss it in
plain language that everyone can understand and they draw analogies so that
students can better make sense of new information. In a good lecture,
professors neatly summarize their ideas into a couple of talking points so
that all the information that follows is organized logically. The best
professors present their ideas in such a way that the listener has an
epiphany and thinks, "Oh, now I see.”
Last evening at Chicago’s Heartland Institute, Dr. Caroline Hoxby proved
herself a stellar professor as a key note speaker during the 21st
anniversary dinner. She provided me with an epiphany. There are two reform
movements which are taking place today in education. One is school
accountability and the other is school choice. Experts are concerned with
measuring results and parents are more holistic, concerned with the total
learning environment. In good charter schools both of these concerns
intersect producing the best results. It wasn’t until yesterday that I
understood the unique role charter schools play because they must
accommodate both movements.
In Dr. Hoxby’s study, The Impact of Charter Schools on Student Achievement,
she investigated the impact on students lotteried-in or lotteried-out of the
Chicago International Charter School. After only two years in the charter
schools, students were 5-6 percentage points ahead (1/2 grade equivalent) of
those who didn’t get lotteried-in. There have been similar results with
voucher studies.
The evidence indicates that when regular public schools are forced to
compete for students they produce better results. In 1998 in Milwaukee,
vouchers expanded so that in some areas up to 95% of students could receive
a voucher and choose another school (public or private). Knowing their
students could leave, schools improved. Within three years, student scores
improved 10-13 percentage points in math and science.
Vouchers and charters are a catalyst to improve curriculum, get back to
basics, counsel poor performing teachers out of the system, reward teachers
through contracts, and get rid of bad programs. In choice schools teacher
contracts are more flexible and pay is based on student performance. It is
hard to believe that charter schools enroll less than half the amount of
home schooled children.
Charters and private schools are big innovators because they face pressure
to perform and prove to parents that they are worth their tuition dollars.
Charter schools are getting better over time. If they fail to perform, there
is usually intervention. Bad charters close and that is important. They have
led the pack in using technology to interact with parents. New Zealand,
Australia, and the UK are especially interested in what charter schools are
doing in this country.
Accountability generates information and makes the education market more
professional and competitive. We can now estimate a teacher’s effect on
student performance. New education management organizations with replicable
school models allow parents the freedom to choose which model is best for
their child.
Dr. Hoxby writes in, How School Choice Affects the Achievement of Public
School Students, "There is obsessive interest in the question of "who wins”
and "who loses” when choice is introduced. This obsession may turn out to be
a mistaken application of energy. Choice need not make some students into
losers and others into winners. It is at least possible that all students
will be better off.”
Last evening Dr. Hoxby left her audience with the disturbing thought that
this is the last decade to improve our education system and help our
students to be able to compete with other students around the world for the
best jobs. She presented evidence that suggests choice is the hybrid vehicle
that will afford our students their last opportunity to compete on the world
stage. And when the foremost expert on school choice makes a statement like
that, the education community should all be sharing in this epiphany.
Related Reading:
The Impact of Charter Schools on Student Achievement
http://post.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/hoxby/papers/hoxbyrockoff.pdf
How School Choice Affects the Achievement of Public School Students
http://post.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/hoxby/papers/choice_sep01.pdf
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