With the Obama administration highlighting school choice as a likely reform strategy, interest in how parents choose a school is more intense than ever. What are the primary motivations of families for switching schools? How good is their information? And what are the broader – and often unintended – consequences of these kitchen-table decisions about education?
Education experts will discuss these issues and more in a free, online chat, “School Choice & School Improvement: What have we learned?” hosted by the National Center on School Choice at Vanderbilt University and Education Week Nov.17 at 2 p.m. ET.
To participate, visit www.edweek.org/go/ncsc. Questions can be sent to Marisa Cannata at schoolchoiceconference@vanderbilt.edu until Nov. 16. The chat window will open at 8 a.m. on Nov. 17, at which time questions can also be submitted. No special equipment other than Internet access is needed to participate in this text-based chat.
Marisa Cannata, associate director of the National Center on School Choice, will moderate the chat. Panelists are David Figlio, Orrington Lunt Professor of Education, Social Policy and Economics at Northwestern University and National Bureau of Economic Research research associate; Helen F. Ladd, Edgar Thompson Professor of Public Policy Studies and professor of economics at Duke University; and Kristie J. R. Phillips, assistant professor of sociology at Brigham Young University.
The chat will revisit key issues raised at the National Center on School Choice Conference held Oct. 25 to 27 at Vanderbilt, which brought together 130 scholars, graduate students and practitioners from 22 states as well as Australia, Ecuador and The Netherlands. Practitioners included teachers, school administrators, state education officials, foundation officers and representatives of advocacy groups.
At the conference, school choice and school improvement issues were put under the microscope as researchers discussed school choice in its expanding array of forms, including charter schools, magnet schools and vouchers and inter- and intra-district choice programs. Read a summary of the conference here: http://ow.ly/Bm3J.
Conference papers, presentations, and video segments are available on the conference website: www.vanderbilt.edu/schoolchoice/conference. Featured videos are:
Effectiveness of vouchers and scholarships: http://www.vanderbilt.edu/schoolchoice/conference/video/panel1.html.
Keynote Speaker: Paul Vallas, Superintendent of the Recovery School District, New Orleans: http://www.vanderbilt.edu/schoolchoice/conference/video/dinner.html.
For more information about the National Center on School Choice, visit www.vanderbilt.edu/schoolchoice. For more information about Peabody College, visit http://peabody.vanderbilt.edu.
Media Contact: Melanie Moran, (615) 322-NEWS
melanie.moran@vanderbilt.edu