The Role of Empirical Research in Informing Debates About the Constitutionality of School Choice

ABSTRACT

Federal constitutional law currently permits choice programs that include religious schools only if they provide parents with “genuine and independent choice”; as the leading federal case demonstrates, whether this test is satisfied is an interesting and difficult empirical question. State doctrine regarding establishment of religion can be similarly empirically informed. School choice programs must also be consistent with the education clauses of state constitutions, which require state education systems to be “public” and to meet quality baselines. Determining whether these requirements are met also raises many questions that empirical school choice research can address. doi:10.1300/J467v01n03_12     

教育券能否改进学校效率的分析

教育券提升学校效率的前提是学校间能形成竞争,而学校间竞争形成则需要具备相应的条件。在教育实践中,学校竞争所需的一系列条件如学校的可选择性、教育发展的均衡性、服务的异质性、信息的可获性、完善的退出机制等要素并不完全具备。且上述要件作为一种必要条件,得到满足也并不意味着教育效率的必然提高。教育券诱发的过度竞争、精英化和成本失控反而会导致教育效率的降低。     

我国幼儿教育券改革实践及问题

近年我国很多地方实施了幼儿教育券。学前教育券虽然发挥了重视学前教育的积极政策导向、增加学前教育供给、减轻家长负担以及规范民办学前教育等作用,但在利用市场机制、扩大优质学前教育资源、提升学前教育质量以及实现学前教育市场优胜劣汰和幼教生态良性发展等方面的效果并不突出。     

教育券:均衡与发展的抉择

文章通过对国内外教育券制度的诠释,认为理解教育券的衡来促进发展,还是以发展来促进均衡.在均衡与发展的抉择中,多样性是教育券的必然选择.只有认清了这一点.才真正有利于教育券的实施,并达到人们希望借助教育券的实施以发展教育的目的.     

教育券:高等教育拨款机制的创新

教育券制度是一种教育投资体制的创新,对我国教育发展有相当大的借鉴意义.本文试图对一些国家高等教育的教育券制度进行系统分析与研究,提出以教育券制度作为一种有效的方式解决当前我国高等教育的一些问题,以期为我国高等教育经费制度的改革提供借鉴.     

The Effect of Private School Vouchers on Political Participation: Experimental Evidence From New York City

In 1997, the New York School Choice Scholarships Foundation Program (SCSF) randomly offered three-year scholarships to attend private schools to approximately 1,000 low-income families in New York City. In this paper we leverage exogenous variation generated by the SCSF to estimate the causal effect of the private school voucher offer—and the private school attendance it induced—on later-life voter registration and turnout outcomes. Our results demonstrate that the voucher intervention had no effect on registering to vote or voting in any of several elections for either the full sample or any of several demographic subgroups. Although unique aspects of the SCSF context impose limits on the scope of our results, they have clear implications for assessing the relative effectiveness of public and private schools in preparing democratic citizens. We close the paper by discussing the implications of the results for research and policy.     

美国私立教育券探析

私立教育券是美国教育券的主要类型之一,由私人和社会团体捐资,帮助低收入家庭子女接受私立教育,具有很强的慈善性及一定的政治、文化价值取向。不同的私立教育券计划在资助额度、服务学生数量、目的及导向上存在差异。私立教育券的推行对改善学生学业成绩取得了一定成效,但实践中仍面临如何维持计划的长远推行和留住学生等问题。     

教育券：教育领域的双赢政策——美国教育券实例分析

义务教育阶段公立学校的教育质量一直是包括美国在内的许多国家的问题，美国实施教育券改革带来的外部竞争促使公立学校进行改革，同时也发展了私立学校，是教育领域的双赢政策。     

AIS记帐凭证格式及输入设计

本文针对目前通用帐务处理软件中记帐凭证录入界面存在的不足,指出:会计科目代码应与部门、人员、往来客户、工程项目代码分离设计,保证帐务数据为MIS等共享。同时,对记帐凭证格式、摘要代码的编制及输入、科目代码的输入及维护也给出了设计方案,使用户操作简单、快捷、准砧     

School Choice: The Personal and the Political

Enrollment in school choice programs is growing, so is overall support for school choice. Many have analyzed what demographic characteristics impact attitudes towards school choice. This article adds to the literature by exploring the interaction between personal decisions regarding school choice and broader support for school choice programs. Focus groups were conducted in St. Louis and Kansas City with 35 parents of school-age children. Participant responses indicate that school choice programs illicit mixed emotions from parents. Most participants personally support school choice and exercise choice themselves by sending their children to magnet, charter, or private schools. At the same time, they have reservations about broader school choice programs. As Schelling (1978) suggests, these individuals act in their own self-interest despite the impact it might have on the aggregate. More to the point, they are willing to express choice themselves, but deny it to others.     

The Legality of School Vouchers

ABSTRACT

In 2002 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that state-supported vouchers, which parents can redeem in private schools, do not offend the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Thus, the legality of government vouchers to fund education will be determined primarily on the basis of state law. Specifically, programs are being challenged under state constitutional provisions calling for the legislature to provide for a uniform system of education or provisions prohibiting the use of public funds in sectarian institutions. This article explores legal developments in this regard, with particular emphasis on implications of the recent state supreme court decisions striking down challenged voucher programs. Also addressed is current legislative activity, which will likely generate additional litigation pertaining to school vouchers. doi:10.1300/ J467v01n03_05     

美国另类教育理念学校的实践及对我国教育改革的启示

美国另类教育理念的学校实践具有很特殊的一面,同时这些学校的创办理论基础、运行模式、社会影响等方面也有非常成功的一面,这对于我国的教育改革具有非常有价值的启示:尊重新生事物的出现,理论要先于实践,注重教学方法的创新及学校的外部环境。     

清代王敏买地砖券考述简

买地券是古代人们通过模拟现实生活中的土地契约文书,让生人或死者同各类神祗进行象征性“交易”,使死者得到安居之所的一种契约。在墓中随葬“买地券”的习俗在我国流传广泛,是很有价值的宗教、民俗等方面的精神文化史料。金塔县出土的清代道光十五年《王敏买地砖券》对于研究当时的丧葬风俗、民间信仰和土地买卖契约等都有一定的史料和学术价值。     

Educational Vouchers: A Primer

Advancements in technology have changed the day to day operation of society. The ways in which we teach and learn have begun the same process. For this reason, we must reexamine instruction. In this article, the author analyzes the changing environment of educational technology and how to incorporate the theory of multiple intelligences. The teaching strategies presented outline how to enhance student performance by blending new technologies with time-tested pedagogy. The author explains and matches up each intelligence with an effective technology tool. He also provides examples from scholarly publications and actual classroom practice.     

Does Competition Affect Schools' Performance? Evidence from Italy through OECD-PISA Data

This article evaluates the impact of competition on the performance of Italian schools. The study is based on policy experiments developed in 2000 by the Lombardy Regional government which introduced a voucher plan to encourage families to enrol their children in private schools. After this intervention, many other Regions launched similar policies. Despite the high political attention to this theme in Italy, there is almost no economic research on the possible role of such policies in fostering competition, and on the effects of competition on schools’ outputs. As there are not data collected by the Italian authorities for the purpose, the article uses the OECD-PISA 2006 dataset with some additional administrative information. The empirical analysis shows that while some indicators of school competition have been found significant in – positively – affecting schools’ performances (in terms of student achievement), there is not strong evidence that voucher policies implemented in the Lombardy Region did improve school competition.     

教育券的教育公平探讨

近年,作为打破教育垄断、引入市场竞争及提高教育公平的教育改革新实践的教育券制度被“舶”来我国,在浙江长兴等地进行了尝试。这引起了学界、当局的广泛关注。文章从教育券对教育公平的意义进行剖析,认为教育券制度的实施有助于现实中教育起点公平、制度公平、道德公平;同时,强调当前需要加强针对我国国情的教育券理论研究,以更好的完善我们的教育券实践。     

Sue,Where Are You? English Teachers and Special Needs in the Secondary School

The relationship between English departments and special needs coordinators in secondary schools has not always been easy. Different views of language learning have too often remained undiscussed, with the result that literacy programmes become unclear and fragmented in the eyes of students. English departments and special needs coordinators both need to build a climate where eclecticism of approach is seen as essential and where evidence of what works where and when is gathered systematically.     

论学校中的惩罚

惩罚作为维护社会规制权威、实现良好社会秩序的重要手段,被广泛地运用于社会各个领域。作为专门的育人机构,学校中的惩罚与一般意义上的惩罚相比,其特殊性主要表现为:学校惩罚是道德教育的必要手段,学校惩罚的本质是确证过错,学校惩罚的目的是维护规则的权威性,学校惩罚的功能是教育,学校惩罚的价值取向是个人价值、学校价值、社会价值的有机整合。     

School Choice Discourse and the Legacy of Brown

ABSTRACT

Fifty years after the Browndecision, and in the context of persistent racial and economic segregation and inequality in schooling, it is still important to examine Brown's legacy. In this focus on school choice, the rhetoric and the ways in which the legacy of Brownhas been emphatically invoked in charter school and voucher debates is studied. Four ways in which Brownis currently raised in school choice debates are identified. Through an examination of these four narratives, the ways in which the school choice debate provides a current, active space for the rethinking of the civil rights movement and its symbols, goals, and legacies are examined.     

The Regular Educator's Role in the Individual Education Plan Process

The migration of online educational needs to tools like Google applications, coupled with the realization that today's twenty-first-century students are digital natives who have lived their entire lives exposed to current technology, forces educators to find ways to use technology to enhance traditional curriculum. In this article, the author examines how one program, Advanced Placement Language and Composition, incorporates Web 2.0 tools including several Google Applications (Gmail, Docs, notebook, personalized homepage, Web pages, calendar, blogger, and talk) into its high school curriculum. Furthermore, the author addresses the gap between students and teachers that occurs cross-generationally in a discussion of successful technology best practices in teaching and learning as seen by a baby boomer teacher, a Gen X teacher, and the N-Gen students taught daily.