What's at Stake in the K-12 Standards Wars: A Primer for Educational Policy Makers (Revised)

Nevo, David

Monitoring the standards of school achievement is a topic which has been subject to increasing attention of late. This book aims to add clarity and fuel to this ongoing debate by answering such questions as: Why should standards of education be monitored? Which are the major steps to be undertaken in setting and monitoring cognitive and affective achievement standards? Which indicators can be used and, how should they be measured?

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The book contains a number of essays that address the recent debate on school choice and vouchers. In addition to papers that provide opinions on the role of government in education, the book offers a number of papers that analyze many of the issues employing advanced econometric techniques. Efforts have been made to balance arguments made by authors by including opposing views. The book will contain three major parts. Part 1, Theory and Practice of Choice in Education, offers a discussion of the economic rationale for government interference in schooling and opposing views on private school choice and vouchers, whether educational production is not conducive for the creation of for-profit organizations, and a simulation study to discern, among others, the effect of choice on educational opportunity. Part II - Are Private Schools Superior to Public Schools contains several studies which compare achievement in public and private (especially parochial) schools, and what implications such results have for market approaches. Part III - Empirical Studies of School Choice and Vouchers contains research from several countries (US, Europe, Japan) concerning the success and failure of school choice programs.

MacPherson, Reynold J S

Scheerens, Jaap