Government Institutions, Community and Citizen Participation: Can School Choice Build A Foundation for Cooperative Behavior?

这项建议将学校作为家长和学生发展合作行为所必需的规范和期望的场所。这项研究特别关注通过引入择校方式重组学校，特别是特许学校对这种态度的影响程度。研究人员认为，通过分析一项重要的政府服务的组织方式的变化，然后将这种制度变化与家长对彼此和对教师的态度联系起来，这项研究可以解决两个基本问题：*政府机构能否为人际信任、合作和参与政策过程奠定基础？*如果答案是肯定的，这种影响是仅限于学校，还是更普遍的影响，蔓延到其他更广泛的领域的态度和行为？这项研究将扩展现有的两波小组研究。通过增加两波对华盛顿特区特许学校或传统公立学校孩子家长的采访。随着另外两波的增加，研究人员将拥有一个数据集，可以用来评估特许学校对家长和学生的附加值。更具体地说，这项研究将能够解决一系列基本问题：*学校内部利益相关者之间的一些关系需要时间来形成吗？*学校内部观察到的模式转化为其他政策领域或一般政治需要时间吗？*一些观察到的模式是短暂的，是进入一所新学校的非霍桑效应吗？此外，研究还将研究选择如何改变学生的角色，使他们在教育项目设计和学校运作中变得更加核心。研究人员认为，通过建立更强大的学校社区，可以改变学生之间、学生与家长之间、学生与教师与行政人员之间的关系。这项研究将在特许学校和华盛顿公立学校推出一个新的7-12年级学生小组，比较他们与学校、教师和其他教育参与者的关系。这项研究将研究特许学校的经历是否会影响他们在学校和更大社区的行为。这项研究是关于学校改革的辩论的核心，这是大多数州和联邦政府政策议程上的重要项目。此外，这项工作是关于政府机构之间的关系、创建强大的社区和更好的公民以及政府在培育社会资本方面的作用的更大辩论的组成部分。

This proposal focuses on schools as arenas in which parents and students can develop the norms and expectations essential for cooperative behavior. The research pays particular attention to the extent to which reorganizing schools through the introduction of school choice, specifically charter schools, affects such attitudes. The researchers argue that by analyzing how a change in the way an important government service, in this case schooling, is organized and then linking this institutional change to the attitudes parents hold toward each other and toward teachers the research can address two fundamental questions:* Can government institutions build the foundation for interpersonal trust, cooperation and participation in the policy process?* And, if the answer is yes, is this effect domain specific, limited to the schools, or are the effects more general, spilling over into attitudes and behavior in other, broader, domains?The research will expand an existing two wave panel study, by adding two more waves of interviews of parents with children in either charter schools or traditional public schools in Washington DC. With the addition of two more waves, the researchers will have a data set that can be used to assess the value added of charter schools to parents and students. More specifically, the research will be able to address a set of fundamental questions: *Do some relationships among stakeholders within the schools take time to emerge?* Does it take time for patterns observed within the schools to translate into other policy domains or politics in general?* Are some of the patterns observed transient a irHawthorne-like effect of joining a new school?In addition, the research will also study how choice changes the role of students, making them more central in the design of education programs and in the functioning of the schools. The researchers argue that by building stronger school communities can change the relationship among students themselves, between students and parents, and between students and teachers and administrators. The research will launch a new panel of students in grades 7-12 in charter schools and in DC public schools, comparing how they relate to their schools, their teachers, and other participants in their education. And the research will see if the charter school experience affects their behavior in school and in their larger community.The research is central to the debate over school reform, an item that is high on the policy agenda of most states and the federal government. In addition, the work is integral to the larger debate about the relationship between government institutions, the creation of strong communitiesand better citizens, and the role of government in nurturing social capital.