Urban Research Initiative: Shopping for Schools

这项研究调查，在城市研究计划的支持下，处理美国学校系统的一个中心问题：学校选择。 学校选择已成为改善教育和向低收入父母提供选择的一个核心工具。 但批评人士认为，由于有关学校的信息很难获得，也很难解释，如果让低收入父母选择，即使他们选择，也不会选择得很好。 从明矾石示范学校选择项目开始的许多研究发现，父母通常对他们可以选择的学校知之甚少，这对少数民族和社会经济地位较低的父母尤其如此。 的确，有一个团体认为，家长信息水平低是选择计划的“阿喀琉斯之踵”，学校选择计划试图通过引入类似市场的改革来改善学校，在这种历史安排中，集中的学校官僚机构决定了孩子们上哪所学校，而在这种制度中，家长的参与最少。 许多分析人士认为，在这种类似垄断的情况下，学校没有理由表现出色。 根据其支持者的说法，选择将创造一个更具竞争性的教育市场，释放学校表现更好的压力，但市场需要信息才能良好运作。 选择的批评者抓住这一众所周知的事实，认为教育是一种复杂的商品，很难以人们理解的方式描述，教育程度较低的父母（他们可能从选择中受益最多）最不能够获取和分析信息。 反过来，由于“家长/消费者”手中缺乏良好的信息，选择改革的成功是不太可能的。研究小组与两个利益相关者团体在华盛顿特区的公立学校和特许学校的工作经验丰富，调查学校选择体现在创建特许学校在华盛顿，影响家长的行为。 此外，研究人员还利用现代技术为市中心的父母提供了一种低成本的教育选择信息。 研究人员评估了这些较低的信息成本对家长选择行为的影响，并建立了一个知识库，如何有效地传播学校信息。这项研究直接解决了选择批评者提出的主要反对意见之一，他们认为，由于信息成本，即使选择有效，它也会帮助那些富裕的人，而不是穷人。

This research investigation, supported under the Urban Research Initiative, deals with a central issue of American school systems: school choice. School choice has become a central tool in attempts to improve education and provide options to low-income parents. But critics argue that because information about schools is difficult to obtain and hard to interpret, low-income parents, if given choice, will not choose well if they choose at all. Many studies, beginning with those on the Alum Rock demonstration school choice program, have found that parents usually know very little about the alternatives available to them - - and this is especially true for minorities and lower SES parents. Indeed, one group has argued that the low level of parent information is the "Achilles Heel" of choice plans.School choice seeks to improve schools by introducing market-like reforms into an historical arrangement in which centralized school bureaucracies determined which schools children attended and in a system where parental input was minimal. Many analysts have argued that in this monopoly-like situation, schools have no reason to perform well. Choice, according to its proponents, will create a more competitive market for education, unleashing pressure on the schools to perform better.But markets require information to function well. Seizing on this well-known fact, critics of choice argue that education is a complex good, difficult to describe in a way that people understand, and that less-educated parents (who can probably benefit most from choice) are the least able to access and analyze information. In turn, given the lack of good information in the hands of "parent/consumers," the success of choice reforms is unlikely.Working with two stakeholder groups with considerable experience working with both public and charter schools in Washington, DC, the research team investigates how school choice embodied in the creation of charter schools in Washington, DC, affects parent behavior. In addition, the researchers use modern technology to provide a low-cost way of providing information on education choices to a population of inner-city parents. The researchers assess the effects of these lower information costs on parent choice behavior, and develop a knowledge base on how to disseminate school information effectively and efficiently.This study addresses directly one of the main objections raised by critics of choice who argue that, because of the costs of information, even if choice works it will help those who are better off rather than the poor.