"This book provides a framework for understanding the ways in which education policy across organizational settings contributes to the school to prison pipeline, as documented in the literature and as observed by authors in empirical studies of justice involved youth in regular public schools, juvenile court schools, probation settings, and alternative schools. The book is intended for educators, students, policymakers and practitioners interested in a comprehensive introduction to the policy issues as well as advocates doing serious work on the issues"--
Trends and origins -- Inside the market -- Privatization and its intermediaries -- Shadow privatization : local experiences with supplemental education services -- Invisible influences : for-profit firms and virtual charter schools -- In the interstices : benchmark assessments, district contracts, and NCLB -- Out from the shadows : contracts for remote digital instruction -- Working for transparency.
This policy brief analyzes evidence relating to the implementation and effects of the supplemental education services (SES) provision of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The SES provision requires school districts to pay the cost of third-party, after-school tutoring services for eligible students. Four areas of analysis in this brief are: Student eligibility and participation in SES; Services provided by SES firms; State and district implementation; and Impact on student achievement. The data and analyses presented here highlight limitations in the current law and implementation of SES: low participation rates; limited services available for English Language Learners and special education students; and, state and district capacity to implement the law and monitor program quality. Even with improvement in such areas, however, it is unclear how SES might affect academic achievement, because existing research leaves many questions unanswered. Similarly, existing research offers little information about specific conditions that support positive outcomes. To make well-informed decisions in the future, policymakers will require additional empirical evidence. Therefore, it is recommended that policymakers do each of the following: Redesign the law to address the core problem of local administrators lacking fiscal resources and expertise to successfully administer SES programs. Commission federally funded, comprehensive evaluations to determine: (a) to what degree SES may affect student achievement, and (b) to what extent at-risk student populations have access to SES services. Investigate the feasibility and desirability of reallocating Title I funds from SES programs to existing successful state and local reform efforts. Examine and reconsider NCLB's apparent tension between the high-stakes accountability imposed on schools and the more limited measures for holding SES providers accountable for their contributions to student achievement.
The current wave of educational reform is complex and situated in market-based initiatives coupled with a renewed emphasis on local autonomy, deliberation, and community—middle-of-the-road reforms. In practice, schools are challenged to develop organizational forms that can support collaboration and community engagement, alongside the bureaucratic and accountability-driven reforms that demand more oversight, transparency, and demonstrable results. Our intent in this paper is to begin to map the emerging contradictions and opportunities that the complex reform climate presents for practitioners through a case study of a personalized learning charter school. In so doing, we illustrate how a community of teachers within a charter school navigated their work in the current policy climate. We found that explanatory frames that focused either on the market-oriented policy design or the democratically oriented structural mechanisms inside of schools were limited in their ability to help us account for what we were observing—that is, how teachers and staff used strategies of community and collaboration to reorganize how the accountability press from above unfolded in their school and in their day-to-day practices. We ultimately found that literature on collaborative community provided a compelling framework through which to interpret these findings.
