The full video is available here, on C-SPAN.
What are the key obstacles that prevent more high schools of choice from opening?
Once opened, how are their challenges different from those faced by elementary and middle schools?
What are the pitfalls to the typical comprehensive high school that high schools of choice can better remedy?
Educational choice has value from pre-K through 12th grade, but especially in high school. As shown in the recent Fordham study, What Teens Want: A National Survey of High School Student Engagement, many U.S. students are ill-served by the typical comprehensive high school. Yet, we also know from studies of private- and charter school initiatives that outcomes are particularly robust in high schools of choice. Additionally, there is growing support for giving adolescents more pathways through school and into what follows, including myriad versions of college and career choices.
Despite all of that, both the charter- and private school choice movements focus primarily on elementary and middle schools. The Thomas B. Fordham Institute and the American Federation for Children explored of why that is, what keeps high schools of choice from proliferating, and how these obstacles can be overcome. Follow the discussion online on Twitter with @educationgadfly, @SchoolChoiceNow, and #EngagingChoices. The full video is available here, on C-SPAN.
Moderator:
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Amber M. Northern Senior Vice President for Research Thomas B. Fordham Institute |
Discussants:
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Tamar Jacoby
President |
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Kevin Teasley
President |
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Jon Valant
Fellow |
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Zach Verriden
Executive Director |