Charter Schools
Subtitle
From Reform Imagery to Reform Reality
This book begins with the claims of policymakers and explores charter schools at each stage of the policymaking process, from legislation to implementation. Powers carefully and thoroughly examines how features of schools' policy contexts shape the ways that charter school reform unfolds at schools, providing a nuanced portrait of the schools participating in this much-discussed and little-understood reform movement. While policymakers are often prone to making sweeping claims about the efficacy of charter schools, in practice charter school reform is much more complex. By drawing on an extensive and compelling range of data, Powers assesses the validity of policymakers' claims.
Bio
Jeanne M. Powers is an associate professor in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College. Professor Powers' research focuses on school segregation, school choice, and school finance litigation. See more.
Praise for this book
Powers has convincingly demonstrated the necessity of examining any education reform from multiple points of view: the talk that spawns it, the local environment in which it is implemented, and the broader policy environment that shapes and limits it. Taking charter schools as the focus of her analysis, the message of 'Charter Schools: From Reform Imagery to Reform Reality' is both a warning and a promise: Whoever seeks to understand the complexities of education reform must be prepared to look across a wide and complex policy landscape.
Gene V. Glass, Regents' Professor Emeritus Arizona State University
"This is a very ambitious undertaking by Powers! It will be a serious and comprehensive contribution to the knowledge base on charter schools, which is sorely needed these days."
Gary Miron, professor of education Western Michigan University
