Question
H) Can you help me think of one dicussion question here in this text? This Consider the revealing case of Worcester, Massachusetts. President Bush signed
H) Can you help me think of one dicussion question here in this text? This
"Consider the revealing case of Worcester, Massachusetts. President Bush signed the federal No Child Left Behind law in 2001, with the goal of increasing public school accountability by mandating certain testing standards. (We put to one side the many controversial questions raised by that law.) By June 2003 twelve of Worcester's fifty public schools had been labeled "in need of improvement" for two consecutive years, and five for three consecutive years. That summer, forty-seven hundred students, almost one-fifth the district's student population, were eligible to transfer, and eighteen hundred students had the right to collect federal money for supplemental education services. But six months later, only one student had switched schools, and only two had taken advantage of supplemental services! Worcester officials themselves were primarily responsible. True, the school system notified parents at underperforming schools about their rights under No Child Left Behind. But it also engaged in what the political scientist William Howell calls "friendly discouragement," making parents reluctant to exercise their right to choose.3 The school system qualified its language about the meaning of underperforming, stressed the limitations of the No Child Left Behind evaluation criteria, and highlighted unattractive parts of No Child Left Behind, noting that space limitations might not permit transfers to be processed. The school system also explained that it was trying to improve. For the undeterred, exercising choice was a tedious, multistage process. First, parents had to meet with their school's principal. Few did. Next, they had to attend another meeting at a school information center. The center's director said that two parents expressed interest in such a meeting. At these meetings, district officials again stressed that transfers were not always possible and that there were no guarantees about transportation or school location. And all of that was before parents had to file the transfer paperwork. Even worse, because the school district controlled access to information, tutoring service and test prep companies could not reach students without the district's blessing. The companies essentially depended on positive comments from the school district. As with a 401(k) plan, the average parents know little about their child's school, let alone all the other schools that are available. They might well stick with the status quo or ultimately make poor decisions. The trick is to promote actual freedomnot just by giving people lots of choices (though that can help) but also by putting people in a good position to choose what would be best for their children. Consider a few details. When parents pick sc
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