Journal of Education & Social Policy

The Effectiveness of School Choice: A Value Analytical Approach
Kelli R. Rogers

Abstract
Closing the academic achievement gap between low-income and minority students and their more affluent white peers has been a long-standing concern of parents, educators, and policymakers and was set as a national priority by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001.While the achievement gap is generally considered as a matter of race and class, its spatial aspects—the inequalities of academic achievement across schools and between different geographical settings (e.g., urban/suburban/rural) are largely under-researched. This paper examines the impact and effectiveness of School Choice, a key element of NCLB.NCLB is evaluated through the lens of a comprehensive seven-step framework that incorporates components of social problem analysis, value-critical policy analysis, and choice models of Dolgoff and Feldstein (2003) and Gilbert and Terrell (2010). This analysis is based on data retrieved from a review of the literature, and implications relevant to practitioners and policymakers are highlighted.

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