Trouble Even in Choice Paradise

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Draft: Please do not cite without permission from the author

Prepared for the American Enterprise Institute/Thomas B. Fordham Foundation Conference, "Fixing Failing Schools: Is the NCLB Toolkit Working?" November 30, 2006. The collected papers for this conference can be found at www.aei.org/event1351

This paper is to appear in a forthcoming publication as:
Jane Hannaway and Sarah Cohodes, "Miami-Dade County: Trouble Even in Choice Paradise," in The No Child Left Behind Remedies: Safe? Sensible? Effective?, eds. Frederick M. Hess and Chester E. Finn, Jr. (Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute Press, 2007).

Abstract

This chapter discusses the implementation of the school transfer and supplemental educational services (SES) options as required by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS). While M-DCPS has 22 percent of its students enrolled in school choice programs, less than one percent of eligible students use NCLB school transfer and less than twelve percent of eligible students use SES. We explore the reasoning behind these low take-up rates and utilize school transfer data provided by the district to suggest that, in the case of the school transfer option, the low participation is due to a restrictive timeline for choice and the inadequate signaling power of the AYP designations.

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Introduction

The Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) system is the largest public school system in Florida and the fourth largest in the country, with an enrollment of over 350,000 students in 2005–2006. As in Florida more generally, the school choice programs operating in M-DCPS are numerous and varied. The school transfer and supplemental educational service (SES) options required by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) add to an already thriving set of choice programs, including magnet schools, charter schools, I Choose!, Controlled Choice, the Corporate Tax Credit scholarships, the McKay Scholarship and the Opportunity Scholarship Program.

This chapter attempts to examine the fit and operation of choice provisions required under NCLB within the overall context of school choice in Miami. The choice provisions provided by NCLB and the school choice programs provided by the state have the same basic objective: to allow parents dissatisfied with the performance of their child's school the option to transfer their child to a better school. The rules governing these programs, however, differ. Most importantly, the school performance ratings provided by the state accountability system, the Florida A+ Accountability Plan, and those provided by the NCLB criteria differ markedly, often presenting parents with conflicting information both about the performance of the school their child attends as well as the performance of the schools they might choose.

We focus on two aspects of the NCLB school choice provisions. First, we explore reasons that the utilization of NCLB school choice options by eligible parents is low. After all, this is a community that is well-versed in school choice. Second, we examine the choice behavior of parents to assess the extent to which they are guided by the school performance information that is associated with NCLB and the school performance information that is associated with the state A+ Plan.

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The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

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