In "Carson v. Makin," the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that, if a state offers tuition assistance for students to attend private schools, then requiring that those private schools be nonsectarian violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. Robert Kim discusses how this case aligns with other decisions related to the free…

Even the most effective education reforms and initiatives are unlikely to have a uniform effect on all students. In fact, much like in medicine, some beneficial efforts can have adverse side effects. Yong Zhao takes up this idea as it applies to school choice and voucher programs. When researchers tout the benefits of vouchers, they focus on the…

Historically, debates about educational choice have wrestled with big, unresolved tensions that lie at the heart of American life, having to do with individual rights, community obligations, public and private interests, religious freedoms, and more. But in recent years, school reformers have tended to talk about choice as though it referred only…

Educators must prepare students to live with the perpetual discomfort of difference. That includes teaching them how to respectfully listen to others' views, especially when those views are in opposition to their own. Borrowing from protocols used in a professional Critical Friends Group, a teacher at a private Quaker school designed a discussion…

This exploration of Phi Delta Kappan's archives shows how the magazine has covered questions related to the purposes, governance, and funding of the public schools. Articles have discussed the role of schools in a democratic society, how schools should relate to the public, whether public funds should be diverted to private and religious schools,…

The definition of public education is changing rapidly and radically in our current political landscape. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the debate over publicly funded school voucher systems, which direct taxpayer funds to parents to offset the cost of tuition at the private schools of their choice. Tina Cheuk and Rand Quinn address how…

Following Brown v. Board of Education, schools known as "segregation academies" that were created for the purpose of allowing White students to be educated without contact with Black students proliferated in the southern United States. While the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited such segregation, these schools remained in existence for…

A public, Catholic, and charter school in Boston all work together to share their strengths and learn from each other in an effort to deliver the best education for all of their students. The arrangement is called the School Performance Partnership, and it is a grantee of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The 2017 PDK Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools finds that Americans overwhelmingly want schools to do more than educate students in academic subjects. While they value traditional academic preparation, Americans say they want schools to substantially help position students for their working lives after school, which means…

Eleven educators came together in spring 2012 for a wide-ranging discussion of teacher evaluation and professional development in the era of high-stakes testing and data-based accountability. The participants in this conversation are alumni of the Mid-Career Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate…

Engaging students with literature, including religious literature, provides a way to broaden their world view. In this article, the author shares how she uses literature to teach her Christian students about other religions. Because she teaches at an independent school, she has the luxury of teaching works that might not be allowed in public or…

Thomas Jefferson was one of the main architects of that famous "new world" state which rejected the rule of kings and queens in favor of a government by the people. He argued vigorously that in order to make such a governmental structure work, a strong system of public education was a basic prerequisite. Given the various problems which…

A system of diversity and choice within the public schools might work, not simply to stem the flight from the public schools, but actually to begin to reverse that trend. (Author/IRT)

The background, present policies, and future prospects of public funds for private schools in European countries are surveyed. A matter of current debate, subsidies to private schools are judged likely to survive, though a declining total school enrollment may lead to cutbacks. (MJL)