Reviews two books, "The Other Boston Busing Story: What's Won and Lost across the Boundary Line" (Susan E. Eaton) and "Kingdom of Children: Culture and Controversy in the Homeschooling Movement" (Mitchell L. Stevens), which provide revealing perspectives on the experiences of those American families who veture beyond the traditional local school.…

Argues that greater caution is required when drawing conclusions from statistical results than the Armor study has done, and describes the "Prospects" study (begun in 1989), the largest longitudinal study of educational outcomes conducted in the United States. "Prospects" provides much data useful in evaluating the school…