Giving Compass' Take:

• Katharine Stevens writes on the true meaning of school "choice" and how economic backgrounds and early childhood learning factors in. 

• How can we make sure that all families have equal access and knowledge of the opportunities available to them?

• Here's an article on improving equity in school choice. 

For decades, we’ve relied on the K–12 public schools to ensure opportunity for all children and to develop strong future generations of Americans. Yet despite years of “school reform” along with much-increased spending, achievement gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged children have remained persistently large. Indeed, growing armies of school reformers agree on just one thing: We’re still leaving way too many children behind.

A parade of reform initiatives – higher standards, smaller schools, better teachers, more accountability, Common Core – have come and gone, leaving notably minor impact in their wake. Now the next strategy is moving onto center stage: “choice,” highlighted last week as National School Choice Week carried out its 2018 “celebration of opportunity in education.”

Families who can afford “choice” have always had it, paying for private school or moving to neighborhoods that have schools they want their children to attend. But school choice advocates argue that all parents, regardless of income, should be empowered to choose the learning environments that best enable their child to “learn and grow,” gaining the skills and knowledge needed for a successful, productive life. As Education Secretary Betsy DeVos stressed in remarks to a recent American Enterprise Institute conference on federal reform: “Equal access to a quality education should be a right for every American and every parent should have the right to choose how their child is educated.”

Read the full article about school choice by Katharine Stevens at AEI.