"What′s Public About Charter Schools? by Gary Miron and Christopher Nelson deserves to be cited repeatedly as the debate about charter schools continues. The researchers′ careful and balanced analysis of the situation in Michigan has much to say about the charter school movement across the country and leads to important cautions about whether and how the movement should proceed. These recommendations provide concrete and practical solutions for improving charter schools by addressing some of the shortcoming that the authors have uncovered."—Education Review, October 2002"What′s Public About Charter Schools? provides valuable insights for charter school operators and advocates, school administrators, community members, politicians, and policy makers looking for data upon which to base decision making. Miron and Nelson have lived school reform evaluation for years, and their experience shows in this thoughtful and useful book."Kyle L. Peck, Charter School Founder and Professor of EducationPennsylvania State University"This is the most comprehensive book that I have seen on charter schools. Both the descriptive data and the analysis are an important contribution."Henry M. Levin, Director National Center for the Study of Privatization in EducationTeachers College, Columbia University"Miron and Nelson make a significant contribution to the debate about school restructuring reforms provide a strikingly balanced look at the charter school movement in action. Their conclusions and recommendations offer important lessons to school reformers, researchers, and policymakers both in the United States and internationally."Priscilla Wohlstetter, Director Center on Educational Governance Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California"This book covers essential material and will be of interest for classes on education policy and educational administration and will command an audience among school reformers and policy analysts."William L. Boyd, Distinguished Professor of EducationPennsylvania State University University Park, PAHow much do we really know about the quality of education in charter schools?Here are the documented answers to the questions we all have about student achievement, choice, innovation, and accountability: How do students in charter schools perform compared to students in public, non-charter schools? Have charter schools succeeded as "laboratories" of educational innovation? How do the costs of charter schools compare with non-charter schools? What types of professional development enhancements and teaching environments do charter schools provide for their teachers? What effect has privatization had on charter school students and operations? Esteemed charter school researchers, Gary Miron and Christopher Nelson, have carefully examined a wealth of evidence about charter schools and boiled down the results in this insightful, accessible work. Policymakers, researchers, school administrators, parents, and others interested in school reform will find valuable information about school choice, privatization, and new forms of holding schools accountable—vital data on evaluating this new private/public hybrid and its success at serving the core purpose of public education.
