Chapter 8: Educational Innovation and Diversification in School Choice Plans

The concept of innovation has been closely tied to the push for school choice, serving as a key rationale for such choice plans as charter schools, vouchers and other alternatives to neighborhood-based school assignment. In particular, critiques of traditional public schooling arrangements have played upon the idea that governance by districts stifles creativity and entrepreneurial ingenuity in schools. Such critiques portray a “onesize-fits-all” public education system that neglects the needs of diverse communities and individual learners—presenting a serious equity issue. Hence, according to this thinking, education should be organized under competitive models to nurture new and different instructional approaches, resulting in a range of alternatives for families. Promoters hope that with a set of real options, parents will be able to make decisions based on different curriculum and instructional approaches, rather than on, say, the racial or social-class composition of schools.