I attended the school choice fair not quite sure what to expect as I left my bed on a nippy Saturday morning. In my head sat the quaint image of a few tables and some science fair boards, awkward teachers waiting impatiently for the fair to be over so they could continue on with their weekends, and several parents milling around, politely taking interest in the displays. However, my idea of a school choice fair was far from accurate. Indeed, I was quite unprepared for what I saw when I entered the vast room.
The people at Hartford Public Schools had successfully converted Trinity College’s field house into a legitimate convention center. The air rang with the sound of voices—kids screaming as they ran around the room, faculty members pointing to their boards and speaking excitedly, parents murmuring to one another as they shuffled their brochures. Before me were rows and rows of displays, and not like the ones you would expect to see on a fourth grader’s science fair board. These displays shone with glossy images of kids doing amazing things like birthing calves, building bridges, wearing doctor’s lab coats as they performed dissections. Some displays had props like microscopes, potted plants, and iPads. As I moved from table to table, I soon got the sense that each school was competing to capture my attention. May the best display win.
The entire experience was not unlike that of walking down the cereal aisle at a grocery store. Cereal boxes are equally glossy and loud, encouraging you to buy their product, and the options are endless. If I get anxious during my attempt to select the best cereal for my breakfast, I cannot imagine being a parent and having to choose the school that will provide my child with an education for the next few years. I can only hope, after comparing pictures and slogans, that I made the right choice.
All schools claim to be the best, which is what makes the decision so difficult. In their article, Dougherty et al. explain why school choice can be overwhelming by outlining some of the many factors parents must consider. How far away do we live from the school? What sort of theme does it promote? Is the building nice? Are the faculty members friendly? Is the school racially integrated? To make matters worse, the amount of choice has grown incredibly in little less than a decade and a half, along with the amount of information available on student and school achievement. The article speaks of the “explosion of school-level student achievement data across the internet” (Dougherty et al. 221)—just another factor for parents to consider when selecting schools. All parents want what is best for their children, although, with so many factors to consider, it is difficult to determine what exactly the best is.
How much choice is too much choice? It is difficult to say. On the one hand, choice is good because it empowers families by allowing them to play an active role in deciding their child’s education. Choice is also good because it allows schools to compete, thereby improving their image and quality of instruction. Choice offers families a better solution when their neighborhood school is inadequate. However, there are downsides to choice as well. One of Hartford’s biggest problems is that the school choice system is not cohesive. To apply to one magnet school and one district school, a parent has to fill out two applications to be processed in two separate lotteries. The online applications are also posted on separate websites, making the act of applying a web navigating nightmare.
For a parent shopping for schools in Hartford, I can imagine it feels like being fought over by two people, with each grabbing an arm and pulling you in opposite directions. When I walked into the fair, I noticed two large acronyms: HPS (for Hartford Public Schools) and RSCO (for Regional School Choice Office). They were like two teams at a football game, their colors proudly displayed in an attempt to assert their superiority. District or inter-district? Traditional or magnet? Then what about technical and vocational schools? They are like a third team that comes rushing into the game during halftime.
I left the fair feeling no more prepared to choose a school than I had when I first arrived. I was impressed by the displays, felt good about the attention I was getting from the faculty representing the schools, but felt just as uncertain as I do when standing in front of a box of Lucky Charms, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and Frosted Flakes. They all just sound so good. I have immense respect for the parents who are able to make sense of all this, because choosing Hartford schools is no easy process.
Work Cited:
Jack Dougherty, Diane Zannoni, Maham Chowhan ’10, Courteney Coyne ’10, Benjamin Dawson ’11, Tehani Guruge ’11, and Begaeta Nukic ’11. “School Information, Parental Decisions, and the Digital Divide: The SmartChoices Project in Hartford, Connecticut.” In Making School Choice Work For All, by Gary Orfield and Erica Frankenberg. Berkeley: University of California Press, forthcoming.