Maranto, Robert; Milliman, Scott; Hess, Frederick; and Gresham, April. (Eds). (1999). School Choice in the Real World: Lessons from Arizona Charter Schools. Reviewed by Audrey Amrein, Arizona State University

Maranto, Robert; Milliman, Scott; Hess, Frederick; and Gresham, April. (Eds). (1999). School Choice in the Real World: Lessons from Arizona Charter Schools. Boulder, CO: Westview Press Pp. 271 $25.00         ISBN: 0-8133-9820-7 (Paperback) $65.00         ISBN: 0-8133-6600-3 (Cloth) Reviewed by Audrey Amrein Arizona State University September 25, 2000         For more than a decade now, the idea of school choice has prompted spirited debates. Of particular interest are charter school movements. Currently, 37 states have passed charter legislation (Hill and Lake, 2000), giving rise to nearly 1,700 charter schools in operation nationwide (Center for Education Reform, 2000). Charter schools have presented the traditional system of public education with its biggest challenge yet. In this edited volume, Maranto, Milliman, Hess and Gresham present a timely exposition of the impetus, current trends, research findings, and implications of the charter school movement. The editors, along with a select group of scholars, researchers, legislators, and practitioners, combine efforts to examine what is happening with Arizona's charter schools.         Arizona leads the nation with 348 charter schools (US Charter Schools State Profile, 2000), approximately 20% of the nation's charter schools. Arizona has been both praised and criticized for the most radical charter school legislation of any of the states. Arizona is experimenting with, what many consider, the most comprehensive form of school choice offered to U.S. society thus far. Consequently, the authors of this volume use Arizona as the lens through which they view a growing form of school choice. The authors present research findings, historical narratives, and personal vignettes to enlighten readers to the many sides of the Arizona charter school issue. Further, they portray quandaries experienced in Arizona as its charter school movement moved from theory to policy to practice. The authors provide their perspectives on Arizona's charter school movement and by examining Arizona, probe most of the issues at the forefront of the national charter school debate.         The book is organized around four major themes: Part One—"Theoretical and National Perspectives;" Part Two — "Social Scientists Look at Arizona Charter Schools;" Part Three—"Practitioners Look at Arizona Charter Schools;" and Part Four—"Lessons." Chapter One "Real World School Choice: Arizona Charter Schools" consists of the editors' introduction. Here the editors introduce the forthcoming discussion, providing a sampling of contributing authors' views and contributions.         In Chapter Two "And This Parent Went to the Market: Education as Public Versus Private Good", L. Elaine Halchin deconstructs charter schools in a democratic society. She presents some of the fundamental concepts behind choice plans as constructed by political theorists and questions whether charter schools run afoul of democratic principles. From a critical standpoint, she questions whether education is conceived of as a public good or purely as a commodity. Halchin provides one of the essential chapters in the book by analyzing some of the fundamental values that have driven the charter school movement.         Chapter Three "The Death of One Best Way: Charter Schools as Reinventing Government" is the work of Robert Maranto. Calling upon his political science background and contemporary popular notions of "reinventing government," Maranto challenges the conclusions drawn by Halchin. Maranto presents a conservative view of the charter school movement, arguing that charters do not threaten democratic values. He assesses the extent to which charter schools show promise for public education and examines their public outputs using theoretical frameworks from both political science and economics. Maranto also dissects the bureaucratic approach to education and asserts that charter schools have advantages over traditional modes of schooling. Noting few shortcomings in Arizona's charter legislation, Maranto applauds Arizona for successfully reforming its educational system and introducing business practices to public schooling.         In "Congress and Charter Schools," political scientist David L. Leal provides an historical analysis of federal charter school policy and law. Drawing upon documents and interviews conducted with House and Senate staff members, Leal presents the matters deemed most pertinent when Congress subsidized charters and passed the federal charter school law. Leal concludes that charters emerged as a result of bipartisan support for choice and a Congress exhausted by other, more sweeping policy questions—vouchers, home schooling, school prayer, and Title I. By examining fiscal liberties, partisan divisions, and the like, Leal enables readers to develop a politico-historical understanding of how and why federal policy makers initiated the charter school movement and advanced charter efforts.         In the final chapter of Part One "Charter Schools: A National Innovation, an Arizona Revolution," Bryan C. Hassel, an education policy analyst, probes various types of charter school initiatives. Hassel assesses the extent to which charter school theory is innovative. He examines innovations in policy and practice against traditional modes of education and investigates how charter schools are pioneering change. He illustrates ways in which autonomy, market accountability, choice, and competition encourage charter school innovativeness. Further, he ranks the policies of the states that have enacted charter laws in relation to these categories. Hassel concludes that innovative charter laws exist but stops short of concluding, without further research, that innovations actually occur in practice.         Part Two contains findings from research studies, both quantitative and qualitative, that were conducted by educational researchers and social scientists. The first chapter "The Wild West of Education Reform: Arizona Charter Schools" is co-authored by Robert Maranto and April Gresham, a social psychologist. Maranto and Gresham provide readers descriptive statistics on Arizona's charters, as well as a detailed account of Arizona charter law. The authors also relate stories about the struggles and triumphs experienced by persons working directly with charter schools in Arizona. Maranto and Gresham offer readers a set of assertions that summarize the strengths and weaknesses of charter schools as they currently exist and operate. They conclude that charters are smaller in size (student : teacher ratios), and note that although individual charter schools are more specialized, charters have less choice when it comes to in-school programming.         In Chapter Seven "Why Arizona Embarked on School Reform," Stephanie Timmons-Brown and Frederick Hess, a professor of government and education, focus their attention on the political climates in Arizona and Nevada when charter proposals were introduced and passed. Detailing the histories of charter legislation in both states throughout the past decade, the authors conclude that in Nevada a party balance in the legislature, active teachers' unions, and endless compromising prevented the passage of strong charter laws, while in Arizona, Republican dominance and fragile teachers' unions advanced the most radical charter laws to date.         In Chapter Eight "Do Charter Schools Improve District Schools? Three Approaches to the Question," Robert Maranto, Scott Milliman, Frederick Hess and April Gresham, the editors of this volume, investigate whether competition introduced by charter schools is stimulating improvements in district schools. Using interview and survey data, the authors examine ways in which charters are affecting district schools. The authors conclude that competition is fostering both positive and negative changes, but note the changes are minor at present. They suggest that although some schools are doing nothing, others, in response to market competition, are improving customer service, advertising, opening magnet schools, and changing curricula. In some cases, they note that personnel at traditional schools are also undermining competition.         Gregg Garn and Robert Stout, two education policy scholars, author the next two chapters. In Chapter Nine "Closing Charters: How a Good Theory Failed in Practice," Garn and Stout examine the practical problems created and faced by the state agencies involved with Arizona's charter school accountability system. They conclude that rash policy- making, inadvertent planning, blatant oversights, and numerous miscommunications among key charter players have given rise to major flaws in Arizona's charter school accountability system. Further, they note that a spotty and incomplete system of public records diminished the parental accountability necessary to Arizona's choice market. They also suggest that a lack of curriculum innovation has marked the development of Arizona's charter schools. In Chapter Ten "Nothing New: Curricula in Arizona Charter Schools," Stout and Garn examine the extent to which new curricula and new methods of instruction are actually being developed in charter schools. Advocates of charters suggest that because they enjoy greater instructional freedom than traditional public schools, charter schools will initiate new and innovative curricula. Conducting analyses of charter school's curricular offerings, these authors conclude that there is nothing happening in curriculum and instruction in charter schools that was not happening in traditional public schools. Analyzing Stanford 9 scores, the authors also assert that there is no conclusive evidence that students are achieving any differently after transferring to a charter school. On achievement tests, charter students are scoring no better or no worse than their peers who are enrolled in traditional public schools.         The editors of this volume bring Part Two to a close in Chapter Eleven "How Arizona Teachers View School Reform." They tap into the perspectives of charter school and district teachers on educational reforms in general and charter school reforms in particular. To gain insight, they surveyed teachers' opinions on reform initiatives and analyzed them across a variety of teacher variables (e.g., teacher's length of service). Although their findings seem commonsensical —for example they find that in Arizona traditional public school teachers are more opposed to charters than Nevada's traditional public school teachers —the chapter is still informative to those who may be interested in the positions teachers hold on topics of general educational change.         Part Three includes personal narratives and historical accounts as offered by some of Arizona's leading legislators and charter school practitioners. Arizona's State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Lisa Graham Keegan, writes the first chapter of Part Three "The Empowerment of Market-Based School Reform." In this chapter, she provides her own account of how and why charter schools came about and explains why she believes charters are likely to succeed in Arizona. Although most of Keegan's findings are overstated and lack supporting research, her chapter provides readers an understanding of the market mentality of Arizona's most influential charter promoter. Keegan's chapter, regardless of its shortcomings, is valuable in that it helps others better contextualize the political nature of the Arizona charter issue.         Arizona State Senator Mary Hartley counters Keegan's position on charters in Chapter Thirteen. In "A Voice from the State Legislature: Don't Do What Arizona Did!" Hartley urges policy makers to resist Arizona's lead. She points out problems that have surfaced because of Arizona's poor accountability, evaluation, and transportation systems. She expresses concern about financial inequities inherent in Arizona's charter policy and details problematic instances that deal with corruption, the separation of church and state, and malpractice involving students with disabilities. Although critics of her chapter may fault her writing for being politically motivated, like Keegan's, her assertions are nonetheless illustrated with actual occurrences. Hartley recommends policy amendments in hopes of mitigating some of the negative consequences resulting from Arizona's charter policy.         School District Official Lee Hager authors the next chapter "Public Schools and the Charter Movement." He examines the relationship, as he sees it, between public and charter schools. His experiences as a traditional public school official working with charter schools inform his narrative. He offers readers his opinions on why charter schools should not be feared and how charter schools and districts can benefit through collaboration.         The last chapter in this section includes another personal narrative as offered by former Montessori school director and current charter school operator, Jim Spencer. In "Whose Idea Was This Anyway? The Challenging Metamorphosis from Private to Charter," Spencer provides a detailed account of the trials he and his wife faced when they transformed their private Montessori school into a public charter school. He describes how they lost all previously held private rights, and under charter jurisdiction, ran into numerous obstacles not encountered as private business owners. He claims their largest problems stemmed from too lenient enrollment procedures and too strict accountability measures. Endless paperwork, increased public scrutiny, and minimal profits also contributed to their frustration. Spencer concludes that poor and hasty planning has resulted in Arizona's substandard policy yet, surprisingly, does not regret the decision to go public.         In Part Four "Lessons," the editors assemble the assertions, positions, and research findings of all of the contributing authors. The editors present the underlying themes and summarize the overall effects of Arizona charter schools. They conclude that school choice depends on political support, the education market, state bureaucracy, and free market entrepreneurship. They also conclude that, as they currently exist, charter schools are not posing major threats to traditional public schools, and consequently, charter schools may affect only the schools that welcome their competition.         In conclusion, School Choice in the Real World: Lessons from Arizona Charter Schools is useful for policy makers, researchers, practitioners, and others who are concerned about charter schools. The authors present the theoretical, political, and practical issues that have accompanied Arizona's charter school movement. These issues are likely to foreshadow the problems and opportunities other states will encounter as they implement charter schools. References Center for Education Reform. (2000). News alert. Available: http://edreform.com/press/ncsd2000.htm Hill, P.T. and Lake, R.J. (2000). Charter-school opponents ignore facts. Available: http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/opinion/charop1.shtml US Charter Schools State Profile. (2000). Arizona Charter School Information Available: http://www.uscharterschools.org/uscs_1/visit?x-a=v&x-id;=671 About the Reviewer Audrey Amrein Audrey Amrein is a policy analyst in the Division of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the College of Education, Arizona State University. Her research interests include the study of school policy, urban education, and students at-risk.