The Impact of Market Competition on Urban School Systems

Frederick Hess

For more than a decade, school choice has been a flashpoint in debates about our nation's schooling. Perhaps the most commonly advanced argument for school choice is the notion that markets will force public schools to improve, particularly in those urban areas where improvement has proved so elusive. However, the question of how public schools respond to market conditions has received surprisingly little attention. Revolution at the Margins examines the impact of school vouchers and charter schooling on three urban school districts, explores the causes of the behavior observed, and explains how the structure of competition is likely to shape the way it affects the future of public education. The book draws on research conducted in three school districts at the center of the school choice debate during the 1990s: Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Cleveland, Ohio; and Edgewood, Texas. Case studies examine each of these three districts from the inception of their local school choice program through the conclusion of the 1999 school year. The three school districts studied did not respond to competition by emphasizing productivity or efficiency. Instead, under pressure to provide some evidence of response, administrators tended to expand public relations efforts and to chip holes in the rules, regulations, and procedures that regulate public sector organizations. Inefficient practices were not rooted out, but some rules and procedures that protect employees and vocal constituencies were relaxed. Public school systems are currently governed and structured in a manner that will encourage urban school officials to generally respond with symbolic and metaphorical gestures. The irony is that these efforts may, at times, result in more profound changes. The larger point is that choice-induced changes in public school systems will be shaped by public governance, the market context in which they operate, and their organizational characteristics. Revolution at the Margins encourages scholars and policymakers to think more carefully about the costs and benefits of educational competition, to understand how competitive effects will be heavily shaped by the outcomes of more conventional efforts to reform schooling, and to reevaluate some of the facile promises of market-based education reform.

About Frederick Hess

Frederick M. Hess is an Assistant Professor of Education and Politics at the University of Virginia, a Senior Fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute, and Executive Editor of Education Next. Dr. Hess earned his Ph.D. from the Harvard University Department of Government in 1997. Previously, he had earned his M.Ed. in Teaching and Curriculum from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education and taught public high school social studies in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Dr. Hess’s books include Revolution at the Margins: The Impact of Competition on Urban School Systems, Spinning Wheels: The Politics of Urban School Reform, Bringing the Social Sciences Alive, and School Choice in the Real World: Lessons from Arizona Charter Schools. Dr. Hess has contributed articles to scholarly journals including Social Science Quarterly, American Politics Quarterly, Teachers College Record, Policy Studies Journal, Educational Policy, Urban Education, Phi Delta Kappan, Education and Urban Society, Politics & Policy, Educational Forum, and Urban Affairs Review and to practitioner publications including American School Board Journal, Education Digest, and School Administrator. Dr. Hess has received fellowships or research grants from organizations including the National Science Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Bodman Foundation, the Bradley Foundation, the Olin Foundation, the National School Boards Association, and the Spencer Foundation. Dr. Hess currently serves as chair of the American Educational Research Association School Choice Special Interest Group; a faculty associate of the Harvard University Program in Education Policy and Governance; and a member of the National Working Commission on Choice in K-12 Education, the Review Board for the Broad Prize for Urban Education, and the Charter School Advisory Board of the American Academy for Liberal Education. Dr. Hess’s research interests include public policy, urban politics, and bureaucracy. His educational research focuses on school reform, urban education, school choice, and educational governance and politics. Dr. Hess received his B.A. in politics, summa cum laude, from Brandeis University in 1989.