User:Brando813/sandbox

*Addition occurs under International Overview and Major Institutional Options-United States*

• Education Saving Accounts (ESA’s): This variant of school choice allows the parent to withdraw their child out of the public or charter school, and receive a direct deposit of public funds into a government-authorized savings account. These funds are often distributed in the form of a debit card that can be used to pay for various services, such as private school tuition and fees, online programs, private tutoring, community college costs, higher education services, and other approved learning materials and services. ESA’s also acquire the ability to pay for a combination of public school courses and private services .
• Online Learning: Online learning permits students to work with teachers and their courses over the internet. This can be used in cooperation with, or in place of traditional classroom instruction. The online learning can be also paid for by accessing ESA’s and vouchers .
• Customized Learning:  This form of tutelage is a student-tailored form of education. This form of instruction can have various combinations. For example, course choice programs, public school courses, and special education therapies can all be integrated into a students curriculum. There are a myriad of possibilities, especially as learning innovations continue to occur .
• Individual Tax Credit and Deduction Option: This form of choice abates the income tax for parents, so approved educational expenses are economical. Approved educational expenses include private school tuition, supplies, computers, books, tutors, and transportation.

*Tax credits: lowers the total a person owes on taxes    

*Tax deduction: reduces a persons total taxable income

• Addition Concerning School Choice Efficacy: According to the Center for Education Policy, recipients of vouchers generally performed the same level on reading and math assessments when compared to their public school counterparts. Students who were considered minority and low income students did show some improvement. Also, additional research presented that scholastic competition did improve student achievement in some Milwaukee schools that lost students to the voucher program .
• Voucher Revision: Vouchers give students the opportunity to attend a private school of their choosing, secular or religious. This would be paid for by accessing all or part of the public funding set aside for their children’s education .

• Segregation Edits:
  • The school choice framework presents families the opportunity to select which school they would like their child to attend. This policy presents an alternative to neighborhood schools since they are assigned by public school districts . The method in which children are designated to their respective public schools inherently fosters the potential of forcing those who live in low-income areas, to attend lower performing schools . This has the potential to be detrimental to those students effected, since research articulates that there is a direct correlation amongst low income neighborhoods and low performing scholastic institutions .
  • A study conducted researching the role school selection has in the school choice model, cites that low-income families are discouraged to access the benefits of school choice due to numerous factors. One of the numerous factors includes the lack of access to transportation. Due to this hinderance in travel, some students may be unable to travel to higher performance schools located outside of their district . Research conducted by the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington in Seattle, states that transportation issues prevents 25% of families from enrolling their children in choice schools. Furthermore, this research articulates that 45% of low income families either do not own a car, or own a car that is unreliable .
  • Charter Schools are another option of instruction offered by school choice. Albeit they may provide an alternative from low performance public schools, a study conducted by the Associated Press concludes that charter schools are more segregated than their public counterparts. In the 2014-2015 school year, more than 1,000 out of the nations’ 6,747 charter schools had a minority enrollment of 99% . Analysis presented by the Associated Press also states that schools who admit 99% of minorities (regardless if it is a private or charter school) have fewer students achieving state standards in reading and math .
  • A study conducted by California State University investigated charter schools serving specific populations. The particular populations were categorized by race and class, and the institutions who were majority minority suffered from a lack of financial resources.

    

    Betsy DeVos, United States Secretary of Education

  • There is much opposition to the school choice movement. Entities such as the National Education Association (NEA) are strongly opposed to the movement, because they “divert essential resources from public schools to private and religious schools, while offering no real "choice" for the overwhelming majority of students.” . There is also strong support for school choice options as well. Organizations such as EdChoice and the American Federation for Children are strong proponents of the school choice model. The Secretary of Education for the Trump Presidency, Betsy DeVos, is a huge advocate for school choice options. DeVos herself was the chairman for the organization, American Federation for Children (AFC).
  • *Edits occur under International Overview and Major Institutional Options

      Finnish education has experienced considerable change over the years. In the 1960’s, student achievement was much more inequitable, and equal access to education was lacking . The Finnish Parliament in 1968 implemented legislation that prioritized the concept of a “common comprehensive education.” This concept would be instituted throughout all of Finland by 1977, and would be practiced in grades 1-9. The three focal aspects that aided the implementation of this new methodology of education are the following:

• The development and adoption of a mandatory national curriculum that ensured all students were held to the same rigorous standards.

• Dramatic changes in teacher preparation and certification requirements.

• A central state inspectorate that evaluated school-level teaching and learning

To ensure that every student was being instructed by the same rigorous curriculum, the Finnish government worked with teachers to curate a national course of study. This national curriculum was mandatory for all schools within the system to follow, and was the foundation of their comprehensive school system. The difficulty in implementing the education reform is articulated by Jukka Sarjala, a servant of 25 years in the Ministry of Education (1975-1995), “There were lots of municipalities that were not eager to reform their system, which is why it was important to have a legal mandate. This was a very big reform, very big and complicated for teachers accustomed to the old system. ” .

Another instrumental facet of Finland’s comprehensive school reformation was the way in which instructors are educated. Legislatures understood that student achievement derived from teacher quality, so the standards for teacher employment were raised. Instructors now need to minor in at least two content fields, and earn a masters degree in order to teach .

Contemporarily speaking, the Finnish education system has changed in respect to the regulations that were once enacted in the 1960’s. Due to the abated regulations, the national curriculum is now more of a model, rather than a script. Additionally, the role of the inspectorate was eliminated, hence permitting a more independent pedagogical strategy . The educational reforms instituted by Finland have proved beneficial, since their scholastic program consistently ranks amongst the top global educational systems in the world. The current system is notable for having no stratifications in student achievement levels, so the divide between the weakest and strongest students are the smallest in the world . Additionally, there are very few private scholastic institutions in Finland, and instruction from pre-primary to higher education is free . The Finnish educational model also emphasizes educating students about their career choices to mitigate the possibility of students making poor decisions regarding their possible métier. Basic education includes grades 1-9, and begins at the age of seven. This level of education ends at the age of 15 or 16, and only one standardized test is administered within this timeframe. This standardized test, the national Matriculation Examination, is given at the end of students’ senior year in high school .

• Education Saving Accounts (ESA’s): This variant of school choice allows the parent to withdraw their child out of the public or charter school, and receive a direct deposit of public funds into a government-authorized savings account. These funds are often distributed in the form of a debit card that can be used to pay for various services, such as private school tuition and fees, online programs, private tutoring, community college costs, higher education services, and other approved learning materials and services. ESA’s also acquire the ability to pay for a combination of public school courses and private services.
• Online Learning: Online learning permits students to work with teachers and their courses over the internet. This can be used in cooperation with, or in place of traditional classroom instruction. The online learning can be also paid for by accessing ESA’s and vouchers .
• Customized Learning:  This form of tutelage is a student-tailored form of education. This form of instruction can have various combinations. For example, course choice programs, public school courses, and special education therapies can all be integrated into a students curriculum. There are a myriad of possibilities, especially as learning innovations continue to occur .
• Individual Tax Credit and Deduction Option: This form of choice abates the income tax for parents, so approved educational expenses are economical. Approved educational expenses include private school tuition, supplies, computers, books, tutors, and transportation.

*Tax credits: lowers the total a person owes on taxes    

*Tax deduction: reduces a persons total taxable income

• Addition Concerning School Choice Efficacy: According to the Center for Education Policy, recipients of vouchers generally performed the same level on reading and math assessments when compared to their public school counterparts. Students who were considered minority and low income students did show some improvement. Also, additional research presented that scholastic competition did improve student achievement in some Milwaukee schools that lost students to the voucher program .
• Voucher Revision: Vouchers give students the opportunity to attend a private school of their choosing, secular or religious. This would be paid for by accessing all or part of the public funding set aside for their children’s education .

• Segregation Corrections:

The school choice framework presents families the opportunity to select which school they would like their child to attend. This policy presents an alternative to neighborhood schools since they are assigned by public school districts . The method in which children are designated to their respective public schools inherently fosters the potential of forcing those who live in low-income areas, to attend lower performing schools . This has the potential to be detrimental to those students effected, since research articulates that there is a direct correlation amongst low income neighborhoods and low performing scholastic institutions .

• Further Segregation Amendments:

A study conducted researching the role school selection has in the school choice model, cites that low-income families are discouraged to access the benefits of school choice due to numerous factors. One of the numerous factors includes the lack of access to transportation. Due to this hinderance in travel, some students may be unable to travel to higher performance schools located outside of their district . Research conducted by the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington in Seattle, states that transportation issues prevents 25% of families from enrolling their children in choice schools. Furthermore, this research articulates that 45% of low income families either do not own a car, or own a car that is unreliable .

Charter Schools are another option of instruction offered by school choice. Albeit they may provide an alternative from low performance public schools, a study conducted by the Associated Press concludes that charter schools are more segregated than their public counterparts. In the 2014-2015 school year, more than 1,000 out of the nations’ 6,747 charter schools had a minority enrollment of 99%. Analysis presented by the Associated Press also states that schools who admit 99% of minorities (regardless if it is a private or charter school) have fewer students achieving state standards in reading and math .

A study conducted by California State University investigated charter schools serving specific populations. The particular populations were categorized by race and class, and the institutions who were majority minority suffered from a lack of financial resources.

There is much opposition to the school choice movement. Entities such as the National Education Association are strongly opposed to the movement, because they “divert essential resources from public schools to private and religious schools, while offering no real "choice" for the overwhelming majority of students.”

The French education system offers free education, and is stratified into various levels. The levels are demonstrated in a table presented by Classbase . There are relatively few private institutions when compared to their public counterparts. According to Statista, the amount of private and public schools in France as of 2016 were 5,369 and 45,877, respectively . Due to the significant number of public educational institutions located in France, the ramifications of education reform will be significantly pronounced.

The French education system has undergone reform at various levels of schooling. As of 2015, there is legislation directed at mitigating educational inequality for middle school aged children (ages 11 to 15). Additionally, there are ordinances aimed at lessening the correlation between a students’ background, and classroom success. Prime Minister Manuel Valls describes the bill as, "to ensure that birth and social background do not dictate the fate of the children,” . The stipulations within this bill would discontinue bilingual classes, and lessen the amount of classroom time Latin and Greek are taught. Additionally, a pedagogical technique called Practical Interdisciplinary Teaching (EPI) would be instituted. This methodology would cause interdisciplinary classes to be taught by various teachers working together, and to be studied through various themes. This proposal would also amend the manner in which the subject of history is taught. This measure would add a mandatory and optional dimension to the subject area, that would permit teachers to include or exclude voluntary portions of the course. Furthermore, the passing of this act would present more independence to French middle schools, since the government would allow each institution to determine up to 20% of their own curriculum .