A Think Twice Review of:

Better Data, Better Decisions: Informing School Choosers to Improve Education Markets and A Crisis We Can Solve: Connecticut’s Failing Schools and Their Impact

Think Twice - Jan 05, 2015

Publisher/Think Tank - American Enterprise Institute (AEI)

Author(s) - John Valant

This report, published by AEI, asserts that choice is seen as a mechanism, and at times a panacea, for better educational quality. The report provides an overview of what families want from schools, where they get information on schools, and how they use information to make decisions. The report concludes that informed choice and the power of the market will produce better educational outcomes. The ConnCAN report makes a case that there is a desperate need to improve school quality in Connecticut’s neediest neighborhoods and promotes charter schools as the best and perhaps only method for increasing the number of high-quality educational seats in Connecticut.

Reviewer(s) - Erin McNamara Horvat, Temple University; and David Everington Baugh, Bensalem Township School District, Pennsylvania

A review of the reports finds that the ConnCAN report is more opinion than fact, while the AEI report provides useful information to help parents make informed decisions. However, the reviewers question whether simply having more information to make better decisions is sufficient to improve our educational system. Reviewers Horvat and Baugh