Das Kind Mit Dem Bade Ausschütten? U.S. Federal School Reform in Early 21ST Century

Abstract

Grounded in analysis of specific features of the federal school reform undertaken in the U.S. in early 21st century, this article demonstrates that the U.S. government attempted to reduce the number of students lagging behind and thus to increase students’ average performance by means of stimulating them to transfer from underperforming to better schools, including from public schools to schools of other types, which offer higher quality of teaching. The article distinguishes three stages of the reform. On the first stage, in late 20th century, new types of schools emerged in the U.S.: in addition to pre-existent public, private and religious schools, as well as home schooling, magnet schools emerged in 1970s, and charter schools emerged in 1990s. On the second stage, during George W. Bush Administration, U.S. government assumed the powers to stimulate transfer of students from underperforming public schools to charter schools, and to stimulate increase in the number of charter schools. On the third stage, during Barack Obama Administration and the first year of Donald Trump Administration, U.S. government faced the impossibility to significantly increase the number of charter schools, to stimulate mass transfer of students from public schools to charter schools, and to significantly improve average students’ performance over short time. Even if U.S. government assumes the powers to stimulate transfer of students also to private schools, as Donald Trump Administration proposed, it will hardly have a positive effect in the short run. The article concludes that the model of school reform applied in the U.S. cannot solve the puzzle, because it concentrates available resources around elite schools, while most students lagging behind concentrate around traditional public schools.